January 2009

Welcome to the January 2009 issue of SIPRI Update: Global Security & Arms Control. This monthly newsletter is your source for the latest developments in international security, arms control, non-proliferation and conflict, including recent SIPRI activities and publications.

In this issue:

• Bates Gill and Chin-hao Huang write on ‘China’s expanding peacekeeping role’
• SIPRI namned among world’s best think tanks
• Recent SIPRI events
• Forthcoming SIPRI events
• SIPRI in the media
• SIPRI job openings
• SIPRI fact of the month
• SIPRI’s latest publications
  • Chronology 2008
  • The Supreme Court, the Bush Administration and Guantánamo Bay
  • Chemical and Biochemical Non-lethal Weapons: Political and Technical Aspects

Bates Gill, SIPRI Director, and Chin-hao Huang, SIPRI Researcher

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has increased its participation in a broadening array of multilateral security arrangements in recent years. One of the most high-profile aspects of this trend is the dramatic expansion in Chinese peacekeeping deployments (of civilian police, military observers, engineering battalions and medical units) to UN operations: since 2000, when China deployed fewer than 100 peacekeepers, there has been a dramatic 20-fold increase in its contributions. As of December 2008, China was the fourteenth largest contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, providing more troops, police and observers to UN operations than three other permanent members of the UN Security Council—Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Nearly three-quarters of China’s contributions are concentrated in Africa, and the Chinese Government plans new and even more significant increases to its contributions in such strife-torn regions as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Liberia and Sudan.

What is behind this more proactive approach?

Continue reading . . .

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is ranked as one of the most influential think tanks worldwide by Foreign Policy magazine in its Think Tanks Index 2008.

The index, which is compiled for Foreign Policy by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania, evaluated a total of 5465 think tanks worldwide. SIPRI ranked third among non-US based think tanks, second among think tanks in Western Europe and sixth globally in the category of ‘Security and International Affairs’.

For more information, read the Foreign Policy article or the full report

In The Financial Times, SIPRI Director Dr Bates Gill commented on China’s biannual defence white paper. Dr Gill also contributed to a feature article in Nature on the Bush administration’s nuclear non-proliferation policy.

SIPRI Deputy Director Daniel Nord was interviewed by Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish) on the human rights situation in the recent Gaza conflict.

The Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister’s visit to SIPRI was commented on in Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish).

SIPRI Senior Researcher Dr Paul Holtom discussed how Russia’s currency policy helps its arms export industry in The Big Money.

SIPRI Senior Researcher Dr Gunilla Herolf commented on President Sarkozy’s initiative to mediate in the Gaza conflict in The Miami Herald.

This chronology lists the significant events in 2008 related to armaments, disarmament and international security. In addition to the headline-grabbing events, such as the Georgia–Russia conflict and the pirate attacks off Somalia, it also records the less publicized, but no less important, advances and setbacks in international peace and security.

The long-term detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanámo Bay and the convening of special military commissions to try them were among the most controversial aspects of the George W. Bush administration. The Bush Administration’s Guantanámo policies sought to address geniune security concerns but denied detainees basic rights, including habeas corpus, access to legal counsel and rights under the Geneva Conventions. The US Supreme Court, which has a history of supporting the US Government in times of conflict, repeatedly ruled against the policies.

This SIPRI Background Paper presents a brief overview of the military commissions policy and the legal challenges they have faced in the Supreme Court.

Non-lethal weapons are intended to incapacitate personnel or materiel without injuring people. This Policy Paper describes and analyses biological and chemical substances that have the potential to be used as weapons or can improve the efficacy of other, more traditional, weapons. Potential loopholes in the international prohibitions against chemical and biological warfare are presented together with practical, politically feasible and technically useful policy options.

Chemical and biological substances may be used to incapacitate or influence human behaviour and can be used in both wars and other conflict situations, including for peacekeeping and some counterterrorism operations. The possible applications of science and technology for developing such agents are also expanding. This Policy Paper strikes the right balance between scientific detail and reader-friendliness to inform both the specialist and the generalist on this emergent and complex issue.

For information on SIPRI’s other recent and forthcoming books, visit the SIPRI Publications website, books.sipri.org

Other recent publications by SIPRI authors

Peter Clevestig, ‘Las dimensiones económicas de las armas químicas y biológicas’ [The economic dimensions of chemical and biological weapons], Economía Exterior, no. 47, December 2008. Read the article here

John Hart and Vitaly Fedchenko, ‘WMD inspection and verification regimes: political and technical challenges’; Ian Anthony, ‘The role of the European Union in WMD nonproliferation’; and Bates Gill, ‘China’s changing approach to nonproliferation’; in eds Nathan E. Busch and Daniel H. Joyner, Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Future of International Nonproliferation Policy (University of Georgia Press: Athens, GA, 2009). Read more and order this book here

Robert Sutter and Chin-hao Huang, ‘China–Southeast Asia relations: economic concerns begin to hit home’, Comparative Connections, vol. 10, no. 4 (Jan. 2009), pp. 67–74. Read the article here