The Australia-Japan Foundation has awarded the Nautilus Institute a grant to host two public symposiums in Melbourne and Canberra to deepen security cooperation between Japan and Australia. The symposiums will identify the key dynamics of the strategic relationship, identify next steps in two important areas of shared interest (extended nuclear deterrence and nuclear disarmament), analyze the origins and consequences of non-security issues disruptive to the relationship and develop means of containing them, and strengthen the civil society underpinnings of the developing bilateral security community.

This follows on Nautilus Institute's Australia-Japan Civil Society Cooperation for Nuclear Disarmament Project, funded by the Australia-Japan Foundation, and the Strong connections: Australia-Korea Strategic Futures and Strengthened Civil Society Policy Connections Project, funded by the Australia-Korea Foundation.

Pressure and Engagement Necessary to Address DPRK Nuclear Program

Peter Hayes, Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute, discussed the DPRK nuclear program in the Joongang Ilbo noting, “we need a pincer movement. You need cooperation and engagement, while you also use power to constrain and pressure. One without the other is meaningless, and at the moment, the ratio is wrong. We are unbalanced. We have very little cooperation and engagement, and we have a great deal of pressure and coercion, and we know that is not going to work.”

[In-depth interview] Engagement with the North is best

 “북한 집었다 놓았다 ‘집게 전략’ 효과적”

Donald P. Gregg, National Security Adviser to Vice President George H. W. Bush from 1982 to 1988, Ambassador to Korea from 1989 to 1993, and Chairman Emeritus of the Korea Society, writes, “Mr. Carter, known for his independence and his willingness to enter into controversy, may well have come back with more than Mr. Gomes. The insights he will have picked up from his talks with top leaders other than Kim Jong-il should coincide with an emerging realization within the Obama administration that its current stance toward the North, featuring sanctions and hostility, is having little positive impact, and that a return to some form of dialogue with Pyongyang needs to be considered… There also is a growing realization in Washington that alienating China is an inordinately high price to pay for putting pressure on Pyongyang. So the White House, in choosing to send Mr. Carter at this time, may deserve credit for seeking to change a hostile stance toward North Korea into a more effective policy.”

Go to the report.

NAPSNet Policy Forum Article: Sustainable Security in the Korean  Peninsula: 

Envisioned Northeast Asia Biodiversity Corridor

This article by Peter Hayes, Executive Director of the Nautilus Institute, was delivered at the 2010 DMZ Peace Congress in Seoul on August 12-14, 2010. The paper reflects on how indirect and incremental social and political engagement may be a necessary attribute of strategies that build ecological security in a conflict zone. It concludes by contrasting this approach to the characteristics of what the author terms “nuclear insecurity” and suggests that a Northeast Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone may be a form of nuclear insecurity that relies less on balances of terror, and thereby is more conducive to the creation of sustainable security in this region. 

Go to the report.

Photo by ISAFMedia on Flickr.com

A roadside bomb has seriously wounded two more Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, as the prospect of a fragile minority government at home casts a shadow over support for the troop deployment. The attack in the Baluchi Valley in Oruzgan province came after another explosion in the area on the same day killed two Australian soldiers and wounded two. Greens leader Bob Brown has called for an urgent debate in Parliament on Australia's future role in the conflict.

• Casualties – ADF, Australia in Afghanistan, Nautilus Institute

ADAPTNet: Victoria’s Bushfire Royal Commission Final Report

The report inquires into and reports on the causes and circumstances of the 2009 Victorian bushfires. It looks at what lessons can be learnt from these experiences - how we can reduce the risk and impacts of fire and minimize fire-related loss of life in future. The report includes 67 recommendations to government.

Victoria's Bushfire Royal Commission Final Report, 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, Australia, July 2010