Institute for Statecraft

Institute for Statecraft   (Deep state milieu)
The registered HQ of the group, a semi-derilict abandoned mill in Fife, Scotland. UK Column
Formation	23 November 2006
Founder	•  Christopher Nigel Donnelly •  Lesley Simm
Headquarters	Gateside Mills, Fife, Scotland, London
Leader	Christopher Nigel Donnelly
Subgroups	Integrity Initiative
Interests	statecraft, “Russian Propaganda”
Interest of	Kit Klarenberg, Rogue Media Labs, Chris Williamson, Working Group on Syria Propaganda and Media
Member of	Russia/Undesirable organization
Founder of	Integrity Initiative
Sponsored by	Answering Russia's Strategic Narratives, WhistleblowersUK
Subpage	•Institute for Statecraft/Activities •Institute for Statecraft/Control •Institute for Statecraft/Cover up •Institute for Statecraft/Director •Institute for Statecraft/Exposure •Institute for Statecraft/Projection •Institute for Statecraft/Purposes •Institute for Statecraft/Secrecy •Institute for Statecraft/Tor team
Membership	•  Kevin Abraham •  Eduard Abrahamyan •  Jack Agazarian •  Kamal Alam •  Diane Allen •  Jamal Al-Tahat •  David Allfrey •  Jamal Al Tahat •  Josh Arnold-Foster •  James Austin •  Barrie Axford •  Anne Bader •  Qique Badia-Masoni •  Elaine Birch Ruffell •  William Bortrick •  Simon Bracey-Lane •  Robin Brims •  Ken Brower •  Audrius Butkevičius •  Samantha de Bendern •  Nicholas Chance •  Jonathan Chetwynd •  David Clark •  Sean Cronin •  Constance Cunningham •  Oleksandr Danylyuk •  Maria de Goeij •  Nicolas de Pedro •  Yusuf Desai •  Kingsley Donaldson •  Rob Dover •  Martin Dubbey • 40px Martin Edmonds •  Stewart Eldon •  Harold Elletson •  Dair Farrar-Hockley •  Perry Fawcett •  Maria Luisa Fichera •  Alex Finnen •  Anthony Fitzherbert •  Mark Galeotti •  Babak Ganji •  Francis Ghiles •  David Gilbertson •  Keir Giles •  Roger Golland •  David Gordon-Macleod •  Euan Grant •  Glen Grant •  Jim Greene •  Rafael Gude •  Tom Hardie-Forsyth •  Amalyah Hart •  Charles Hart •  Harry Hart •  Charlie Hatton •  Jon Hazel •  Chris Hernon •  Henry Hogger •  Henry Hornyold-Strickland •  Howard Inman •  Graham Jeal •  Harry Lawson Johnston •  Steve Johnson •  Phil Jolley •  Stephen Jolly •  Ren Kapur •  Dan Kaszeta •  Shima Keene •  Dmytro Kolomoiets •  Karel Kullamaa •  Daniel Lafayeedney •  Hector Lafayeedney •  Jean-Louis Lafayeedney •  Fatima Lahnait •  Julian Lindley-French •  Tom Lloyd •  Birgy Lorenz •  John Lough •  Jeff McCausland •  Rob McCusker •  Victor Madeira •  Jahan Mahmood •  Irene Martínez Fernández •  Peter Mason •  Phil Matthews •  Mungo Melvin •  Johanna Möhring •  Robert Murphy •  Piroska Nagy-Mohacsi •  Chris Nel •  Malik Niazi •  Ben Nimmo •  Mike Packer •  Chris Prebensen •  Mark Pyman •  Hanif Qadir •  Tim Reilly •  Alan Riley •  Ben Robinson •  Murray Robinson •  Greg Rowett •  Malcolm Russell •  Enrique Sacau •  Keith Sargent •  Jon Searle •  Andy Settle •  Sebastian Seymour •  Raheem Shapi •  Jonathan Shaw •  James Sherr •  Louise Sherwood •  Andrew Shortland •  Lesley Simm •  Luis Simon •  Guy Spindler •  Lucy Stafford •  Ignas Stankovicius •  Hew Strachan •  Henry Strickland •  Celia Szusterman •  Yusuf Tai •  Tomas Tauginas •  Oliver McTernan •  Richard Titley •  Martin Tomaszewski •  Liz Wahl •  Alan Waldron •  Joseph Walker-Cousins •  Dan Ward •  William Wells •  Angela White •  James Wilson •  Mark Winlow •  Jason Wiseman •  Andrew Wood
The UK MoD/FCO funded group that ran the ironically named Integrity Initiative, exposed in 2018 by 'Anonymous'.

The Institute for Statecraft (previously named the Institute for Statecraft and Governance) is a UK limited company founded in 2006. The 2018 Integrity Initiative leak exposed a child group, the ironically named Integrity Initiative not as the apolitical charity it purported to be, but as a multi-million pound UK/FCO funded a UK deep state propaganda outfit. David Miller stated that it "appears to be a military-directed push;", noting that operational WQ was a London basement both close to and paid for by the UK MoD. It has been involved in disinformation operations, subversion of the democratic process and promoting Russophobia and the idea of a new cold war.

Own words

We are totally independent and impartial, not dependent on funding from political or government agencies, industrial interests, or any other source which might call our impartiality into question.

The group's about page stated in January 2019 that "The Institute for Statecraft is an independent body dedicated to refreshing the practice of statecraft, to improving governance and to enhancing national security." Its registration at the Scottish Charity Register stated that its objects were: "(1) To advance education in the fields of governance and statecraft, and in particular focussing on the leadership, direction, management and administration of public and private institutions, major organisations and other bodies (whether incorporated or otherwise), and the skills needed by those in authority within such institutions, organisations or bodies to enable them to deal effectively with current and future challenges particularly in respect of security (2) To advance human rights, conflict resolution and/or reconciliation and religious/racial/ethnic harmony, to promote equality and diversity, citizenship and community development, and to advance national and international security; and in particular through assisting governments (including emerging democracies and countries in transition) and other institutions, organisations or bodies (whether in the UK or abroad) to respond to the challenges posed by new developments in the world (whether social, political, economic or technological) and to develop and embed structures and institutions that reflect principles of best practice in governance and statecraft."

We never lobby, but we do not shirk from advocating specific policy choices, spreading good practice and promoting reform in the face of complacency or vested interest.

Headquarters

The registered HQ, a mill in Scotland

The operational HQ, "possibly the most expensive basement in London."

Craig Murray notes that it didn't take much detective work to locate the operational HQ. This seems to be the basement of the rather more stately 2 Temple Place, the former London mansion of William Waldorf Astor. Murray reports that "the rent is paid by the Ministry of Defence".

Staff

The II was founded in November 2006 as the Institute for Statecraft and Governance. It had 3 directors:

• Chris Donnelly, who appears to be the leading light. A former adviser to figures including Margaret Thatcher and four secretaries general of NATO, he also appears to be a UK deep state operative.
• Daniel Lafayeedney (resigned 2011-11-08)
• Lesley Simm (resigned 2012-08-08)

Tom Lloyd was head of security from 2007-2010. The IfS staff list (right) has mostly been derived from combining the leaked documents with archived copies of the list of IfS fellows from their own website.

The older members in particular have various connections to NATO, the Atlantic Council and to multiple deep state milieux or have held senior positions in the UK government,, UK Army, NATO, the Atlantic Council or NGOs. At least one has been convicted of fraud. The group includes previously known members of intelligence agencies (such as Guy Spindler and Harold Elletson), some from SGMI and many more with spooky profiles. Foreign spooks include Dmytro Kolomoiets.

Activities

Some of the IfS directors set up a UK company named the "Council on Foreign Relations".

The group manages the Integrity Initiative, which director Dan Kaszeta described in his "Notes for Israel" as “Not just a “think tank” offering yet another discussion forum but also a “do tank”.” He added that "We have good contacts in government in UK and other governments (Argentina, Baltic States, Lithuania, etc.")

At least three pairs or IfS members have set up private businesses together. Martin Dubbey set up Harod Associates, revealed by the Integrity Initiative Leak to have carried out work for the II.

Influence

Over Corporate Media

Full article: Corporate Media/Deep state control

The UK Deep state has a variety of means of control over the output of corporate media. One of the most exposed is the Integrity Initiative. According to documents leaked by 'Anonymous', Euan Grant wrote that the IfS has “particular links with the Times, Telegraph, Guardian and BBC TV and radio” but says that it needs to “strengthen” its relationship with the Mail.

Over EPIC (Ex Police in Industry and Commerce)

Full article: EPIC

EPIC (Ex Police in Industry and Commerce) is a "business networking organisation", founded in 2011. As of 2020, all the original directors had resigned, leaving at least 2/4 remaining directors as IfS members. IfS members include senior policemen.

"War on Terror"

Full article: “War on Terror”

Many IfS members have a financial stake in the "War on Terror". Some are professional "terror experts".. Harold Elletson chaired, Security and Defence Learning‎‎, a series of annual "counter-terrorism" conferences, some of which involved other IfS members. Some have set up companies in this area. Others are academics or journalists who address this area. Many worked for the Active Change Foundation, including its founder, Hanif Qadir. In 2018 the IfS had a "programme to develop discernment education for children of 9 and upwards, to keep them safe on-line and to protect them from disinformation and radicalisation".

"Anti corruption"

Keith Sargent is a Senior Fellow and leader of the IfS' "Governance and Integrity Group" and "a regular chairperson and speaker on an Anti-Corruption seminar programme at the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies." A November 2018 IfS budget allocates over £12,000 for a plan "Through links with UK law enforcement and revenue organisations, anti corruption and development NGO's and journalistic organisations, [to] gain access to their European counterparts". Senior associate fellows Mark Pyman and Philip Matthews also reported an interest in the areas of "anti-corruption".

Exposure

The Institute for Statecraft attracted a lot of interest in late 2018 after documents from the Integrity Initiative‎‎ were leaked online by 'Anonymous'. The first set of documents was published on 5 November 2018. It was subsequently the subjects of questions in the UK parliament and widely reported by independent media.

Inquiry

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator opened an inquiry on the 13 December 2018, which after 10 months found that the charity’s purposes were “not entirely charitable”, that "one of its most significant activities, a project known as the Integrity Initiative did not provide public benefit in furtherance of the charity's purposes" and that "private benenefit to the charity's trustees was not incidental to the charity's activities".

Cover up

On 22 January 2019, the Integrity Initiative "temporarily" deleted the entire contents of their website. The Institute for Statecraft followed suit shortly afterwards. By 5 February 2019, the site content had been replaced by a coverpage which stated that "The website will be relaunched shortly. In the meantime, we expect to be able to publish an analysis of the hack and its significance in the near future." It also opened up the way to plausible deniability by claiming that some (unspecified) parts of the leaked data had been falsified.

Media reporting

In March 2019 Sky News carried a brief article headlined What is the Institute for Statecraft thought to have been hacked by Russia? reported that "[t]he organisation, which describes itself as a think-tank and a do-tank, employs a small staff of about a dozen people. It also has about 90 Fellows, including a handful of individuals who have a background in British intelligence or the military so are experts in security and defence." It made no mention of the Integrity Initiative's member Simon Bracey-Lane working for the Bernie Sanders campaign or the smears against Jeremy Corbyn. It mentioned that the II "established a network in countries across Europe" but did not mention how it used that network to mount of a secretly coordinated social media campaign to prevent the appointment of Pedro Baños as Director of the Spanish Department of Homeland Security.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Integrity Initiative	“We've temporarily removed all content from our website, pending an investigation into the theft of data from the Institute for Statecraft and the Integrity Initiative. The website will be relaunched shortly. https://bit.ly/2sES9wM”		22 January 2019
Greg Rowett	“spoke well and hit all the IfS points: peacetime mentality during war/Russian vocab all based on warfare/rate of change in society dramatic/need for universal glossary. Algorithms key – we need to start gaming these algorithms and put pressure onto the companies hosting these disinformation campaigns. Deliver message that we're willing and able to push back.”	Simon Bracey-Lane Greg Rowett	December 2017
University of Leicester	““Following discussions in Leicester and London, the School of History, Politics and International Relations has concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with the Institute for Statecraft, an independent body dedicated to refreshing the practice of statecraft, improving governance and enhancing national security. Head of School, Dr George Lewis, said “This development is yet another example of the skill and standing of colleagues involved in our Distance Learning programmes, and is further recognition of the School's strengths in teaching, research and research-led teaching in the field of international politics and security.” In warmly welcoming the collaboration, Chris Donnelly and Dan Lafayeedney, the founding (sic)<a href="#cite_note-4">[4]</a> co-Directors of the Institute for Statecraft, stated that “it recognises the significant standing in which the Institute is held internationally by policy makers and decision takers of governments, development and security agencies, and private sector clients, and it reflects the unique blend of practice and authoritative research that the Institute’s Fellows and Associates are able to contribute”. Building upon the University’s links with UNITAR and both party’s links with NATO, this Memorandum of Understanding demonstrates the potential for the University of Leicester and the Institute for Statecraft to collaborate, share experience and develop opportunities that will have a direct impact on national and international policy-making.”	Unknown	December 2018
Zinc Network	“Bringing together organisations including Zinc Network, the Institute for Statecraft, Aktis Strategy, Bellingcat, DFR Lab, the Media Diversity Institute, Toro Risk Solutions and Ecorys, our Consortium combines recognised market leaders in understanding, monitoring, and countering Kremlin-backed disinformation... This ecosystem of credible voices will continue to grow, exposing the actors and networks behind Kremlin-backed disinformation, reducing unwitting multipliers of disinformation, and building resilience amongst key target audiences across Europe. We will mobilise a Network Hub based in London, led by an experienced Project Director, consisting of an agile team with core competencies augmented by a wider pool of vetted experts. Our approach is highly localised, based around regional clusters of actors who can collaborate to effectively undermine the disinformation ecosystem in their respective areas and engage audiences most vulnerable to disinformation... It is a highly complex project involving coordination of many independent actors, and thus risk must be carefully managed and risk profiles constantly adapted, serving as the basis for all activity. The approach we propose is based on the identification, monitoring and management of risks as they materialise, allowing members to continue taking smart risks as they increase the scale and impact of their activities.”

 

Group

Group	Start	Description
Integrity Initiative	2015	"Military-directed" "extremely shady covert disinformation and anti-democratic deep state outfit" that promotes Russophobic propaganda. Exposed by a set of 7 caches of documents, posted online. Later deleted its website.

 

Employees on Wikispooks

Employee	Job	Appointed	End	Description
Eduard Abrahamyan	Senior Associate Fellow	April 2019
James Austin	Research Fellow	March 2017	November 2017
James Austin	Project Support officer	July 2018	July 2019
Francis Ghilès				As of February 2020
Maria de Goeij	Academic	April 2018		Deleted this piece of history from her LinkedIn. Now called "thinktank" and having no resignation date.
Tom Lloyd	Head of Security	2007	2010
John Lough	Senior Research Fellow	2008
Johanna Möhring	Academic	November 2013		Also programme director
Ben Nimmo		2015
Chris Scheurweghs	Senior fellow	January 2016

 

Known members

109 of the 137 of the members already have pages here:

Member	Description
Kevin Abraham	Institute for Statecraft businessman
Eduard Abrahamyan	Institute for Statecraft, whose PhD supervisor was also a Institute for Statecraft member.
Jack Agazarian	Institute for Statecraft businessman whose name was gone by 10 January 2019.
Jamal Al-Tahat	Senior fellow of the Institute for Statecraft who was paid £1000 for setting up Integrity Jordan.
Kamal Alam	Fellow of the Institute for Statecraft,
Diane Allen	One of the first women in the Sandhurst, an Institute for Statecraft senior spook with DV (developed vetting)
David Allfrey	Former head of the UK Army's head of recruitment strategy, Institute for Statecraft
Josh Arnold-Foster	Member of the Institute for Statecraft. Posts include "special adviser" to the UK defence secretary.
Barrie Axford	UK Academic specialist "linking universities into the [Institute for Statecraft] network"
Anne Bader	Senior Associate Fellow of the Institute for Statecraft
Quique Badia-Masoni	Spanish journalist member of the Integrity Initiative and the Institute for Statecraft.
Samantha de Bendern	UK deep state-connected polyglot "international civil servant" with a masters degree in Wealth Management, fellow of the Institute for Statecraft, associate fellow of Chatham House
William Bortrick	Institute for Statecraft senior fellow whose name was removed from their website before 10 January 2019. Drafted a letter which claimed that Charles Windsor was "100% behind" a cash for citizenship and CBE case.
Simon Bracey-Lane	A "highly improbable left wing firebrand" who worked for the Institute for Statecraft and whom they denied was a spook.
Robin Brims	Major General, fellow of the Institute for Statecraft
Audrius Butkevičius	Lithuanian politician and fellow of the Institute for Statecraft
Nicholas Chance	On the advisory Board of the Institute of Statecraft, an affiliation he continued to display in January 2020
David Clark	Senior fellow and project director at the Institute for Statecraft. UK MP.
Sean Cronin	A little known spook and member of the Institute for Statecraft
Constance Cunningham	Institute for Statecraft, Active Change Foundation
Oleksandr Danylyuk	Ukrainian member of the Institute for Statecraft
Kingsley Donaldson	"Senior Associate Fellow" of the Institute for Statecraft. His specialism was listed as "Security Sector Reform, Conflict Resolution".
Robert Dover	UK academic with a special interest in UK/Western intelligence agencies. Institute for Statecraft, as is at least one of his graduate students. His name had been removed from the IfS website by 10 January 2019.
Martin Dubbey	A member of the Institute for Statecraft with years of experience involving "corruption enquiries at the highest level".
Martin Edmonds	Senior Associate Fellow of the Institute for Statecraft whose name was removed after the Integrity Initiative Leak
Stewart Eldon	UK DSO interested in "counter-corruption" and "National Security". Former UK/Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council, Institute for Statecraft
Harold Elletson	MI6, MP, Integrity Initiative, New Society Foundation
Dair Farrar-Hockley	A retired Major General who joined the Institute for Statecraft.
Perry Fawcett	UK businessman, ex-policeman, and member of the Institute for Statecraft
Irene Martínez Fernández	Joined the Institute for Statecraft as an associate researcher in July 2019
Maria Luisa Fichera	Former member of the Institute for Statecraft, worked at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
Alexander Finnen	Spooky UK deep state operative, Chris Donnelly's "right hand man"
Anthony Fitzherbert	Institute for Statecraft member and former FAO Programme manager in Afghanistan who co-authored research on crop yields.
Mark Galeotti	Institute for Statecraft propagandist
Babak Ganji	"Strategic analysis education, with the job description as "Russia-MENA influence and infowar strategy and tactics" at the Institute for Statecraft
Francis Ghilès	Trilingual journalist who has been published since the 1990s on topics including "terrorism". He wrote in 2016 that "we are nowhere close to the end of the War on Terror". A member of the Institute for Statecraft.
David Gilbertson	UK policeman who joined the Institute for Statecraft in his returement. Director of the Active Change Foundation from 2015-2017
Keir Giles	Russophobic UK deep state operative, member of Integrity Initiative.
Maria de Goeij	Integrity Initiative/Institute for Statecraft polyglot
Roger Golland	UK Diplomat and IfS member
David Gordon-Macleod	UK deep state connected diplomat
Euan Grant	Spooky journalist/propagandist who worked for the Integrity Initiative interested in financial fraud. "His main forte is thinking strategically and has experience working in many countries around the world."
Glen Grant	37 year military career. Institute for Statecraft senior fellow. "His key work in the last twenty years has been delivering reform and change for defence and security organisations in Europe."
Rafael Gude	Little known member of the Institute for Statecraft.
Tom Hardie-Forsyth	A member of the Institute for Statecraft who worked through Chatham House as a senior advisor to the Kurdistan Regional Government
Amalyah Hart	A fellow of the Institute for Statecraft whose speciality was listed as "Hybrid Warfare, Indo-Pacific Region" when the group took down their website
Harry Hart	Institute for Statecraft director who resigned after the Integrity Initiative leak. Serial company director, son of a spooky adviser to Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
Charlie Hatton	"Brand Development Consultant", was Senior Programme Manager of the Integrity Initiative
Jon Hazel	Little known SGMI, Institute for Statecraft operative
Chris Hernon	Integrity Initiative
... further results

 

Events Planned

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Reframing Russia	1 June 2017	31 May 2020	University of Manchester	An IfS/II discussed project about "The RT Challenge" which was publicly launched in 2019, not under the II/IfS name.
Russia’s Strategy on NATO'S Eastern and Southern Flanks	27 January 2017 09:30:00	27 January 2017 16:30:00	Barcelona Centre for International Affairs	A CIDOB/The Institute for Statecraft/NATO meeting
Strengthening Europe's 'soft' and 'hard' defence	25 March 2019 13:00:00	25 March 2019 17:00:00	Netherlands The Hague Clingendael Institute	Chatham House rule meeting with organised by the Institute for Statecraft and the Clingendael Institute.

 

Sponsors

Event	Description
Answering Russia's Strategic Narratives	Invitation only one day event organised by The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, sponsored by The Institute for Statecraft, about "Russian propaganda"
WhistleblowersUK	UK group chaired since November 2015 by the former Institute for Statecraft head of security, Tom Lloyd.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Britain didn’t vote Labour just to get a new iron chancellor	Article	4 August 2024	William Keegan	The economic damage wrought by Brexit continues. Our investment and growth prospects would benefit enormously if Starmer and Reeves abandoned this policy of “no return to the customs union, single market or freedom of movement”. I repeat what I have said before: the Labour manifesto commits it to removing unnecessary barriers to trade. But Brexit is the most formidable barrier of all!
Document:Speaking notes for meetings in Israel	speaking notes	June 2018	Dan Kaszeta	Institute for Statecraft wants to build a relationship with the Israeli government
Document:The Institute for Statecraft Expert Team v 3	name list	13 December 2018	Chris Donnelly	biographies of core team members with lots of obscure but interesting former and present employers

Rating

20 April 2019 Robin  An overview of this organ of the UK Deep state
A good start for understanding this group which appears to be a UK Deep state effort to promote Russophobia and attempting to kick of a New Cold War.

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.