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.
The Iranian Nuclear Crisis: Avoiding worst-case outcomes
1st Edition
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 ...
Joining al-Qaeda: Jihadist Recruitment in Europe
1st Edition
By Peter R. Neumann
April 15, 2009
In Britain alone, several thousand young Muslims are thought to be part of violent extremist networks. How did they become involved? What are the mechanisms and dynamics through which European Muslims join al-Qaeda and groups inspired by al-Qaeda? This paper explains the processes whereby European...
European Military Crisis Management: Connecting Ambition and Reality
1st Edition
By Bastian Giegerich
February 06, 2009
International demand for military crisis-management missions continues to grow and demand for troops continues to outstrip supply. Like other Western democracies, European Union member states, because of their wealth, relative military competence and commitment to human rights, bear a particular ...
Perspectives on International Security: Speeches and Papers for the 50th Anniversary Year of the International Institute for Strategic Studies
1st Edition
Edited
By Alexander Nicoll, Tim Huxley
February 01, 2009
Like most years in the 50-year history of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), 2008 saw events that could have significant consequences for international relations and global balances of power. These included the election of Barack Obama as US president; the brief war in ...
Selective Security: War and the United Nations Security Council since 1945
1st Edition
By Adam Roberts, Dominik Zaum
January 02, 2009
In contrast to the common perception that the United Nations is, or should become, a system of collective security, this paper advances the proposition that the UN Security Council embodies a necessarily selective approach. Analysis of its record since 1945 suggests that the Council cannot address ...
Abolishing Nuclear Weapons
1st Edition
By George Perkovich, James Acton
December 31, 2008
Nuclear disarmament is firmly back on the international agenda. But almost all current thinking on the subject is focused on the process of reducing the number of weapons from thousands to hundreds. This rigorous analysis examines the challenges that exist to abolishing nuclear weapons completely, ...
Ending Terrorism: Lessons for defeating al-Qaeda
1st Edition
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 ...
Iran under Ahmadinejad: The Politics of Confrontation
1st Edition
By Ali M. Ansari
March 31, 2008
The election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the summer of 2005 thrust Iran into the international limelight in a way that few would have predicted. Robust, confrontational and given to bombastic rhetoric, Ahmadinejad has drawn condemnation from the West ...
Repairing the Damage: Possibilities and Limits of Transatlantic Consensus
1st Edition
By Dana H. Allin, Gilles Andréani, Gary Samore, Philippe Errera
March 31, 2008
The damage that has been done to the transatlantic alliance will not be repaired through grand architectural redesigns or radical new agendas. Instead, the transatlantic partners need to restore their consensus and cooperation on key security challenges with a limited agenda that reflects the ...
The Search for Security in Post-Taliban Afghanistan
1st Edition
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 ...
Military Reform and Democratisation: Turkish and Indonesian Experiences at the Turn of the Millennium
1st Edition
By Karabekir Akkoyunlu
November 15, 2007
There is no recipe for democratisation that can be readily applied to all countries. Every country presents unique factors that influence the fate of its democratic reforms, which must therefore be evaluated within their specific socio-political, cultural and historical context. Building on this ...
Contemporary Piracy and Maritime Terrorism: The Threat to International Security
1st Edition
By Martin N. Murphy
August 17, 2007
Do piracy and maritime terrorism, individually or together, present a threat to international security, and what relationship if any exists between them? Piracy may be a marginal problem in itself, but the connections between organised piracy and wider criminal networks and corruption on land make ...