About
Counter Risk Insights is an independent analysis practice focused on security risk on NATO's northern and eastern flank.
Why CRI
Much public analysis of security risk states conclusions without saying how likely they are or how they were reached. CRI is built on the opposite principle. Every judgement carries an explicit probability, every analysis names its method, and every source is listed.
What CRI covers
CRI covers three regions. The Arctic and North Atlantic, including Russia’s Northern Fleet and China’s growing interest in the High North. The Baltic Sea and its critical infrastructure. And NATO’s eastern flank, from the Baltic states to Ukraine. The common thread is Russian military and hybrid activity in situations where the facts are uncertain and time is short.
The work combines open-source intelligence with satellite imagery and ship and aircraft tracking data, assessed with structured analytic techniques and explicit probabilities.
Independence
CRI uses open sources only. Its analyses are not commissioned or funded by governments, political parties or companies, unless this is stated in the analysis itself.
Founder
CRI was founded by Viktor Anker Bendsen. He holds an MSc in Geopolitical Studies from Charles University in Prague, graduated with highest honours, with a thesis that used Monte Carlo simulation to assess a NATO counter-offensive in the Baltic states. He has completed Harvard’s course in Intelligence and International Security, worked on the Latvian energy sector at the Royal Danish Embassy in Riga, and works in Danish, English and Russian.