Research reports

The security environment of South East Asia is making more and more headlines and is increasing cause for concern. While old tensions and conflicts remain, China’s rise as a military power and its claims on the South China Sea not only add a new element of insecurity but also draw other powers into the mix. As this paper documents, states in South East Asia have significantly increased their military spending, their arms acquisitions and their arms inventories over the past decade. This growth has outpaced the global trend and the trends of most other regions.

This edited volume is the second of a series of three. They form part of a SIPRI project that explores regional perspectives and trends related to the impact that recent advances in artificial intelligence could have on nuclear weapons and doctrines, as well as on strategic stability and nuclear risk. This volume assembles the perspectives of 13 experts from East Asia, Russia and the United States on why and how machine learning and autonomy may become the focus of an arms race among nuclear-armed states.

On 14 January 2019, SIPRI held the expert workshop ‘Reassessing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats and their implications for East Asia’. A number of key takeaways generated from the workshop are set out in this volume.

This edited volume focuses on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on nuclear strategy. It explores regional perspectives and trends related to the impact that recent advances in AI could have nuclear weapons and doctrines, strategic stability and nuclear risk.

There seems to be a consensus that cyberattacks resulting in damage to critical infrastructure, such as hospitals and power grids, are a common threat. However, there is a great deal of disagreement on how to define the parameters of and escalation within this arena. In this volume, six experts from industry, government, academia and the legal sector delve deeper into several key target areas of cybersecurity and critical infrastructure—namely system integrity, the role of the private sector and legal frameworks.

The report ‘China–Russia Relations and Regional Dynamics: From Pivots to Peripheral Diplomacy’ contains case studies from 27 experts from 13 countries based on participation at a SIPRI workshop in January 2017.

This volume is based on the papers presented at an international conference, 'Russia and Asia-Pacific Security', which was convened at the International House of Japan in Tokyo, Japan, on 19–21 February 1999. The organization of the conference was initiated by SIPRI as part of its ongoing study of Russia's emerging security agenda. It was co-hosted by the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) and by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper as part of the activities commemorating Asahi Shimbun's 120-year anniversary.

This report summarizes the discussions and main findings of an international conference on The New Security Dimensions: Europe after the NATO and EU Enlargements, which was held at Frösundavik, Sweden, on 20–21 April 2001.