The annual world military study of the International Institute for Strategic Studies was released this week, with the London-based organization noting that:
- While Iran has been exagerrating its nuclear capacity, it may be able to produce a bomb by 2010;
- Iran is also developing the capability to block the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and controls oceangoing traffic to and from the oil-rich Gulf states;
- Recent Taliban attacks on foreign troops in Afghan-istan, Canada's included, are meant to turn public opinion in participating countries against the war.
The annual world military study of the International Institute for Strategic Studies was released this week, with the London-based organization noting that:
- While Iran has been exagerrating its nuclear capacity, it may be able to produce a bomb by 2010;
- Iran is also developing the capability to block the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and controls oceangoing traffic to and from the oil-rich Gulf states;
- Recent Taliban attacks on foreign troops in Afghan-istan, Canada's included, are meant to turn public opinion in participating countries against the war.
SIGNIFICANT WORRIES
Iraq (#21) "The danger is clear: an increase in instability, violence and radical Islamism. The alternative would be a larger role for overt, coordinated, multilateral intervention, involving the key regional powers, to stabilize the situation."
Afghanistan (#86) "The Taliban... are likely to continue to increase their operational tempo."
North Korea (#4) "In about 3-4 years" if it finishes a new nuclear reactor the regime "will be able to produce another 56kg of plutonium annually, enough for 5-10 more [nuclear] weapons."
China (#1) "The military dynamic of the US-China relationship ... remains implicitly but decidedly competitive, and there is little that augurs for change."
