The international security situation remains dominated by the global terrorist threat that is showing deeper roots in many regions, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
IISS director John Chipman said that the pressing issues were the instability in Iraq and its capacity to infect the whole region, and non-proliferation concerns, at present most intense over Iran's presumed nuclear programme.
The international security situation remains dominated by the global terrorist threat that is showing deeper roots in many regions, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
IISS director John Chipman said that the pressing issues were the instability in Iraq and its capacity to infect the whole region, and non-proliferation concerns, at present most intense over Iran's presumed nuclear programme.
Launching the London-based institute's annual Military Balance, he said that finding the right mix of diplomatic and military tools had become "exasperatingly difficult." All three dilemmas required "increased international co-operation and regional extroversion." "Most difficult of all will be the ever elusive quest to bring more international actors into the situation in Iraq," Chipman warned.
He suggested that a form of international contact group diplomacy will need in time to replace the predominantly American nature of present external influence in Iraq.
Such contact group diplomacy "could serve to introduce a degree of flexibility into the constitutional arrangements," the director of the right-wing think-tank said.
"As so often, the challenge over the coming months will be how responsibly to share power and influence internationally for managing these major issues," he said.
With regard to Iran's nuclear programme, Chipman believed that India's decision to vote as it did in recent IAEA discussions "indicate that this is not just Western concerns."
"It would be desirable for regional states, especially the Persian Gulf Arab states, also to express more openly their concerns about how Iran's possible acquisition of a nuclear capacity would change strategic perceptions and the regional balance of power," he suggested.
