Building UK Strategic Capacity to Counter the Weaponisation of Gender

Uncovering how transnational gendered and identity-based threats undermine UK and Euro-Atlantic security and what national security actors can do about it.

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Introduction

This project explores how gendered and identity-based mobilisation, including misogyny, anti-LGBTQI+ narratives, and anti-migrant sentiment, and racialised disinformation are increasingly deployed by authoritarian-aligned actors and extremist ecosystems as part of broader hybrid threat strategies. These threats, often dismissed as social or cultural issues, carry significant implications for national cohesion, democratic resilience, and UK national security.

Led by Protection Approaches and delivered in partnership with the Centre for Statecraft and National Security at King's College London, this project brings together civil society, policymakers, and security stakeholders across the UK and Europe. Through an event series, consultations and targeted publications, the project will support efforts to embed gendered and identity-based threat awareness into national security strategy and practice. It also complements RUSI's wider work on gender, extremism, and state threats.

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Aims and objectives

The project aims to strengthen the evidence base around how transnational gendered and identity-based threats undermine UK national security and to support national security actors, civil society, and policymakers in better identifying, analysing, and countering these threats.

While anti-rights mobilisation, misogyny and disinformation are often treated as marginal or normative issues, this project frames them as strategic identity-based threats. These threats are used to destabilise democratic systems, fragment societies, and build ideological alignment with authoritarian regimes. By mapping the networks and narratives involved, the project will help UK institutions better understand their relevance to systemic competition, domestic polarisation, and alliance cohesion.

Key objectives include:

Raising awareness among UK and European national security actors of the strategic threat posed by identity-based mobilisation.
Producing actionable recommendations for how HMG can confront and mitigate these threats.
Building cross-sectoral constituencies of influence and trust between civil society, policymakers, and government stakeholders.
Supporting the integration of gender-responsive threat analysis into national and regional security strategies.