Keir Giles – författare

Russia is intent on attacking beyond Ukraine. Can Europe defend itself?While Ukraine holds back Russia’s onslaught, Moscow has been working hard at rebuilding its army for the next invasion. But for the past 30 years, Britain and Europe have been running down their armed forces and defence industries, thinking that war would never come. Most of the continent banked an increasingly illusory ‘peace dividend’ while outsourcing defence to the United States.Now, change in the US and clear intent from the Kremlin have set Europe scrambling to rebuild its defences. But will it be enough, and can it be in time?In this urgent, vital book, Keir Giles lays out the stark choices facing leaders and societies as they confront the return of war in Europe. If the freedom and prosperity that the continent takes for granted are to be preserved, the sacrifices required will affect everyone, without exception. Above all, Giles calls for new leadership in defence of Europe as the US steps aside—and warns that the UK’s brief opportunity to set the pace has already been squandered.

You may not be interested in Russia. But Russia is interested in you.Russia’s 2022 attack on Ukraine saw confrontation between Moscow and the West spill over into open conflict once again. But Russia has also been waging a clandestine war against the West for decades. Hostile acts abroad, from poisoning dissidents to shooting down airliners, interfering in elections, spying, hacking and murdering, have long seemed to be the Kremlin’s daily business. But what is it all for? Why does Russia consistently behave like this? And what does it achieve?Now containing a new preface to the paperback edition, Keir Giles explains how and why Russia pushes for more power and influence wherever it can reach, far beyond Ukraine – and what it means not just for governments, but for ordinary people. Bringing together stories from the military, politics, diplomacy, espionage, cyber power, organised crime and more, Giles describes how Moscow conducts its campaigns across the globe, and how nobody is too unimportant to be caught up in them. By lifting the lid on the daily struggle going on behind the scenes to protect governments, businesses, societies and people from Russian hostile activity, Russia’s War On Everybody shows how Moscow’s hostile intentions for the rest of the world are far broader and more ambitious, and the ways it tries to achieve them far more pervasive and damaging, than we realise.

From Moscow, the world looks different. It is through understanding how Russia sees the world—and its place in it—that the West can best meet the Russian challenge.Russia and the West are like neighbors who never seem able to understand each other. A major reason, this book argues, is that Western leaders tend to think that Russia should act as a “rational” Western nation—even though Russian leaders for centuries have thought and acted based on their country's much different history and traditions. Russia, through Western eyes, is unpredictable and irrational, when in fact its leaders from the czars to Putin almost always act in their own very predictable and rational ways. For Western leaders to try to engage with Russia without attempting to understand how Russians look at the world is a recipe for repeated disappointment and frequent crises.Keir Giles, a senior expert on Russia at Britain's prestigious Chatham House, describes how Russian leaders have used consistent doctrinal and strategic approaches to the rest of the world. These approaches may seem deeply alien in the West, but understanding them is essential for successful engagement with Moscow. Giles argues that understanding how Moscow's leaders think—not just Vladimir Putin but his predecessors and eventual successors—will help their counterparts in the West develop a less crisis-prone and more productive relationship with Russia.

A disturbing account of Moscow’s ideological capture of America’s ruling elite.The maelstrom following Donald Trump’s 2025 return to the US presidency left many bemused and disoriented. But for Russia-watchers, what unfolded was grimly familiar. So many of the Trump administration’s destructive actions have precisely aligned with the Kremlin’s own objectives; and to a startling extent, Trump’s America is beginning to mimic Russia itself.Abroad, Trump has demanded the annexation of neighbours, and embraced war crimes in Iran and the Caribbean. At home, the war on truth and history, purges and the weaponisation of justice, the deployment of masked federal paramilitaries to the streets of major cities and more all mirror Putin’s own consolidation of power. Dismantling obstacles to Russia’s ambitions, whether they threaten Europe or America itself, is a defining feature of Trump’s second presidency. Determination to force Ukraine’s surrender to Russia is just the clearest example among many.Keir Giles examines America’s transformation through the prism of Kremlinology. What he reveals should alarm us all.