Military Balance 2009

The Internat'l Institute for Strategic Studies - a Great Britain based think tank unleashed their annual comprehensive report on the world's armed forces today - and it has a bit of a bombshell.

Namely that Iran will be able to create at least one nuclear weapon this year.

The Military Balance 2009 contains region-by-region analysis of the major military and economic developments affecting defence and security policies and the trade in weapons and other military equipment. Comprehensive tables detail major military training activities, UN and non-UN deployments, and surrender sweet sweet data on key equipment holdings and defence economics, as well as defence-expenditure trends over a 10 year period.

The Military Balance 2009 also contains essays on defence industries in the Asia-Pacific region and UN peacekeeping. There is a further short essay noting trends in non-state activity, which complements the table of selected non-state groups.

The Military Balance 2009 also includes an updated Chart of Conflict, a wallchart showing current conflicts around the world, (perfect for the office or den) with selected supporting tables.

This year’s Military Balance examines key military issues including conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq; the debate within NATO over actually engaging, killing and/or capturing Taliban and AQ fanboys in Afghanistan;

"As NATO marks its 60th anniversary in 2009, tensions remain over
burden-sharing in Afghanistan. Although the Alliance has been able to secure increased commitments from its members during 2008, there is a growing need for Allies to collectively improve their efforts to define mission objectives, and criteria for success."

Meanwhile, 2008 also forced NATO to re-examine its expansion programme in the light of the sharp conflict between Russia and aspirant-member Georgia. The conflict highlighted a number of capability gaps among the Russian forces deployed to Georgia, as well as obvious strengths."

MB09 features an update on EU military operations; the conflict between Russia and Georgia; continuing conflicts in Africa; and the increased attention given by the international community to piracy off the Horn of Africa.

The Military Balance 2009 is available to order.

Art - "Military Balance 2009"