November 2007

Inside Pakistan's Drive To Guard Its A-Bombs But the U.S. has long had contingency plans in place under which American Special Forces operatives would deploy to Pakistan to secure nuclear-weapons sites in the event of an Islamic takeover. Some U.S. military and intelligence personnel fear that there may be additional weapons sites that the U.S. doesn't know about. "It's going to be some time before Pakistan overcomes the confidence deficit," says Mark Fitzpatrick, an arms-control specialist and senior fellow at the London-based...
Iran and EU face tough nuclear talks "It is hard to imagine that Iran will really offer anything new and of value," said Mark Fitzpatrick, senior fellow for non-proliferation studies at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies. He said Iranian leaders had repeatedly dismissed compromise proposals brought back by Larijani. "It might be conceivable if they thought that Russia and China would otherwise join in pushing through a strong sanctions resolution. But more likely Iran is just posturing in order...
Killing four birds with one stone By Mark Fitzpatrick, Senior Fellow for Non-proliferation
Musharraf quits as army chief "All this is significant because it signals his serious understanding of what a predicament he's in," said Patrick Cronin, a South Asia analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "It shows that if he wants to cling to power, he has to take actions he hasn't been willing to take in the past."
Helicopter crunch hobbles peace missions "Without helicopters, nobody moves in that kind of terrain," said Andrew Brookes, defence analyst at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). "Helicopters can do 3-4 miles (5-6 km) a minute and get you wherever you need to get. On the ground, it might take 10 hours and the battle is already lost by the time you get there."
Gates to head US team for Manama Dialogue Gates, who took office in December 2006, will talk about The US and the Regional Balance of Power at the first plenary session of the annual forum, which brings together ministers and senior officials from 23 countries to discuss major security issues. He will be the highest US official to participate in the forum co-organised by Bahrain and the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), and which provides a setting for the discussion of the regional security challenges...
Iran says has built new long-range missile Mark Fitzpatrick, a weapons expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said the Ashoura was probably a longer range version of the Shahab-3 and said, since 2005, there had been evidence Iran was working on a new model. "I think it's a pretty strong likelihood that Iran has received technology that has extended the range of their missiles, and maybe the development of a whole new missile with a longer range," he said. "I think it's a very plausible...
Half of Sea Harrier fleet gone in 20 years Replying to Kumar's application in September, the integrated headquarters of the defence ministry disclosed that, between 1988 and 2007, seven pilots had lost their lives in 16 accidents involving Sea Harriers. The appellate authority, however, declined to share reasons behind these accidents. Mint independently confirmed, from a report in the military journal, Military Balance, published by London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), that there were only 15...
Scottish Office role 'fitted in' says Browne Within the NATO alliance, the top spending countries relative to GDP within NATO were the US, followed by Turkey, Germany, Greece, France, Bulgaria and then the UK, which spent 2.3 per cent of its budget on defence, said the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
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Gates will lead U.S. delegation to Manama U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will lead the American delegation to the 4th annual Gulf regional security summit known as the Manama Dialogue.Delegations from 23 governments in the Gulf and around the world will attend the summit next month in the Bahraini capital, said a statement this week from its organizers, London-based think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Spinning on regardless Iran has pre-emptively dismissed such accusations as baseless, so is unlikely to be forthcoming. Nor does it show any sign of suspending either uranium enrichment at Natanz or the construction of plutonium-producing facilities at Arak, as demanded by the UN Security Council. On the contrary, says Mark Fitzpatrick, of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, the pace of enrichment work at Natanz has picked up noticeably, with more centrifuge machines (3,000...
More than half of Afghanistan 'under Taliban' The Senlis Council made a name for itself by advocating that Afghan opium, which supplies 93 per cent of the world market, should be regulated and produced for medicinal purposes. The organisation had been regarded in the past as very much a fringe body with unrealistic policies. But it has recently begun to hold seminars with influential think-tanks such as the International institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which are attended by senior diplomats and military commanders. Last month, the...
Egypt: Russia agrees to provide know-how Cairo suspended a peaceful nuclear programme after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies said the first 1,000-megawatt reactor could be built at Dabaa on the Mediterranean in eight to 10 years if foreign investment was secured.
Iran rations cooperation with IAEA "Some kind of deadline was necessary to persuade the West that Iran could not drag out answers forever," said Mark Fitzpatrick, senior non-proliferation fellow at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies. "But knowing they can't compel Iran to turn over evidence or allow personnel to be interviewed, the IAEA can't help but fudge the standard of what it takes to close an issue. That is a major flaw of this process," he told Reuters.
Experts united against Pakistan emergency Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, senior fellow for South Asia at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, termed the situation in Pakistan as "mind-boggling and very worrying" with implications for regional and global security. It will be impossible to hold elections under emergency since they were contradictory terms, he said."There are several issues involved: combating terrorism, countering religious extremism, future of democratic traditions, the shape of Pakistan's economy and...
A review of Nuclear Black Markets Nuclear Black Markets: Pakistan, A. Q. Khan and the Rise of Proliferation Networks, edited by Mark Fitzpatrick, a senior fellow at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies and formerly with the U.S. State Department, where he served as deputy assistant secretary of nonproliferation and at the South Asia desk, is an important addition to the literature on Pakistan's nuclear program and the dynamics of nuclear proliferation. The report offers a sweeping, well-referenced...
As U.S. presses for more sanctions Mark Fitzpatrick, a nonproliferation expert at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, said most of the world agrees that Iran shouldn't have nuclear weapons. "Diplomacy continues to be the only way out of this mess, but it really looks like an impasse right now," he said. "There's a very good argument to be made for the U.S. being involved in a dialogue with Iran. Refusing to talk to Iran only strengthens their animosity and mistrust of the West. But I'm not...
US Envoy to Press Musharraf Patrick Cronin, an analyst at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, said Washington still hoped to persuade Musharraf to end the emergency and allow free elections "so they don't have to face the prospect of watching him go sooner rather than later." He said U.S. officials were keen to avoid the embarrassment of dropping a man whose authoritarian rule they have long defended because of his help in Afghanistan and against al-Qaida, but also had to be seen to stand...
North Koreas nuclear threat Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the Nonproliferation Bureau of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, proposes enhancing the status of the PSI from the U.S.-led "coalition of the willing" to an international organization with its own secretariat. Fitzpatrick was involved in developing the PSI as U.S. acting deputy assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation.