Adelphi series
About the Book Series
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.
Paper Tigers: China’s Nuclear Posture
1st Edition
By Jeffrey G. Lewis
December 23, 2014
China’s nuclear arsenal has long been an enigma. The arsenal has historically been small, based almost exclusively on land-based ballistic missiles, maintained at a low level of alert, and married to a no-first-use doctrine – all choices that would seem to invite attack in a crisis. Chinese leaders...
Beyond Air–Sea Battle: The Debate Over US Military Strategy in Asia
1st Edition
By Aaron L. Friedberg
June 05, 2014
This book presents the first comprehensive analysis of the debate over how the United States and its allies can counter China’s rapidly growing military power....
The Power of Currencies and Currencies of Power
1st Edition
By Christian LeMiere
May 30, 2014
Today, a Great Power’s arsenal extends well beyond the military, embracing soft power and also currency power. The dollar dominates the global economy, used in settling trade and investment deals but also held in reserve in vast quantities by central banks in case of a payments crisis. This demand ...
Arctic Opening: Insecurity And Opportunity
1st Edition
By Christian LeMiere, Jeffrey Mazo
April 09, 2014
The Arctic is opening. Global warming is leading to seasonal sea-ice retreat, which in turn opens hitherto impassable shipping routes and new areas for resource exploitation. Such changes are elevating the Arctic’s geostrategic value and stoking inter-state competition. The admission of five Asian ...
Food Security in Asia: Challenges, Policies and Implications
1st Edition
By Monika Barthwal-Datta
April 04, 2014
The spike in global food prices in 2007–08 not only led to riots on several continents; it also reawakened fears about the world’s future ability to feed itself, as growing populations place greater demands on agricultural systems operating in increasingly difficult environmental and climatic ...
Overcoming Pakistan’s Nuclear Dangers
1st Edition
By Mark Fitzpatrick
April 04, 2014
Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal – the fastest growing in the world – raises concerns on many grounds. Although far from the scale of the Cold War, South Asia is experiencing a strategic arms race. And the more weapons there are, the more potential for theft, sabotage and nuclear terrorism. Worries that ...
Political-Military Relations and the Stability of Arab Regimes
1st Edition
By Risa Brooks
September 13, 2013
Arab leaderships have been remarkably stable since the 1970s, particularly given the frequency of military coups in preceding years. Nonetheless, the military remains a key force in most Arab states and political leaders must maintain its loyalty if they are to retain office. Regimes have used a ...
Syria’s Uprising and the Fracturing of the Levant
1st Edition
By Emile Hokayem
June 06, 2013
As an upbeat and peaceful uprising quickly and brutally descended into a zero-sum civil war, Syria has crumbled from a regional player into an arena in which a multitude of local and foreign actors compete. The volatile regional fault lines that run through Syria have ruptured during this conflict,...
The United Kingdom and Nuclear Deterrence
1st Edition
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, ...
Regional Disorder: The South China Sea Disputes
1st Edition
By Sarah Raine
May 07, 2013
China‘s rise casts a vast and uncertain shadow over the regional balance of power in the Asia Pacific, and nowhere is this clearer than in the South China Sea. The significance of the fraught territorial disputes in this potentially resource-rich sea extends far beyond the small groupings of ...
Iraq – From War to a New Authoritarianism
1st Edition
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 ...
Asia’s Naval Expansion: An Arms Race in the Making?
1st Edition
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 ...