Press Coverage 2006

Mind the military gap Yet the Europeans are fielding more peacekeepers than they used to - hence the over-stretch. While Britain and France are doing most, others are doing more. According to International Institute for Strategic Studies data, last year 21 EU states had troops in Kosovo, 19 in Afghanistan, 18 in Bosnia and nine in Iraq, while smaller numbers of EU governments deployed troops in a further 18 countries.
Blair calls for alliance of global values Last week, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies reported that the more dramatic external ambitions of the US were being informally buried by the Bush presidency. "Its unilateralism had put in question the legitimacy of its actions. It was seen to have over-reached itself. It was losing friends even among its natural allies, for example in Latin America," the IISS said in its annual Strategic Survey.
S. Korea, U.S. to revisit alliance But the Roh government's policy of engaging North Korea contrasts with Washington's hardening line against Pyongyang over its nuclear programs. The North Korea issue -- and growing fears in Seoul that the U.S. wants to use South Korea to promote its own interests across the region -- have strained the alliance, said Adam Ward, executive director of the U.S. arm of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). "There's no common understanding now of what the...
Charge of the heavy brigade Blair got no comfort from a source whose support he may have expected he could rely on. "The most salient impact of the Iraq intervention," the rarely controversial London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies notes in its latest annual survey, is that, as perceived by European governments, "it has reinforced Bin Laden's narrative depicting the United States and its allies as seeking to establish western hegemony in the Arab and wider Muslim world, to loot Islam's...
War cannot get rid of terrorism People are keenly aware that war has been increasing the dangers of terrorism around the world. In fact, terrorist attacks took place in Spain, Britain, and Indonesia. The annual Strategic Survey 2006, the International Institute for Strategic Studies published on September 5, states, "The development of terrorist cells among UK citizens poses a severe challenge ... also for those of other European countries."
Cold War could provide the answer to US THIS year’s survey of “world affairs” by the International Institute for Strategic Studies is a gloomy exercise. The London-based think tank, which specialises in security questions and has close ties with the US, reserves its sharpest criticism for Washington’s attempt to export democracy. It expresses relief at the “passing of America’s revolutionary moment during which it aimed actively to change the status quo in unstable places”.
Britain forced to send more troops to Iraq In London, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, warned of the threat posed by jihadists experienced in fighting foreign troops in Iraq. "The fear is that some jihadists will survive US-led counter-insurgency efforts and relocate to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Europe, and possibly the United States, better trained and motivated to perpetrate and direct terrorist operations," it warned in its latest annual strategic survey. It added: "Events in Iraq [have] also prompted...
Campaign against Taliban 'causes misery' In a separate intervention, the influential International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) said that a vital opportunity was lost when the West failed to carry out adequate reconstruction work after the 2001 war. Christopher Langton, the head of the IISS defence analysis department, also said that attempts to impose secular laws on a tribal Pashtun society, without the establishment of security, had not worked. At the same time, the war against the Taliban was being hampered because...
Radicalization of Muslims in Europe The increasing evidence of radicalisation of a small number of Muslims in Europe has been one of the most disturbing developments of the past year and the UK has become a particular target, a leading think tank said today. "Along with the various crises in the Middle East and the growing extroversion of new great powers such as China, the revelation of the extent of Muslim radical disquiet in Europe has become a key strategic issue," John Chipman, Director General of the London-based...
Study cites 'inadequacies' of U.N. The growing irrelevance and recent failures of the world's fundamental institutions, namely the United Nations and its specialist agencies, has created a sense of "a world operating without a system," a London-based think tank said Tuesday. The International Institute for Strategic Studies' annual Strategic Survey said the fact that world leaders repeatedly talk of the need for common approaches to shared problems implies that this need is not being met by the existing intersecting...
US prestige declines, adjusts foreign policy More dramatic external ambitions of the US were informally buried by the Bush presidency during the middle of 2006, according to a new report by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). "Of course, the strategic language at the highest level still paid tribute to the ideal of the universal spread of democracy and ending tyranny," IISS chief executive John Chipman said. "But the diplomatic practice, now largely controlled by the US secretary of...
US 'needs Arab help' to rein in Iran The US should seek to enlist Gulf Arab states in an effort to contain Iran if it fails to suspend its nuclear programme, the head of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said on Tuesday. John Chipman, director- general of the London-based think-tank, said the US should ascertain the interest of members of the Gulf Co-operation Council in a stronger security relationship with the US and, if needed, a more open policy of containing Iran.