2006 Adelphi Papers

AP 384: Regulating Private Security Industry Sarah Percy The under-regulation of the private security industry has increasingly become a topic of media and academic interest. This Adelphi Paper enters the debate by explaining why the industry requires further regulation, and what is wrong with the current system. It begins by briefly defining the industry and explaining the need for more effective regulation, before analysing three types of regulation: domestic, international and informal (including self-regulation). The paper...
AP 385: Network Centric Warfare Coalition Operations in the Age of US Military Primacy Paul T. Mitchell Since its emergence in 1998, the concept of Network Centric Warfare (NCW) has become a central driver behind America's military 'transformation' and seems to offer the possibility of true integration between multinational military formations. Even though NCW, or variations on its themes, has been adopted by many armed services, it is a concept in operational and doctrinal development. It is shaping not only how...
AP 383: Nuclear Superiority The 'new triad' and the evolution of nuclear strategy David S. McDonough In 2002 the Bush administration completed a Nuclear Posture Review that introduced a 'new triad' based on offensive-strike systems, defences and a revitalised defence infrastructure. Designed for a new strategic threat environment, it is characterised not by a long-standing nuclear rivalry with another superpower, but by unstable relationships with rogue-state proliferators, alongside more ambiguous...
AP 382: North Korean Reform Robert L. Carlin and Joel S. Wit While foreign policy and security concerns have trumped past efforts to reform the North Korean economy, Pyongyang is implementing important economic reforms despite renewed tensions with the United States. This is in response to a leadership debate – between 'reformers' and 'conservatives' over whether Pyongyang's military industrial complex should be scaled back to help ensure the success of reforms – that is fundamentally transforming the country....
AP 381: Myanmar's Foreign Policy Jürgen Haacke Against the background of its problematic human-rights record and the military regime's continued extra-constitutional rule, Myanmar has faced mounting diplomatic pressure from the international community since the renewed detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2003. This Adelphi Paper examines Myanmar's foreign policy, which is predicated on state-building and development, as well as defending the regime's decision to give priority to establishing an enduring...
AP 380: Libya and Nuclear Proliferation Wyn Q. Bowen For over three decades, driven by the core motive of deterring external threats to its security, Libya sought to acquire nuclear weapons. Having attempted but failed to procure them 'off the shelf' from several states during the 1970s, by late 2003 it had succeeded in assembling much of the technology required to manufacture them. Nevertheless, following secret negotiations with the UK and US governments, in December 2003 Colonel Muammar Gadhafi resolved to abandon the...
AP 379: Transformation of Strategic Affairs Lawrence Freedman This paper examines the difficulty the US armed forces face in shifting their focus from preparing for regular wars, in which combat is separated from civil society, to irregular wars, in which combat is integrated with civil society. It argues that the political context of contemporary irregular wars requires that the purpose and practice of Western forces be governed by liberal values. This is also the case with regular wars, to the extent that they occur, but...