Another year of Binding Hook!

In Binding Hook’s second year, we published 74 op-eds, trends analyses, Hooked! newsletters, and book excerpts on emerging technologies and security. We also held our first in-person event, Binding Hook Live, in London in October, and welcomed many new authors, new team members, and new readers!

Most read in 2025

Our most read piece was Jack Goldsmith’s Binding Hook-Munich Security Conference AI-Cybersecurity Essay Prize Competition entry ‘Ghosts in the machine and the hidden dangers of autopoiesis’, followed by Ben Read’s research on China’s use of attribution to pressure Taiwan and David Kirichenko’s look at the successes of Ukraine’s volunteer IT Army. 

While those may have been seen by the most eyes, readers spent the longest time reading Gatra Priyandita and Arindrajit Basu’s examination of India and Indonesia’s approaches to attribution, followed by Onyendidi Olibamoyo’s article on Nigeria-South Africa social media tensions and Vincent Brussee’s argument that Chinese regulations have actually helped spur the AI boom. 

Themes of the year: European defence, Russia-Ukraine war, surveillance, Israel, and all things China

As predicted, European defence and sovereignty was a major thematic focus in 2025, amidst the Trump administration’s dismantling of long-standing relationships during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Concerns ranged from ‘cognitive resilience’ to US control over data and beyond. Arguments about offensive cyber and persistent engagement continued throughout the year, while high profile UK ransomware attacks laid bare the digital vulnerabilities we all face (and the challenges faced by law enforcement specifically). 

The ransomware conversation didn’t stop there, however; we also hosted opinions about ‘big game hunting’, a glimpse at Iranian state uses of ransomware, and a reminder that ransomware groups are not always out of reach of the law.  

Russia’s digital presence, covert and overt, was everywhere in 2025, from the subsea cable damage that captured attention last winter to the ways the Russian state benefits from ‘neutral’ internet governance structures. 

Surveillance was another important topic throughout the year, in articles covering everything from the impact of pervasive surveillance on mental health and the use of export controls to limit spyware, to the failures of international humanitarian law to protect surveilled dissidents and spyware questions left unresolved by the latest Pall Mall Process meeting. 

We also covered Microsoft cutting off some Israeli access to services because of indiscriminate surveillance of Palestinians, as well as the impacts of the Gaza war on cyber cooperation with the United Arab Emirates. 

Cyber aspects of this summer’s Israel-Iran war ranged from attacks on crypto exchanges to influence operations. But some cyber impacts on Iranians come from closer to home, as can be seen in the digital repression of the Iranian women’s movement. 

Finally, Binding Hook featured a lot of writing on China this year, including our first edited series, on the lessons Europe could learn from Chinese tech successes. Also discussed: how the West and its partners must respond to changing Chinese attribution strategies, Chinese military ambitions and offensive cyber, and the inner workings of the Great Firewall,

Binding Hook across the globe

While our home is in Europe, our topics and readers span the globe. We have the most European readers in London, Kyiv, Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin, while our top non-European cities were Singapore, New York, Lagos, Washington, DC, and Sydney. 

Binding Hook’s international writership, readership, and distinct remit allows us to publish unique arguments and insights that might struggle to find a home elsewhere, from an insider account of the G7 cybersecurity working group and detailed coverage of other cyber diplomatic efforts to close looks at Indonesian cyber policy, provocative musings on the role of cyber in nuclear deterrence, and lessons from Kant for the AI age. We’ve continued to engage openly with policymakers and policy enactors, including a response to one of our newsletters from Volodymyr Styran, deputy head of the Ukrainian State Cyber Protection Center, arguing that Big Tech should do more to limit Russian military use of their platforms and services.

What’s to come in 2026?

In 2026, we expect European defence and digital sovereignty to continue to dominate minds and pens, including serious rethinking of relationships with the United States, NATO, and China;  more critical looks at AI and Big Tech; and deeper exploration of the impacts climate change is having on our ever more digital world. 

As AI slop and the correspondingly bland content optimised for quotation by Google’s AI overviews take over the internet, we also anticipate that more people will return to a much more ancient information source: the book. In preparation, we are revitalising our Book Binder section, with more previews, commentary, and reviews coming your way, starting with an excerpt on what NATO must do to prepare for conflict with Russia and, on a more festive note, our annual holiday reading list.  

As always, we look forward to another year of lively technology debate, sharp analysis, and expert commentary. Stay tuned for the announcement of the Essay Prize Competition winners at the 2026 Munich Security Conference in February, with the winning pieces once again to be published in Binding Hook!