Aerospace power is unquestionably defining the future strategic environment in a region whose vast distances place a premium on speed and agility that defy the laws of gravity.
This monograph addresses trends in China’s force modernization, strategy, and doctrine; development of conventional air force, air and missile defense, and long range precision strike modernization in Taiwan, Japan, India, and the United States; and options for countering the coercive utility of evolving PRC aerospace power, including cooperative threat reduction initiatives.
Topic:
Deterrence, Modernization, Strategic Stability, Military, and Aerospace
The Japan-NATO relationship holds greater potential than has been realized to date. A more ambitious, more formal, and more active program for Japan’s involvement with NATO could include enhanced intelligence and information sharing, planning and exercising, defense technical cooperation programs, consultations on strategic deterrence, and a joint Arctic security initiative. While obstacles to closer cooperation are foreseeable, a stronger and closer Japan-NATO relationship will have strategic benefits that resonate beyond the trans-Atlantic region.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Defense Policy, NATO, and Intelligence Sharing
The report examines the history, current status and future trends of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), the Bali Democracy Forum (BDF), and the Asia Pacific Democracy Partnership (APDP). The report also looks at the role that key countries in and around the region are playing in the development of these mechanisms, as well as in shaping the broader context for improved human rights and democratic governance.
Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI)
Abstract:
Economists have long analysed and helped us understand trade, why nations needed it to prosper, and what governments have to do to reap the gains while managing the costs. The many theories they have developed leave no doubt about the importance of trade to growth and economic development.
Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA)
Abstract:
Oil-dependent economies face two interrelated challenges in the management of oil resources: in the short run, there is the need to create a stable macroeconomic environment by delinking oil revenue earnings from public expenditures, while in the long run it is necessary to maintain a sustainable use of resources that ensures intergenerational equity. In most of the past three decades, Nigeria's management of oil resources was poor. The Nigerian economy has experienced significant macroeconomic volatility, driven largely by external terms-of-trade shocks, the country's large reliance on oil export earnings and poor policy choices in the management of oil revenues. By some measures, Nigeria ranked among the most volatile economies in the world for the period 19602000. Moreover, contrary to the received wisdom of increasing financial assets as a means of saving oil revenues, Nigeria had accrued significant domestic and foreign liabilities.
Topic:
Oil, Reform, Economy, Macroeconomics, and Fiscal Policy
Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA)
Abstract:
Fiscal responsibility acts have become increasingly common tools to enhance fiscal prudence and public expenditure transparency in many countries. In Nigeria, fiscal profligacy at the sub-national level has emerged as a major contributor to state corruption and macroeconomic instability.
Topic:
Corruption, Economics, Fiscal Policy, and Public Spending
Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA)
Abstract:
This paper examines the relationship between foreign aid and the real
exchange rate to determine how the competitiveness of the West African Economic
and Monetary Union (WAEMU) is affected by foreign aid.
Topic:
Economics, Foreign Aid, Exchange Rates, Competition, and West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU)
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) promises to lock in significant reductions in U.S. and Russian strategic arsenals by establishing lower ceilings on deployed weapons. The treaty’s verification provisions are means to that end--providing confidence that the sides are complying with those lower limits. Although the goal is to establish the high confidence levels maintained during the 15 years of the original START (1994-2009), the successor agreement will achieve that goal with more focused and up-to-date methods, including innovative verification provisions for deployed warhead ceilings. START’s multilayered limits and the elaborate verification measures flowing out of them were born of the Cold War. New START verification can be streamlined in accordance with the new, simplified limits and in response to post-Cold War realities. In assessing the new treaty, it is critical that verification provisions be judged by how well they fulfill their core function.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, Treaties and Agreements, and New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START)
Political Geography:
Russia, Eurasia, North America, and United States of America
The multilayered limits of the original Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and the elaborate verification measures flowing out of them were born of the difficult negotiations conducted in the waning days of the Soviet Union. The streamlined verification measures in the New START agreement, finalized in April 2010, are an appropriate response to the replacement treaty’s specific limits, which are designed to address post-Cold War realities. Combining proof-tested measures from 15 years of START implementation with new approaches to contemporary challenges, New START verification provisions are well suited to fulfill their core function. These provisions promise to permit the same high confidence in compliance achieved when the original START was in force, but will do so with more focused and up-to-date methods, including innovative verification provisions for monitoring deployed warhead ceilings.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Cold War, Nuclear Weapons, Treaties and Agreements, and New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START)
This report lays out the debates surrounding this essential treaty on issues such as verification, disarmament, the nuclear fuel cycle, and others. It includes a detailed pictorial timeline of the NPT, as well key treaty-related documents. The report is a useful guide for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of this cornerstone of the international nonproliferation regime.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, and Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT)