An alliance between Cyprus and Greece: assessing its partners’ relative security contribution

The issue that this paper tackles is the assessment of the relative security benefits that Cyprus and Greece derive in the context of their cooperation on defence matters. This form of cooperation, known as the ‘Integrated Defence Space Doctrine’, aims at defending their interests in the Aegean Sea and the broader East Mediterranean theatre. The paper relies heavily on earlier research on this topic, which deals with the Greek–Cypriot alliance facing an arms race against Turkey, and uses a coefficient especially designed to assess the optimal levels of security and the associated defence expenditure of the two allies. A comparison of the relative security coefficient values for the two allies suggests that the security benefit that Greece derives thanks to its alliance with Cyprus exceeds the corresponding Cypriot benefit by far. Given the importance assigned to human resources by this index, in conjunction with the demographic problems of Greece, this conclusion justifies the recent Greek defence policy revision, emphasizing quality, capital equipment and flexibility of forces. This revision aims at satisfying the security requirements of the alliance and the increasing demands of an arms race against Turkey.     

The Iraq Survey Group: From Weapons of Mass Destruction to Counterinsurgency

The discovery and elimination of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was a focal point of the Coalition's strategy and operations in the aftermath of Operation ‘Iraqi Freedom’. Despite the failure of the WMD mission to meet expectations after almost two years of intensive operations, the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) was able to integrate multinational and multi-agency forces to provide detailed intelligence regarding the history of Iraq's WMD programs and to assist in the battle against insurgents. The ISG's experience raises the question of whether a standing intelligence force could become a key component in future counterproliferation and counterterrorism efforts around the world.1 ¹The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Dept. of Defense, or the US Government. View all notes     

Book reviews

Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Global Order. By Harald Muller, David Fischer, and Wolfgang Kotter. SIPRI, Oxford, Oxford University Press, (1994) ISBN 0-19-329155-8, hardback, £25.00

Conventional Arms Control: Perspectives on Verification By Sergey Koulik and Richard Kokoski, SIPRI, Oxford University Press, (1994) ISBN 0-19-829149-3 and

Implementing the Comprehensive Test Ban: New Aspects of Definition, Organisation and Verification Edited by Eric Arnett, SIPRI Research Report No. 8, Oxford University Press, (1994) ISBN 019-829188-4

Military Technological Innovation and Stability in a Changing World: Politically assessing and Influencing Weapons Innovation and Military Research and Development, By Wim A. Smit, John Grin and Lev Voronkov (eds.) VU University Press, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1992), ISBN 90-5383-158-4.

Security, democracy, and development in US - Latin American relations. By Lars Schoultz, William C. Smith and Augusto Varas (eds.) Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick (USA), and London (UK) (1994). ISBN 1-56000-760-5