National security is usually depicted as something mysterious and distant: satellites, secret agencies, encrypted messages, closed doors. But UK prime minister Andy Burnham used a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September to turn that picture upside down. He announced that his security chiefs would begin work on a new National Centre for Information Defence, an institution created to respond to what he described as Russian attempts to spread lies and disinformation. The centre, Burnham said, would “detect, attribute and disrupt” foreign information attacks. Then he added a sentence that sounded less like a strategic doctrine and more…

The bitter taste of the 2016 referendum has never fully left the British palate. It sits there, a stubborn, underlying regret or a cherished victory, depending on which side of the kitchen table you sat on. For millions, the vote to leave the European Union was a final, decisive act of sovereignty, a moment where the ordinary person felt they had wrestled the country back from an out-of-touch elite. But for millions of others, it was a day of national self-harm, a decision wrapped in xenophobia, deceit, and a troubling dose of foreign interference. It is this deep, unresolved tension…