Research Briefing
The Defence Reform Bill announced during the Queen’s Speech 2013 will increase the size and role of the Reserve Forces. This note provides a short overview of the changes proposed to the Reserve Forces.
Research Briefing
The Defence Reform Bill will allow the Government to proceed with its plans to change the way defence equipment is procured.
Research Briefing
A brief summary of the new Israeli government and of the domestic and international issues facing it.
Research Briefing
The latest development from the oil-rich nation of United Arab Emirates
Research Briefing
The Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy will no longer provide a Search and Rescue Helicopter service in the UK after March 2016. A wholly civilian service run by Bristow Helicopters Ltd and managed by the Department for Transport will provide the Search and Rescue Helicopter capability for the UK.
Research Briefing
On 11 March 2013 in London the Queen signed the Commonwealth Charter. However, while the UK Government has welcomed it, there has been considerable criticism of the Charter on the grounds that it is not legally binding and cannot be effectively enforced. In September 2012 three Commonwealth Nobel Laureates, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nadine Gordimer and Wole Soyinka had said that a weak and ineffective Charter should not be endorsed. LGBT rights campaigners have also been vocal in signalling disappointment with the final text.
Research Briefing
Sunni fundamentalist groups are now thought by some to be the most important force in the Syrian rebellion.
Research Briefing
Tensions between Japan and China in connection with long-standing rival claims to sovereignty over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea have deepened since September 2012, with nationalist sentiment being stirred up in both countries. Taiwan also claims the islands. Japan, which administers the islands, does not accept that there is a dispute to be resolved. China insists that there is. This note briefly summarizes the competing claims and reviews developments over the last six months or so.
Research Briefing
This note provides a summary of the main changes to the defence estate that have been announced since the Army basing review was published in March 2013. Further decisions on aspects of the defence estate, including the training estate and the Reserves estate are expected to be made over the course of 2013. This note will be updated as and when those plans are announced.
Research Briefing
This note looks at the politics and economics in Venezuela under President Hugo Chávez, his legacy and future prospects for Venezuela.
Research Briefing
The outcome of the Army Basing Review was announced on 5 March 2013. This note summarises the main changes envisaged under those plans and where they differ from the previous basing decisions announced in 2011.
Research Briefing
Both the UK and France have called for the rebel forces in Syria to be armed but there is an EU arms embargo on the country.
Research Briefing
In December 2012, at the African National Congress (ANC) conference in Mangaung, President Jacob Zuma was re-elected leader of the party. This makes it virtually inevitable that he will be South Africa’s next President following national elections next year, which the ANC remain overwhelming favourites to win comfortably. Nonetheless, all is far from entirely rosy for Zuma and the ANC. In recent years it has been deeply divided over economic policy, damaged by mounting official corruption and faced with growing discontent from below over its alleged failure to deliver better public services.
Research Briefing
Many British people have alleged that they were mis-sold property in Cyprus, and as a result cannot afford their mortgage payments, or are seeing their properties sold to pay off their developers' debts.
Research Briefing
This note looks at independence referendums around the world and referendums on other constitutional arrangements short of full independence in the 20th and 21st centuries.
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