Press Coverage 2005

01 December 2008 - - Survival - The Importance of the Financial Crisis By Alexander Nicoll, Director of Editorial; Editor of Strategic Survey; Editor of Strategic Comments
London insurers urged to rethink The SMF said it hoped its report - drawn up by the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies - would prompt a review of the Strait's status when the JWC next meets early next year. "It is hoped that, following its review, the JWC will be persuaded that the security situation has very much improved and will remove the Malacca Strait from the list," the SMF said.
Nationalism drives China, Japan apart After Aso's comment about China's hefty military spending increases, Beijing vehemently and publicly repeated the official Chinese annual defense spending figure of $25.6 billion. Yet few China experts believe that figure. The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies this fall argued that China now spends nearly $25 billion purchasing Russian armaments alone.
Ways to wage peace in 2006 Pull the wool aside and what can we see? In the journal of London's International Institute for Strategic Studies, the analyst Michael Mandelbaum notes, "the practice of war, once the prerogative of the strong, instead is increasingly the tactic of the weak." Most wars these days are conducted by and within the poorest of the world's nations.
Singapore body enters Malacca Strait row THE Singapore Maritime Foundation has added its voice to the campaign for the Joint War Committee to remove the Malacca Strait from its list of war risk areas, commissioning a report from a London-based think-tank. The industry promotional body has obtained a report by the International Institute of Strategic Studies on the threat of maritime terrorism in the Strait. This report has since been submitted to the JWC of the Lloyd's Market Association in a bid to persuade it to remove the strait...
Key Malacca Strait route not a war risk The foundation then commissioned London's International Institute for Stategic Studies to commission a report on "the threat of maritime terrorism" in the Malacca Strait. The foundation said it sent the report to the JWC on December 13 and understands it will be considered early in the new year when the JWC meets to review its list of war list areas.
Pipeline or a Pipe Dream? None of that matters if the U.S. and the European Union come down hard on Iran for its nuclear program and impose sanctions. That ratchets up the risk factors associated with any pipeline investment. Indeed, Singh told the Washington Post during his July visit that he didn't know if any international consortium of bankers would underwrite the project. Indian and Pakistani officials have dismissed U.S. interference, but skeptics say there is more bark than bite in their comments. "They are...
Showdown over Iran atom drive looms Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said the renewed dialogue put off a showdown, but the EU3 knew anyway that it could not gather the requisite broad support until after the Christmas-New Year holiday period. "In the meantime, Iran is not enriching uranium -- they've publicly committed not to do so as long as they're in dialogue. So the EU feels it loses nothing in talking now," he said.
EU, Iran deeply divided "I don't know that it (resuming talks) means much more than that the date of confrontation is postponed as long as Iran is not yet resuming its enrichment work," said Mark Fitzpatrick, a non-proliferation analyst at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies."The Europeans can be patient and I'm sure that they appreciated that the confrontation was postponed beyond the Christmas season," Fitzpatrick said. "But it will likely come in the not too distant...
Ahmadinejad on Israel But Iran's military capacity is limited - and no match for nuclear-armed Israel. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Iran is developing an upgraded Shahab-3 ballistic missile capable of striking Israel. Its acquisition of nuclear weapons would radically alter the strategic balance. But Iran denies any such ambition; and talks on the issue are due to recommence in Vienna tomorrow.
Countdown to withdrawal from Iraq If "victory" remains defined as stable democracy in Iraq, it is unlikely that Bush will have enough time to implement his strategy. In September, General George Casey, the senior American military commander in Iraq, testified to Congress that modern insurgencies last about a decade, and that the Iraqi army had only one battalion capable of fighting without help from American military forces. A month later, the influential International Institute for Strategic Studies in London...
East Asian integration is a test Last June, Donald Rumsfeld, US secretary of defence, urged advocates of Asian regional co-operation not to exclude the US. In a September speech, Robert Zoellick, deputy secretary of state, warned that American concerns about China "will grow if China seeks to manoeuvre toward a predominance of power (in east Asia)". He instead urged Asean, Japan, Australia and others to work with the US "for regional security and prosperity through the Asean regional forum and the Asia Pacific...
Czech Republic considers helping Iran Earlier this year, the Czech Republic considered lifting the five-year-old law banning Czech firms from providing deliveries to Iran's nuclear power plant as a gesture of goodwill. Foreign Affairs Minister Cyril Svoboda later nixed the idea. In September, the International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded that Iran is several years away from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.
Singapore To Buy 12 F-15 Fighter Jets Tim Huxley, senior fellow for Asia Pacific security at The International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said he did not foresee any strong regional reaction to the purchase. ”The way to look at it is that other regional countries including Malaysia and Indonesia have also been modernizing their air forces, so they will understand how important it is to modernize their air power,” Huxley said.
Elbaradei warns Israel on attacking Iran Director General of the IAEA ElBaradei said Tuesday that he hoped to resolve outstanding issues with regard to Iran's nuclear program by next year. The UN nuclear watchdog chief expressed his views during a speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, when he referred to the IAEA's inspection programme in Iran.
The Mideast's Battle of Ideas This contemporary East is dominated by China and India. West means Britain, France and the United States. And the Middle East is a battle zone of ideas, religions, oil and a cultural use of tribal violence that is now projected onto the global stage. But increased interdependence -- whether forged by trade or by mutual bloodshed -- does not a unified globe make. Disconnects and divergences were on display from the moment the two-day conference on security and terrorism in the Gulf region began.
Waiting for the end of the world Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who this weekend will receive the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, didn't phrase the failure quite as starkly as that. But he didn't mince words. Perhaps it was just because his delivery was so genteel, his manner so mild and unthreatening, that the apocalyptic essence of his talk to London's International Institute for Strategic Studies on Tuesday did not terrify.
Mission to be decided Independent reports on the insurgents, notably by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, say that they are motivated mainly by the presence of foreign troops on Iraqi soil. That is why prolonging the occupation indefinitely is so destructive, and why a conditional commitment to leave might induce many of the insurgents to talk peace. The Iraqi government evidently agrees, because its leaders have publicly suggested that they are willing to talk to the insurgents and want a timetable...
Sino-Japan mistrust obscuring shared vision The East Asian Community is a timely and visionary idea. But it also faces daunting obstacles, especially in the current climate of mistrust between China and Japan. The countries are the two crucial pillars of any East Asian Community. In the 1980s, Japanese investment in East Asia contributed to common prosperity. Now the Chinese economy is assuming the role of regional integrator and will shape the economic future of the region.
Iraq Needs to Prime the Pump But the Shia religious parties, which dominate the current government, are using their hold on key institutions such as the Interior Ministry to exact revenge for the brutalities suffered under Saddam. Shia militias have infiltrated the police, and death squads -- suspected to be made up of militia members -- have been assassinating former regime figures and influential Sunnis in Baghdad. Despite the plethora of elections, "violence has become the main tool of politics," says Toby...