In The Military Balance 2014, launched on 5 February, opening essays examine developments in armed conflict and the world of military technology and doctrine. This year§s "Conflict analysis and conflict trends" essay considers lessons learnt from the ten years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the role of state and non-state adversaries, commonalities and continuities between modern conflicts, and possible capability requirements. This is followed by "Unmanned systems: capabilities develop amid continuing policy questions". In this piece, the development and deployment of land, maritime and aerospace systems are discussed, as well as the problems of contested airspace, and the future for unmanned systems as a result of developments in autonomous technology. Finally, an essay on "Measuring cyber capability" discusses factors by which we might begin to measure states§ abilities to operate in the cyber domain, and possible indicators of cyber warfare capability. -- Publisher description.

Includes index. Title of accompanying poster : The 2014 Chart of Conflict.

Part One: Capabilities, Trends and Economics. Chapter One: Conflict analysis and conflict trends --- Chapter Two: Comparative defence statistics --- Chapter Three: North America --- Chapter Four: Europe --- Chapter Five: Russia and Eurasia --- Chapter Six: Asia --- Chapter Seven: Middle East and North Africa --- Chapter Eight: Latin America and the Caribbean --- Chapter Nine: Sub-Saharan Africa --- Chapter Ten: Country comparisons - commitments, force levels and economics ---- Part Two: Reference.