SIPRI Policy Papers

This report updates and expands on previous SIPRI studies on transparency in military expenditure by focusing on sub-Saharan Africa.

Russia increasingly focuses on developing the Russian Arctic as a way to strengthen its economic base. However, long-term trends in energy markets and the recent conflict in Ukraine (and the sanctions from the United States and the European Union that followed it) have placed restrictions on Western companies’ involvement in energy projects in the region. This has motivated Russia to look more closely at Asia—as a source of potential investors and technology partners as well as a key consumer market.

In 2012 the United Nations will convene a conference to negotiate an arms trade treaty (ATT). The resulting treaty is expected to legally obligate states to provide information on their arms transfers and transfer control systems. This Policy Paper provides the first comprehensive overview of existing UN instruments that require states to report on their arms transfers, transfer controls and enforcement measures. It outlines the types of information required to assess compliance with an ATT, extracts lessons learned from the existing instruments and identifies areas of duplication.

Even while Russia was strengthening its military and civil emergency forces in the Arctic over the past few years as part of a wider programme of military modernization, many experts and policymakers continued to view the region as a benign security environment. However, against the background of the conflict in Ukraine and growing tensions between Russia and the West, Russia’s military build-up in the Arctic has become a trigger for renewed concern regarding the potential militarization of the region.

Europe does not have a common security system that is capable of preventing conflicts and violence. Despite the trend towards tighter controls from individual states, the cooperative approach to security in Europe remains the most convincing model in light of the increased integration and internationalization of the world. This Policy Paper focuses on the role of parliamentarians in reassessing and building security in Europe.

Russia has identified the Arctic as both a strategic priority and a resource base for the 21st century. Against a backdrop of expectations about the opportunities available in the Arctic, Russia has primarily pursued a policy focused on strengthening national sovereignty in the region. However, despite the considerable attention given to the development of the Arctic by the Russian leadership, progress in achieving Russia's goals in the Arctic has been slow.

Non-interference is one of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence that is core to China’s foreign policy and to its self-image. But in a pragmatic and incremental adaptation to its globalizing economic and security interests, Chinese foreign policy is slowly shifting away from a strict interpretation of this principle. However, the debate on China’s overseas interests and noninterference is far from over.

In the period between North Korea’s second and third nuclear tests, and in the midst of the succession to Kim Jong Il, China’s economic relations with North Korea expanded at an unprecedented pace. It is a widely held view in China that this increase in economic exchanges can help make non-proliferation measures more effective and revive the disarmament process.

Little attention has been paid to the limited, but not negligible, nuclear proliferation risks associated with the mining of uranium. As the global market for uranium changes and as more African countries become uranium suppliers, there is a need for them to be vigilant of those risks.