LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Al-Qaida retains the ability to plan and coordinate large-scale attacks in the western world, a report from leading think-tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies, or IISS, says.
In its Strategic Survey 2007, IISS said regional jihadist groups have sworn allegiance to al-Qaida and "have begun to show ambitions beyond parochial concerns in support of al-Qaida's goals."
The report, which addresses world affairs from late 2006 to date, said the U.S. suffered a loss of international authority as a result of the failure to impose order in Iraq. Leaders and groups around the world sought to take advantage or to protect themselves from the consequences of this loss of prestige, the report said.
Acceleration in efforts for political reconciliation remains the surge that is most important in Iraq, the IISS said, for any military gains to be sustained. The report said the U.S. needs to put much greater political pressure on the Iraqi government to reform in order for this reconciliation to happen.
Looking forward, the IISS said the world in 2008 will be doubly consumed by the politics of parochialism - sectarian rivalries and religious disputes - and by the maneuvers of balance of power politics - alliance politics and arms races.
"Unsettled relations, rivalries and shifting strengths of the powers that see themselves as custodians of the state system will make the necessary coordination of approaches to these threats immensely hard," the report said.
The IISS said there is a sense the world is approaching "key turning points" on a number of international crises and that at the same time, the shifts in the global balance of power don't herald decisive and effective action to deal with these crises.
"International terrorism," Israel-Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and nonproliferation in Iran and North Korea will continue to be major strategic issues, the IISS concluded.
