[KS] North Korean security challenges: a net assessment (New book just out from IISS)

[Afostercarter at aol.com]

22 July 2011 

Dear  friends and colleagues, 

North  Korean security challenges: a net assessment (IISS) 

I’d  like to apprise those who follow North Korea of a major new book – 
published  yesterday – from the International Institute for Strategic Studies 
(IISS) in  their Strategic Dossier series: North Korean security challenges: 
a net assessment.  
More  detail and links can be found at: 
_http://www.iiss.org/publications/strategic-dossiers/north-korean-security-challenges-a-net-assessment/_ 
(http://www.iiss.org/publications/strategic-dossiers/north-korean-security-challeng
es-a-net-assessment/)  * 
This  new study both updates and significantly expands IISS’s earlier 
Dossier: North Korea's Weapons Programmes: A Net  Assessment, published in 2004. 
Almost twice as long as its predecessor,  the new Dossier like the old one 
offers the most comprehensive open-source  stock-taking of the DPRK’s 
military capacities. As before, separate chapters are  devoted to nuclear arms; 
chemical and biological weapons (CBW); ballistic  missiles; the conventional 
military balance on the peninsula; and a history of  disarmament diplomacy.   
There  are also four wholly new chapters, of which only one – on Pyongyang’
s  proliferation – is primarily about weapons. Two more cover domestic 
political  dynamics and non-military security challenges: state crime, 
abductions,  refugees, human rights. The final chapter looks at the prospects for and 
 challenges of Korean reunification, among other potential scenarios.   
In sum,  this substantial work should interest not only those focused on 
security in the  narrow sense, but also anyone with an interest in North Korea’
s dynamics and  future prospects. 
This Dossier is IISS’s second  weighty contribution to DPRK studies in as 
many months. In May their Adelphi  series published Jonathan Pollack’s new 
book No Exit: North Korea, Nuclear Weapons and  International Security. See 
_http://www.iiss.org/publications/adelphi-papers/adelphis-2011/north-korea-nucl
ear-weapons-and-international-security/_ 
(http://www.iiss.org/publications/adelphi-papers/adelphis-2011/north-korea-nuclear-weapons-and-international-se
curity/)  
Kind  regards, and happy weekends, 
Aidan  FC 
Aidan  Foster-Carter 
Honorary Senior  Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds 
University, UK   
Flat 1, 40 Magdalen  Road, Exeter, Devon, EX2 4TE, England, UK 
T: (+44, no 0)  07970 741307 (mobile);   01392 257753 (home)     Skype: 
Aidan.Foster.Carter 
E: _afostercarter at aol.com_ (mailto:afostercarter at aol.com) ,  
_afostercarter at yahoo.com_ (mailto:afostercarter at yahoo.com)    W: _www.aidanfc.net_ 
(http://www.aidanfc.net/)     Twitter:  @fcaidan 
* IISS policy is not to name contributors, but I must  declare an interest 
here as but one of many hands. 
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