"However, even for those who are historically minded, inclined to see today's world through a lens of the past, Donald Trump's relationship with US intelligence already seems historically bad. Even before taking office, Trump has won the race to the bottom in an inglorious line of poor relations between the White House and its intelligence agencies. Indeed, relations are now so poor that US intelligence agencies may soon come to have a better relationship with their UK counterparts than with Trump."

"Whatever his reasons, Obama's eviction orders were hardly feckless political grandstanding, and it is important to understand why. History shows that kicking out foreign intelligence officials can yield valuable results—as Western countries proved many times during the Cold War. Even in the delicate world of espionage, sometimes a blunt instrument like mass expulsion is necessary."

"Both the Soviet Union and its western opponents, the United States and Britain, pursued covert action to interfere in elections during the Cold War. All of this, however, is not just about history: there are policy lessons for today from Britain and America's Cold War experiences."

"It is reasonable to assume that, faced with vocal Scottish opposition to Trident—the Scottish National Party voted overwhelmingly not to renew it last month—if Scotland gains independence, policy-makers in Washington will soon start looking for alliances elsewhere in Europe with more stable and certain futures. Norway would seem to be an increasingly attractive alternative: it has similar seaports to the UK, is strategically placed for controlling sea-lanes with Russia, has well-respected intelligence services (which are not undergoing public censure in the way Britain's are after Chilcot), and it also has strategic access to Europe in a way that is an unknown quantity for Britain at present."