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NATO's new members: ready for accession? |
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The three countries that were invited at NATO’s Madrid summit in July 1997 to join the Alliance – the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland – have all made important advances towards preparing their armed forces for accession. Military modernisation has proceeded alongside practical cooperation in Bosnia with the NATO-led Peace Implementation Force (IFOR) and its successor, the Stabilisation Force (SFOR). By 1999, all three states should have met, or be close to meeting, all the necessary inter-operability objectives.
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Kaliningrad's rising strategic importance |
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Greater NATO involvement with the Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – in the context of the Partnership for Peace (PFP) programme, and the eastward enlargement of the Alliance and the European Union (EU), has highlighted the strategic isolation of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. Despite being an important military outpost for Russia on the Baltic Sea, as well as having a number of vital ‘ice-free’ ports, attempts to place the Oblast on a stronger economic foundation have failed.
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No solution to Algeria's endemic violence
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Algeria’s bloody civil war shows no sign of abating. In fact, violence has intensified in recent months with President Liamine Zeroual’s regime seemingly unable to prevent brutal massacres – even in the vicinity of the capital. Divisions within the military are becoming more marked, hampering efforts to find a political settlement. The government’s credibility has reached an all-time low, with widespread public frustration over its handling of the October 1997 municipal and provincial polls.
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The PLA's business interests |
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From modest beginnings in the 1970s, the commercial activities of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have now developed into a veritable business empire. Almost every sector of China’s rapidly expanding economy has its quota of military companies. Increasingly, the largest of these businesses are beginning to resemble the chaebols, the conglomerates that dominate the Republic of Korea’s economy.
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The future of unmanned aerial vehicles |
Over the past decade, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become increasingly sophisticated and have now entered service in many countries. Their valuable role as intelligence gatherers was demonstrated both during the 1991 Gulf War and the Bosnian conflict of 1992–95. The relatively cheap cost of UAVs, compared to manned aircraft and satellites, is likely to mean that they will become staple items in the aviation arsenals of even small states. In some regions, they have the potential to become force ‘equalisers’, as the current advantages of satellites diminish over time.
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