One of the things that the depleted, often denigrated British state is still pretty good at is persuading the public that another country is a threat. As a small, warlike island next to a much larger land mass, Britain has had centuries of practice at cultivating its own sense of foreboding. Arguably, preparing for conflict with some part of the outside world is our natural mindset.

Warnings about potential enemy countries are spread by our prime ministers and major political parties, intelligence services and civil servants, serving and retired military officers, defence and foreign affairs thinktanks, and journalists from the right and the left. Sometimes, the process is relatively subtle and covert: reporters or MPs are given off-the-record briefings about our “national security” – a potently imprecise term – facing a new threat.

And sometimes the state’s approach is more direct. Last month the head of the UK’s armed forces, Richard Knighton, gave a widely publicised lecture warning that “the [national security] situation is more dangerous than I have known during my career”, which began during the cold war in 1988. “It needs a whole of nation response,” he continued, “a sense of national pride and purpose that has characterised our nation in times of conflict.” To an increasing number of our senior military, intelligence and political figures, Britain is already in an undeclared war.

But with whom? Since the end of the second world war, according to the British security state, our most likely enemy has usually been Russia. Its invasion of Ukraine has prompted that message to be disseminated once again. Whether under the sea,........

© The Guardian