The IISS
The International Institute for Strategic Studies. They are real folks and they have a website. http://www.iiss.org/ On their About us page we read: The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is the world’s leading authority on political-military conflict. (???!!!) Political Military Conflict? Based in London, is both a limited company in UK law and a registered charity. Now folks I am just cutting and pasting right off their websites About Us page... any editing differences are to facilitate textual flow for this page (i.e. allow for my comments, hey its my site dont I have entitlement to comment???!! GRIN) The IISS was founded in 1958 in the UK by a number of individuals interested in how to maintain civilised international relations in the nuclear age. A number of Individuals would be if the diagram on the Threads page is correct the members of both the Round Table and The Bilderbergers both of these groups have a desire to see how the masses of society works, what makes them tick. But in the NUCLEAR AGE? You mean the emminent threat of Nuclear War or the Nuclear Deterrant Stand Off (Seriously who in their right mind would ever want to push the button?) In the beginning they were set up to study a way to deter use of nuclear stockpiles which benefitted the cold war. But in the 1980s and 90s they expanded. The scope of their influence and fields of study broadened and so did the staff and new locales I am guessing. Anyway they say this: Its mandate became to look at the problems of conflict, however caused, that might have an important military content. This gave fresh impetus to the Institute as it began to cover more comprehensively political and military issues in all continents. As this mandate developed, the Institute worked hard both to provide the best information and analysis on strategic trends, and to facilitate contacts between government leaders, business people and analysts that would lead to the development of better public policy in the fields of international relations and international security. Wait, say what? (Emphasis mine)They admit they are spying (studying) on every continent to see what is going on in real time moment by moment blow by blow in all the governments both large and small and in what activist groups and maybe even centers of learning?! WHAT? Seriously folks how does one "cover" comprehensively the issues on all the continents that deal with agressions... does one knock on the door of every embassy and government building and hidey hole wherein a dissadent might be and say "Top of the mornin to ya and how are we doing this fine day?!" NO! They SPY! I would hazard to say one company they did a lot of bussiness with is the NRO. So all those conspiratorialist things about cold war spying this was one of perhaps several companies or think tanks used to spy. Lets see what else they were/are doing. The IISS has unique convening power. It brings together annually defence ministers, foreign ministers and national security advisers in various formats privately, and more publicly, to discuss and shape international security policy. To assess the threat levels of fill in the blank and find ways to remove the threats in other words. The range of IISS publications, its convening power, and the Institute’s strong international policy perspective make the IISS a key actor in the global strategic debate. (A key player in the global strategic .. world wide positioned for maximum affect... debate... planning on how to unite the world and hand everyone a Coke.... Its the real thing yknow. Ok thats admittedly acerbic but this is just more of the whole unite the world and make them all place micey mice together. Bet a lot of their intel goes to the UN. Look at the funding http://www.iiss.org/about-us/funding/ whats GSR? they sure do spend a lot on it and receive nearly twice what they spend on it back again. Dialogues or funding talks. Interesting.
Finally
The IISS Mission Statement
Provide, from an international perspective, to IISS members and the wider public, through publications and other activities, the best possible objective information on military and political developments relevant to the prospects, course, and consequences of conflict having an important military dimension.
Provide, to the same audience, and by similar means, the best possible analysis of the policies to be pursued by various governments and other actors to further and maintain international peace and security.
Convene government ministers, officials, international civil servants, independent analysts, business people and journalists in different formats, public and private, to advance understanding of political, military, technological, business, economic, environmental, social, religious and other trends that could have an impact on the prospects, course and consequences of conflict having an important military dimension.
Maintain, nurture and continually enlarge an international network of influential and knowledgeable individuals, corporate entities, governments and other bodies to ensure the effective dissemination of information, analysis and understanding of the subjects and activities addressed by the Institute's work.
Aim, through these activities, to influence and promote the adoption of sound policies to maintain and further international peace and security and civilised international relations by all actors able to realise this aim.
The emphasis is not mine its theirs. In other words gather all the information and assessment they can about every aspect of evey nations social lives without their knowlege or consent and sift through it to put the right apin on it and .... tell eveyone else. This sounds so noble but in the end it is not nice at all. How they do what they do may be very enlightening. http://www.iiss.org/programmes/
Strategic Survey 2011
Strategic Survey 2011: The Annual Review of World Affairs was launched on 06 September 2011. This year, uprisings swept across the Arab world, Japan suffered a triple disaster and the world's most-wanted terrorist was killed. Strategic Survey 2011 contains a special chapter on the Arab Awakening.
Strategic Survey 2011: The Annual Review of World Affairs also includes a chronology of the year’s events, essays on important policy issues, and a Strategic Geography section providing vital data on key issues in map form. There's a link to read more.
Miltary Balance 2011
There is persuasive evidence that a global redistribution of military power is under way, according to The Military Balance 2011. The US and other Western powers are losing their monopoly in key areas of defence technology, including stealth aircraft, unmanned systems and cyber warfare.
The Military Balance is the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ annual assessment of the military capabilities and defence economics of 170 countries world-wide. It is an essential resource for those involved in security policymaking, analysis and research.
What do they know and what are they telling those who rule over us? By the way in this technological age they can manipulate the data to say whatever they want it to say.
Do we need to see more?