| SIPRI Update: Global Security & Arms Control | April 2008 |
Welcome to the April issue of SIPRI Update: Global Security & Arms Control. This monthly newsletter will be your source for the latest developments in international security, arms control, non-proliferation and regional conflict, including recent activities and publications at SIPRI.
In this issue:
| Nuclear disarmament and the US presidential campaign | Back to top |
Jeffrey G. Lewis, Director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative, New America Foundation
Are the US presidential candidates as serious about nuclear disarmament as their campaign pronouncements suggest? Candidates are, by nature, generalists. They can also be quite cautious on issues that are not central to their interests or their image. Although nuclear weapons issues are incredibly important, they are also technical, abstract and excite very few interest groups.
This election, however, may be different. In part, the difference is a January 2007 op-ed, published in the Wall Street Journal by former US Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of Defense William J. Perry and former US Senator Sam Nunn. That op-ed, a second article in January 2008 and a series of conferences have placed the idea of the elimination of nuclear weapons back into acceptable public discourse for high officials.
| Release of 2007 arms transfers data | Back to top |
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On 31 March the SIPRI Arms Transfers Database was updated to include the latest information up to the end of 2007. The comprehensive database itemizes all international transfers of major conventional weapons since 1950. It can generate estimates of the volume of global arms imports and exports, estimates of the volume of arms imports and exports by country, and information on the types and numbers of weapon systems transferred. The database can be accessed at http://armstrade.sipri.org/. For more information on the updated database, contact the SIPRI Arms Transfers Project. |
| SIPRI website survey | Back to top |
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Please take a few minutes to answer these questions, and help SIPRI build a better web site. We ask you, our readers, to make your voices heard as we set out to make the SIPRI web site more accessible and user-friendly. All answers are treated in confidence and are not shared with third parties. |
| Upcoming SIPRI events | Back to top |
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25 April |
Military expenditure in East Asia Researchers from the Korean Institute for Defense Analysis (KIDA) will visit SIPRI to discuss the latest security situation in East Asia, military expenditure, and current trends in regional and global arms production. Contact the organizer, Evamaria Loose-Weintraub, for more information. |
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8 May |
Launch of the 7th annual Chinese translation of the SIPRI Yearbook 2007 The Chinese translation of the SIPRI Yearbook 2007, an annual compendium of data and analysis of developments in security and conflicts, military spending and armaments and non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament, will be published by the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association (CACDA) and officially launched at a public event in Beijing. Contact the SIPRI Editorial and Publications Department for more information. |
| Recent SIPRI events | Back to top |
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2–3 April |
Inter-agency seminar on investigating and prosecuting export control violations In partnership with the US Department of State and in close cooperation with the European Union, SIPRI is currently carrying out a series of activities in seven countries in South Eastern Europe to explore the prospects of strengthening export control enforcement. This inter-agency seminar, organized by SIPRI and the Croatian Ministry of Economy and Labour, brought together investigators and prosecutors from Germany and the Netherlands with direct experience of trying cases related to export control violations. The seminar was based around case studies of recent successful prosecutions as well as a scenario-based exercise to explore how such cases would be approached in Croatia. For more information, see the website of the SIPRI Non-proliferation and Export Control Project. |
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1–2 April |
Armaments and Security in the Middle East SIPRI co-organized a conference with the Swedish Institute in Alexandria and Arab Thought Forum to examine peace and security issues in the Middle East. Key findings on armaments and disarmament in the Middle East from the Arabic translation of SIPRI Yearbook 2007 were disseminated at the conference. Leading experts, scholars, and senior officials, including HRH Prince El Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan, participated in the two-day conference. Contact Daniel Nord and Pieter Wezeman for more information. |
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25 March |
Multinational Nuclear Arrangements: Government, Commercial and Public–Private Approaches This seminar, organized by SIPRI and the Carnegie Moscow Center, examined the prospects of multilateral nuclear arrangements in reinforcing the nuclear non-proliferation regime. It featured presentations on proposed governmental and commercial approaches ranging from physical fuel banks to multinationally-owned enrichment plants. Organized as part of an ongoing Carnegie project on US–Russian cooperative approaches to addressing nuclear proliferation challenges, the seminar was attended by senior scholars, experts and officials. Contact the co-organizer, Shannon Kile, for more information. |
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14 March |
Terrorism and Security Policies in Nordic Countries At 2008 ETC Security Policy Meeting organized by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and the Swedish National Defence College, the SIPRI Governing Board Chairman, Ambassador Rolf Ekéus, delivered a speech on Swedish security policy and Ekaterina Stepanova, the Leader of the SIPRI Armed Conflicts and Conflict Management Project, spoke on terrorism in Northern Europe. | |
| SIPRI in the media | Back to top |
SIPRI Director Bates Gill discussed missile defence developments in Europe in an interview with Luxemburger Wort.
SIPRI Governing Board Member Mary Kaldor shared her views on global civil society, just war, human rights and humanitarian intervention in an interview with The Guardian.
SIPRI Researcher Shannon Kile gave an assessment of Iranian nuclear developments to Radio Free Europe.
SIPRI Senior Researcher Zdzislaw Lachowski commented on current relations between Russia and Europe to RIA Novosti.
SIPRI Project Leader Siemon Wezeman, Researcher Paul Holtom, and Research Associate Mark Bromley spoke to Voice of America, Radio Station Business FM Moscow, and RFI, respectively, regarding the latest trends in global transfers of conventional weapons.
Figures from the SIPRI Arms Transfers Database and the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database were cited in the International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, Washington Post, Reuters, Oxford Analytica, Bloomberg, Deutsche Welle and Chosun Ilbo, among many others.
| SIPRI fact of the month | Back to top |
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The USA possesses nearly 40 per cent of the world’s deployed nuclear warheads |
The United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan and Israel possess more than 10 200 operational nuclear warheads, with several thousand of these nuclear weapons kept on high alert, ready to be launched within minutes. If all nuclear warheads are counted—operational warheads, spares, those in both active and inactive storage, and intact warheads scheduled for later dismantlement—these eight states together possess a total of more than 25 000 warheads. As of January 2008, the United States maintained an estimated arsenal of approximately 4075 operational nuclear warheads, consisting of roughly 3575 strategic and 500 non-strategic warheads. In addition to this operational arsenal, approximately 1260 warheads are held in reserve, for a total stockpile of approximately 5400 warheads. Over 5100 other warheads were removed from the US Department of Defense (DOD) stockpile at the end of 2007, destined to be dismantled by 2023. The latest data and assessment on world nuclear forces will be available in the forthcoming SIPRI Yearbook 2008. |
| SIPRI’s latest publications | Back to top |
SIPRI Policy Paper no. 21
Mark Bromley
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Terrorism in Asymmetrical Conflict: Ideological and Structural Aspects SIPRI Research Report no. 23 Ekaterina Stepanova Published by Oxford University Press for Stockholm International Peace Research Institute March 2008 ISBN 978-0-19-953355-8 hardback £35/$70 ISBN 978-0-19-953356-5 paperback £12.99/$25.95 Buy from the OUP website (UK or USA) |
This thought-provoking book challenges the conventional discourse on—and responses to—contemporary terrorism. It examines the synergy between the extremist ideologies and the organizational models of non-state actors that use terrorist means in asymmetrical conflict. This synergy is what makes these terrorist groups so resilient in the face of the counterterrorist efforts of their main opponents—the state and the international system—who are conventionally far more powerful.
The book argues that the high mobilization potential of the supra-national extremist ideology inspired by al-Qaeda cannot be effectively counterbalanced at the global level by either mainstream secular global ideologies or moderate Islam. Instead, it is more likely to be affected and transformed by radical nationalism. Unless the political transformation of violent Islamist movements in specific national contexts is encouraged and the transnational ideology of violent Islamism is ‘nationalized’, it is unlikely to be amenable to external influence or to be destroyed by repression.
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The Effectiveness of Foreign Military Assets in Natural Disaster Response
A Report by SIPRI Commissioned and supported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs March 2008 ISBN 978-91-85114-57-3 Download from books.sipri.org |
This study examines the advantages, limitations and implications of involving foreign military assets—personnel, equipment and expertise—in the relief operations that follow major natural disasters. Foreign military assets have made large contributions to several recent natural disaster relief operations, yet their use in such operations remains controversial. The questions asked range from matters of principle—is it appropriate for foreign forces to take part in humanitarian work?—to more practical considerations such as cost, how effectively foreign military assets can participate in civilian-led humanitarian operations and how the presence of foreign military assets affects the ability of civilian humanitarian organizations to act independently and safely. This study provides an overview of the current use of foreign military assets in natural disaster response, including how and why they are deployed. It also analyses the role played by foreign military assets in several major disaster relief operations: in Mozambique following the floods in 2000, in Haiti following floods and tropical storm Jeanne in 2004, in Aceh province, Indonesia, following the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, and in Pakistan-administered Kashmir following the South Asia earthquake of 2005.
For information on SIPRI’s other recent and forthcoming books, visit the SIPRI Publications website, books.sipri.org
Other recent publications by SIPRI authors
Jean-Yves Haine, ‘La relevancia estrategica de la Otan’ [NATO’s strategic relevance], Prospectiva, March 2008, pp. 44—46. Read this article (in Spanish; requires subscription)
John Hart and Ron Sutherland, ‘Chemical industry verification under the CWC: scientific and technological developments and diplomatic practice’, Academic Forum Conference Proceedings (Clingendael Institute: The Hague, 2008). Download this paper as presented at the September 2007 Academic Forum
Rikard Bengtsson and Gunilla Herolf, ‘Sweden’, EU-27 Watch, no. 6 (March 2008). Read this article
Paul Holtom, ‘The beginning of the end for deliveries of Russian major conventional weapons to China’, RIA-Novosti, 31 March 2008. Read this article in English or Russian