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Serbia goes to the polls |
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Serbia's parliamentary elections on 23 December will mark the definitive end of the Slobodan Milosevic era, as Serbia's former opposition consolidates power and takes full control of Serbia's institutions. However, this transition promises to be anything but smooth. The 18-party coalition, whose supporters ousted Milosevic in October, risks collapse after the elections and the tasks facing the incoming government are truly monumental. The new administration will have to grapple with the legacies of a decade of war and isolation, as well as resolve the fundamental question of Serbia's status.
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European military satellites |
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Western intervention in Balkan conflicts since the mid-1990s has led to heightened European concerns about its dependence on US technology in the crucial areas of command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR). The consolidation of European defence industries and US support for a stronger European role within NATO are now changing this picture. The creation of the European Union's new rapid reaction force will increase demand for Europe's own military-satellite capabilities.
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Japanese chemical weapons in China |
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On 27 September, Japanese government officials and members of the Chinese People's Liberation Army completed an unprecedented two-week operation to unearth and remove chemical weapon shells abandoned in China by the Japanese military in the closing stages of the Second World War. The exercise was significant not only as the first instance of Japanese officials engaging in such clearance activities, but also because of the closeness of the cooperation between the Chinese and Japanese governments.
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Libya's armed forces |
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The 1999 suspension of UN sanctions on Libya has turned the country into a major potential arms importer. Before the sanctions were imposed seven years earlier, Moscow was the chief supplier. Russia now hopes to re-establish its domination of the Libyan arms market, but it faces stiff competition from former Soviet republics and could also face growing rivalry with Western arms exporters when the sanctions still enforced by Western countries are eventually lifted.
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The South African military |
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More than six years after South Africa's white-dominated military was integrated with the guerrilla armies it once fought, the country's armed forces are still struggling to adapt to the post-apartheid order. Racism remains all-pervasive, morale is rock bottom and the absorption of former fighters from as many as nine different forces is creating confusion and division. Few would now credit the South African National Defence Force with much fighting capability.
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