RUSI Newsbrief

Monthly briefings on current issues in international defence and security and the military sciences.

Issue: Feb 2007, Vol. 27, No. 2

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Index

Spanish Foreign Policy: Zapatero in Freefall Whilst Zapatero now finds himself at least as unpopular as Blair in his own country, his domestic miscalculations pale beside his performance in the international arena, where he has developed an unenviable track record for backing the wrong horse on almost every issue of substance. His reputation as an international statesman is consequently in freefall.
Mark Joyce

Motives and Implications Behind China's ASAT Test China’s ASAT test, coupled with the revelation last year that a US satellite was ‘painted’ by a Chinese ground-based laser presents unsettling questions about China’s commitment to arms control, the ramifications of its rise as a major power, its military posture and foreign policy toward the United States and civil-military relations in China.
Kevin Pollpeter

The Need for British Trilateral Diplomacy: China, the EU and the Transatlantic Alliance In the UK, the European Union’s (EU) growing security ties with China receive relatively little attention. At the beginning of this year, however, China tested anti-satellite weaponry – a step that could, and from the British perspective should, provoke a sober consideration of the type of security relationship Europe should seek with the Chinese.
Tim Williams

The Battle for Iran Lies in the Arab World, Not the UN Security Council The heat may be rising on Ahmadinejad, but Tehran’s fundamental strategic position has not altered.
Mark Thomas

Drugs and Instability in Afghanistan Foreign nations’ assistance to Afghanistan precludes military operations that could be mounted against poppygrowers, drug producers, laboratories, smugglers, and the tribal/ethnic leaders and illegal militias who direct and protect the drug chain. There is not only a lack of consensus as to what action to take on the drug problem, but also a desire to place responsibility for action on the Afghan authorities or indeed any "other" nations or groups of nations.
Brian Cloughley

Shrapnel Country: An Alternative View of the 2007 Somali Intervention The multinational (that is, Ethiopian and US) intervention in Somalia has attracted a great deal of comment and criticism. However, despite its flaws, this intervention may yet have a positive impact. The current Somali experiment in power-sharing might just work.
Tapera Knox Chitiyo