The Adelphi series is The International Institute for Strategic Studies' flagship contribution to policy-relevant, original academic research.
Six books are published each year. They provide rigorous analysis of contemporary strategic and defence topics that is useful to politicians and diplomats, as well as academic researchers, foreign-affairs analysts, defence commentators and journalists.
By Cyrus Hodes, Mark Sedra
March 31, 2008
By the middle of 2007, Afghans had become increasingly disillusioned with a state-building process that had failed to deliver the peace dividend that they were promised. For many Afghans, the most noticeable change in their lives since the fall of the Taliban has been an acute deterioration in ...
By Jeremy Stocker
May 13, 2013
In December 2003 the British government announced that within a few years it would need to take decisions about the future of Britain's strategic nuclear deterrent. Exactly three years later, its plans were revealed in a White Paper. The existing Trident system is to be given a life-extension, ...
By Raimo Väyrynen, David Cortright
June 22, 2010
Rarely in the atomic age have hopes been raised as high as they are now for genuine progress toward disarmament. The new receptivity reflected in the policy declarations of many governments was sparked by a wave of private initiatives led by former senior policy leaders in many countries. This ...
By Paul T. Mitchell
March 14, 2007
Since its emergence in 1998, the concept of Network Centric Warfare (NCW) has become a central driver behind America’s military ‘transformation’ and seems to offer the possibility of true integration between multinational military formations. Even though NCW, or variations on its themes, has been ...
By Robert L. Carlin, Joel Wit
December 22, 2010
In the past, foreign policy and security concerns have trumped any efforts to reform the North Korean economy. Today, the linkage between security and economic policies is being reconsidered as part of a larger debate in the North Korean leadership that has already transformed the country in ...
By David S. McDonough
March 14, 2007
In 2002 the Bush administration completed a Nuclear Posture Review that introduced a ‘new triad’ based on offensive-strike systems, defences and a revitalized defence infrastructure. The new triad is designed for a new strategic threat environment, characterized not by a long-standing nuclear ...
By Christian LeMiere
January 31, 2013
Iraq recovered its full sovereignty at the end of 2011, with the departure of all US military forces. The 2003 invasion was undertaken to dismantle a regime that had long threatened its own population and regional peace, as well as to establish a stable, democratic state in the heart of the Middle ...
By Evelyn Goh
August 09, 2007
In Southeast Asia, China’s growing economic and political strength has been accompanied by adept diplomacy and active promotion of regional cooperation, institutions and integration. Southeast Asian states and China engage in ‘strategic regionalism’: they seek regional membership for regime ...
By Christian Enemark
July 30, 2009
From 2003 to 2008, the Sunni Arab insurgency in Iraq posed a key challenge to political stability in the country and to Coalition objectives there. This paper explains the onset, composition and evolution of this insurgency. It begins by addressing both its immediate and deeper sociopolitical ...
By Mark Fitzpatrick
May 01, 2009
This paper explains how Iran developed its nuclear programme to the point where it threatens to achieve a weapons capability within a short time frame, and analyses Western policy responses aimed at forestalling that capability. Key questions are addressed: will the world have to accept an Iranian ...
By Geoffrey Till
December 27, 2012
The navies of China, India and to a lesser extent Japan are expanding rapidly at present. This has the potential to alter the US-dominated naval balance in Asia-Pacific but it also raises a question: are the region’s powers involved in a naval arms race? Naval development is and always has been a ...
By Audrey Kurth Cronin
June 06, 2008
Like all other terrorist movements, al-Qaeda will end. While it has traits that exploit and reflect the current international context, it is not utterly without precedent: some aspects of al-Qaeda are unusual, but many are not. Terrorist groups end according to recognisable patterns that have ...