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  • Neither MAD Nor Even: Looking Beyond Trump’s Missile Defense Review

    Neither MAD Nor Even: Looking Beyond Trump’s Missile Defense Review

    What has been overlooked in discussions of the Missile Defense Review so far is whether we are still asking the right questions about the role that missile defence plays in reducing nuclear dangers. Read more

  • ORG Explains #5: NATO Nuclear Sharing

    ORG Explains #5: NATO Nuclear Sharing

    This primer explains the role US-owned B61 tactical nuclear weapons play in Europe as part of NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangements. It considers these weapons in terms of their economic, political, diplomatic and security significance, including internal NATO dynamics, US-Russia relations and international arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament regimes. Read more

  • The Kim/Trump Summit and Implications for Iran

    The Kim/Trump Summit and Implications for Iran

    Trump’s esoteric approach to diplomacy produced surprising outcomes at his June summit with Kim Jong-Un in Singapore. In response, Iranian hardliners have made a surprising move on ballistic missiles, potentially signalling that they fancy their chances in bilateral negotiations with the great American deal-maker. Read more

  • Neither MAD Nor Even: Looking Beyond Trump’s Missile Defense Review
  • ORG Explains #5: NATO Nuclear Sharing
  • The Kim/Trump Summit and Implications for Iran
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  1. Research & analysis
  2. Defence
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Nuclear weapons

Neither MAD Nor Even: Looking Beyond Trump’s Missile Defense Review

Neither MAD Nor Even: Looking Beyond Trump’s Missile Defense Review

What has been overlooked in discussions of the Missile Defense Review so far is whether we are still asking the right questions about the role that missile defence plays in reducing nuclear dangers. Read more

Published: 26th February, 2019

Updated: 16th May, 2019

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Sustainable Security Programme
  • Nuclear weapons
ORG Explains #5: NATO Nuclear Sharing

ORG Explains #5: NATO Nuclear Sharing

This primer explains the role US-owned B61 tactical nuclear weapons play in Europe as part of NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangements. It considers these weapons in terms of their economic, political, diplomatic and security significance, including internal NATO dynamics, US-Russia relations and international arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament regimes. Read more

Published: 27th June, 2018

Updated: 19th June, 2019

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • ORG Explains
  • Sustainable Security Programme
  • Europe and NATO
  • Nuclear weapons
The Kim/Trump Summit and Implications for Iran

The Kim/Trump Summit and Implications for Iran

Trump’s esoteric approach to diplomacy produced surprising outcomes at his June summit with Kim Jong-Un in Singapore. In response, Iranian hardliners have made a surprising move on ballistic missiles, potentially signalling that they fancy their chances in bilateral negotiations with the great American deal-maker. Read more

Published: 26th June, 2018

Updated: 27th June, 2018

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Sustainable Security Programme
  • Diplomacy
  • Nuclear weapons
Trump and Bolton: Making a Greater American Century?

Trump and Bolton: Making a Greater American Century?

The last month has seen dramatic upheavals among the key personnel within the Trump administration tasked with advising the president on foreign affairs and national security policy. Trump has sought a wider range of policy options on Iran and North Korea and he is now likely to get them from a more hawkish team, increasing the possibility of new US regime change operations. This briefing compares current events to the rise of the Neo-Conservative agenda in 1997-2002. Read more

Published: 28th March, 2018

Updated: 1st June, 2018

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Policy and Doctrine
  • Sustainable Security Programme
  • Nuclear weapons
Nuclear Posture Review: Sliding Towards Nuclear War?

Nuclear Posture Review: Sliding Towards Nuclear War?

North Korea and Russia may be the focus of contemporary Western fears of imminent nuclear-armed conflict but development and deployment of “useable” nuclear weapons has been a constant throughout the atomic age and by all nuclear-armed states. Read more

Published: 31st January, 2018

Updated: 29th October, 2020

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Policy and Doctrine
  • Sustainable Security Programme
  • Nuclear weapons
North Korea and the Issue of Nuclear Culture

North Korea and the Issue of Nuclear Culture

This briefing explores the persistence of ‘nuclear culture’, or the idea that a nuclear war can be survived and won. Despite the prevalence of talk of strategic deterrence and mutually assured destruction, the resurgence of nuclear culture is driving an interest in ‘usable’ nuclear weapons in several countries. Read more

Published: 31st October, 2017

Updated: 9th December, 2019

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Asia
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Nuclear weapons
Limited Nuclear Wars – Myth and Reality

Limited Nuclear Wars – Myth and Reality

The dramatic recent escalation of rhetoric and military posturing on the Korean peninsula has reawakened suggestions that the United States could use relatively low-yield nuclear weapons in a limited or tactical operation to neutralise North Korea. Indeed, both the idea of nuclear ‘first strike’ and their ‘flexible’ usage on and off the ‘battlefield’ are deeply rooted in historic and current NATO and UK doctrine on nuclear weapons. Read more

Published: 29th August, 2017

Updated: 1st June, 2018

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Nuclear weapons
What does North Korea want?

What does North Korea want?

US-led war games may look like a defensive manoeuver to us, but from North Korea‘s perspective they do not look the same. Read more

Published: 4th August, 2017

Updated: 29th October, 2020

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Asia
  • Nuclear weapons
After Mosul: Islamic State’s Asian and African Future

After Mosul: Islamic State’s Asian and African Future

After three years and over 22,000 air strikes, the Levantine ‘Caliphate’ manifestation of the Islamic State seems destined for destruction in 2017. Yet the revolt of radicalised Sunni Arabs is unlikely to abate in Iraq or Syria, with the battlefield shifting to localised guerrilla insurgency, increasing attacks within western states, and the opening of new fronts in the global margins, not least Asia and Africa. Read more

Published: 28th June, 2017

Updated: 1st June, 2018

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Operations
  • Middle East
  • Nuclear weapons
Trump, North Korea and the Risk of War

Trump, North Korea and the Risk of War

April has seen the inexperienced Trump Administration further escalate US military activities from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan and Yemen. Read more

Published: 28th April, 2017

Updated: 5th June, 2018

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Asia
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Nuclear weapons
Sustainable Security in the Trump Era

Sustainable Security in the Trump Era

Is the Trump era likely to make a major difference to the global security outlook or is it more likely that realities of international relations will limit the capacity for the change Trump seeks? Read more

Published: 3rd April, 2017

Updated: 1st June, 2018

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Middle East
  • Nuclear weapons
President Trump: Successor to the Nuclear Throne

President Trump: Successor to the Nuclear Throne

In order to consider what we can expect from a Trump presidency, as well as noting whom Trump empowers as members of his cabinet and those whom he draws on for advice, it is vital to study the track record of recent administrations and appreciate the powers Trump will inherit. In doing so this briefing focuses on the question of what a Trump presidency might mean for international relations with a focus on nuclear arms, including doctrine and disarmament. Read more

Published: 30th November, 2016

Updated: 1st June, 2018

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Nuclear weapons
Open Letter to the Prime Minister on Trident Replacement Debate

Open Letter to the Prime Minister on Trident Replacement Debate

Oxford Research Group has today sent a letter to the new Prime Minister, signed by former military commanders, senior academic, diplomatic and political figures and other leading NGOs, calling on her to delay any decision on replacing the UK’s nuclear weapons system until after parliament’s summer recess. Read more

Published: 15th July, 2016

Updated: 4th June, 2018

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Sustainable Security Programme
  • Nuclear weapons
The UK’s Nuclear Future: Options between Rearmament and Disarmament

The UK’s Nuclear Future: Options between Rearmament and Disarmament

This briefing considers whether the UK’s future as a nuclear weapons state is under threat over three parts. The first considers the current status of plans to replace the UK’s nuclear weapons system, the second reviews the Labour party’s troubles in formulating a policy on this subject, while the third investigates the spectrum of options, from full replacement to full disarmament, currently available to the UK. Read more

Published: 31st March, 2016

Updated: 25th October, 2020

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Sustainable Security Programme
  • Nuclear weapons
The Politics of British Nuclear Disarmament

The Politics of British Nuclear Disarmament

The post-election debate on replacing the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system is welcome and necessary but so far has not dealt with the underlying political meaning of the UK being a nuclear weapon state (NWS) and what it would mean for it to disarm. Read more

Published: 15th October, 2015

Updated: 1st June, 2018

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Sustainable Security Programme
  • Nuclear weapons
Beyond Deterrence: Rethinking UK Security Doctrine

Beyond Deterrence: Rethinking UK Security Doctrine

This article by ORG’s founder and patron, Scilla Elworthy, is based on a keynote address given to the “Making Deterrence work in the Twenty-first Century” forum held at Merton College, Oxford, 15 July 2015, hosted by the Ministry of Defence’s Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC) and the University of Oxford Changing Character of War Programme Read more

Published: 27th July, 2015

Updated: 6th June, 2018

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Policy and Doctrine
  • Peacebuilding
  • Nuclear weapons
The United States and Iran: A Complex Relationship

The United States and Iran: A Complex Relationship

With heavy involvement in the Iraqi Army’s attacks on Islamic State forces in Tikrit, Iran has greatly consolidated its influence in Iraq, especially as US air power has not so far been used in this attack. Read more

Published: 10th March, 2015

Updated: 4th June, 2018

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Middle East
  • Nuclear weapons
Iran’s Nuclear Deal: Just the Beginning, But a Historic One

Iran’s Nuclear Deal: Just the Beginning, But a Historic One

In the third round of nuclear talks, since Iranian President Hassan Rohani took office back in August 2013, and after five days of intense negotiations in Geneva, the E3+3 (comprising the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States, China and Russia) and Iran finally reached an agreement on the nuclear issue. Read more

Published: 28th November, 2013

Updated: 9th December, 2019

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Asia
  • Middle East
  • Nuclear weapons
A Sustainable Approach to Nuclear Zero: Breaking the Nuclear-Conventional Link

A Sustainable Approach to Nuclear Zero: Breaking the Nuclear-Conventional Link

While the momentum towards abolishing nuclear weapons is now at its highest since the end of the Cold War, a new Oxford Research Group (ORG) paper argues that insufficient attention is being given to the impact that advances in conventional weapons technologies will have on the push to ‘nuclear zero’. Read more

Published: 5th October, 2013

Updated: 1st June, 2018

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Sustainable Security Programme
  • Nuclear weapons

North Korea: Taking into Account the View from Pyongyang

With rising tensions between North Korea and the United States, this month, Paul Rogers asks: what lies behind North Korea’s sense of insecurity and what is the impact of western policy since 9/11 on decision-making by North Korea’s leadership? Read more

Published: 30th April, 2013

Updated: 9th December, 2019

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Asia
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Nuclear weapons

Iran: The Significance of Fordo

The ongoing development work at the heavily protected Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment site near Qom in Iran is highly significant in changing the terms of the evolving crisis over the Iranian nuclear programme. Open source intelligence now suggests that Fordo is a core part of the Iranian post-attack recovery capability. This has major implications for policy formulation for the longer-term resolution of the crisis, as it could potentially change the diplomatic balance. Read more

Published: 30th September, 2012

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Middle East
  • Nuclear weapons

The Political Context of the Iran Crisis

Over the past three months a sense of impending crisis has developed over the risk of an Israeli military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. Read more

Published: 1st February, 2012

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Middle East
  • Nuclear weapons

The Strategic Defence Review – Rearguard Actions and Missing the Point

How does the recent Strategic Defence and Security Review measure up to Britain’s potential role in furthering the concept of sustainable security? Read more

Published: 1st November, 2010

Updated: 9th July, 2018

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Nuclear weapons

Progress in Part

The early part of April saw some valuable progress on nuclear weapons issues but, while this was a welcome change from recent years, developments in Afghanistan threatened to lead to renewed concerns over stability in that country. Read more

Published: 9th April, 2010

Author: Alasdair McKay

Related topics:
  • Paul Rogers' Briefings
  • Nuclear weapons
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Showing 10 of 25

Latest

  • Security in the DRC and Yemen: Military Conflict, Disease Outbreak and Containment

    Security in the DRC and Yemen: Military Conflict, Disease Outbreak and Containment

    This briefing examines the effect of military conflict on the response (and vice versa) to Ebola and COVID-19 in DRC and Yemen, respectively.

  • Mistrust, Misinformation and Community Engagement: Reflections on lessons from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Yemen

    Mistrust, Misinformation and Community Engagement: Reflections on lessons from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Yemen

    This briefing examines the mistrust, misinformation and community engagement during the Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks in the DRC and Yemen, respectively.

  • Women’s Experiences of Disease Outbreaks in Conflict: Reflections on lessons from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Yemen

    Women’s Experiences of Disease Outbreaks in Conflict: Reflections on lessons from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Yemen

    This briefing will explore the challenges facing women and girls in each of these contexts. It will first examine the response of the international community in the DRC, and identify key challenges to Congolese women.

  • Background Briefing - Military Conflict, Disease Outbreak and Containment: A Comparative Study of Yemen and DRC

    Background Briefing - Military Conflict, Disease Outbreak and Containment: A Comparative Study of Yemen and DRC

    This is the first briefing in a series released by the Oxford Research Group’s (ORG) Strategic Peacebuilding Programme. These briefings examine the lessons that can be drawn from the response to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and how they can be applied in the response to COVID-19 in Yemen.

Most read

  • The Role of Youth in Peacebuilding: Challenges and Opportunities

    The Role of Youth in Peacebuilding: Challenges and Opportunities

    Young people are frequently ‘othered’ in discussions about conflict. This is a dangerous practice as youths can play a very positive role aiding peacebuilding in societies recovering from conflict.

  • Making Bad Economies: The Poverty of Mexican Drug Cartels

    Making Bad Economies: The Poverty of Mexican Drug Cartels

    Some stories say that local economies benefit from cartels in Mexico. But research suggests that the areas most plagued by drug-related violence have seriously suffered economically.

  • ORG's Vision

    Oxford Research Group (ORG) is an independent organisation that has been influential for for nearly four decades in pioneering new, more strategic approaches to security and peacebuilding. Based in London since 2006, ORG continues to pursue cutting edge research and advocacy in the United Kingdom and abroad while managing innovative peacebuilding projects in several Middle Eastern countries.

  • Remote Warfare: Lessons Learned from Contemporary Theatres

    Remote Warfare: Lessons Learned from Contemporary Theatres

    This report is a first attempt to identify some of the factors that have helped or hindered the UK’s current approach to remote warfare.

  • Weavers of Peace: The Higaonon Tribe in the Philippines

    Weavers of Peace: The Higaonon Tribe in the Philippines

    The Higaonon, an indigenous tribe in Northern Mindanao in the southern Philippines, have preserved an ancient system of conflict resolution which has enabled them to be a truly peaceful community. However, there is a need to ensure that this knowledge is not lost in the future.

  • The Cyprus Problem: Why Solve a Comfortable Conflict?

    The Cyprus Problem: Why Solve a Comfortable Conflict?

    Several diplomatic efforts have been made both domestically and internationally to enhance peaceful unity since the start of the Cyprus Problem. Despite the shortcomings of past efforts, it is still desirable not only to resolve the issue, but also to do so in a timely manner.

  • Why Does UN Humanitarian Intervention Remain Selective?

    Why Does UN Humanitarian Intervention Remain Selective?

    Over the past two decades, the United Nations Security Council has responded more strongly to some humanitarian crises than to others. This variation in Security Council action raises the important question of what factors motivate United Nations intervention.

  • The UK and UN Peace Operations: A Case for Greater Engagement

    The UK and UN Peace Operations: A Case for Greater Engagement

    This report supports an enhanced role for Britain in UN peace operations and sets out a case for greater engagement.

  • The Politics of Coltan: An Interview with Michael Nest

    The Politics of Coltan: An Interview with Michael Nest

    In this interview, Dr. Michael Nest discusses the political, environmental, ethical and social issues surrounding the mining of columbite–tantalite (coltan).

  • The Expanding Role of Chinese Peacekeeping in Africa

    The Expanding Role of Chinese Peacekeeping in Africa

    China's increased involvement in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping in Africa reflects a broader trend of the country taking a more proactive approach to foreign policy.

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Accoutability Africa Al-Shabaab AMISOM Peacebuilding Peacekeeping Responsibility to Protect Somalia Special Forces Special Forces oversight Special Operations Forces Transparency UNISOM Yemen

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