Reframing Organised Crime as a Strategic UK Intelligence Concern
A Research Article arguing that organised crime is underweighted in UK intelligence prioritisation processes despite its centrality to hostile-state operations, reframing the issue as a core component of the national security landscape.
State actors are increasingly using criminal intermediaries to conduct hybrid operations across Europe. Although serious and organised crime is formally included in UK intelligence prioritisation mechanisms, Cathy Haenlein and Matt Ince argue that it has been underweighted as a strategic intelligence priority even as it has become central to this hostile state operating model. The article examines past and present treatment of the issue, how this sits within an evolving threat landscape, and the implications for positioning serious and organised crime as a strategic intelligence concern moving forward.
WRITTEN BY
Cathy Haenlein
Director of Organised Crime and Policing Studies
Organised Crime and Policing
Matt Ince
RUSI Associate Fellow, Organised Crime and Policing
- Jim McLeanMedia Relations Manager+44 (0)7917 373 069JimMc@rusi.org



