Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly

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"Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly", NAPSNet Weekly Report, June 21, 2012, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-weekly/nautilus-peace-and-security-weekly-8/

21 June 2012

The Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly Report presents articles and full length reports each week in six categories: Austral securitynuclear deterrenceenergy security, climate change adaptation, the DPRK, and governance and civil society. Our team of contributors carefully select items that highlight the links between these themes and the three regions in which our offices are found—North America, Northeast Asia, and the Austral-Asia region. Each week, one of our authors also provides a short blog that explores these inter-relationships.

CONTENTS

See this week’s blog from our DPRK contributor, Roger Cavazos.


DETERRENCE: Loose lips sink ships, Peter Hayes, NAPSNet Policy Forum (21 June 2012)

Republicans on the US House Armed Services amended the defense authorization bill on May 11 to require the Pentagon to consider US options to redeploy “non-strategic” nuclear weapons in the Asia-Pacific region, apparently with Korea in mind. On  June 4, Chung Mong-joon announced that South Korea should develop its own nuclear weapons to match North Korea’s nuclear threat.


DPRK: U.S., S.Korea, Japan set for joint drill, Yomiuri Shimbun  (15 June 2012)

North Korea continues driving the allies in Northeast Asia closer. The joint statement after the 2+2 meeting of Secretaries of State and Defense and Korean counterparts last week emphasized alliance strength. This week is the 62nd anniversary of the Korean War.  Korea, U.S. and Japan navies will jointly drill south of Korea. A carrier strike group, ~7,500 sailors and ~ 9 hulls, will call in Busan – and are therefore not far away.


Check out this week’s DPRK blog: Thank You DPRK: Driving the U.S. and China Together.


CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Cities and flooding: A guide to integrated urban flood risk management for the 21st century, Abhas K Jha, Robin Bloch and Jessica Lamond, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ The World Bank (2012) [PDF, 13.7 MB]

Urban flooding is a serious and growing development challenge. Against the backdrop of demographic growth, urbanization trends and climate changes, the causes of floods are shifting and their impacts are accelerating. This large and evolving challenge means that far more needs to be done by policy makers to better understand and more effectively manage existing and future risks.


ENERGY SECURITY: How well will the IAEA be able to safeguard more nuclear materials in more states?, Paper prepared for conference on “Reassessing the Assumptions Driving Our Current Nuclear Nonproliferation Policies,” Patrick Roberts, Non-proliferation Policy Education Center (2012 May 20-21)

The IAEA, the UN body tasked with multi-lateral agreements on nuclear security, is considerably underfunded, even as its responsibilities grow. Ironically, the UN is calling for a “new energy future” at the Rio+20 celebrations – with a price tag of nearly a trillion US$ for “Sustainable Energy for All,” plus another trillion US$ or so for investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy. On display – impressive capacities to fool and be fooled.


GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Cities lead effort to curb climate change as nations lag, Christopher Martin, Bloomberg News (20 June 2012)

Mayors from 58 of the world’s largest cities pledged to continue to invest in renewable power, reduce methane emission levels and continue intercity cooperation at the C40 group meeting held in advance of this week’s Rio+20 conference. Cities aim to cut emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon is promoting a policy to increase energy savings to 2 million TOE by 2014, enough to eliminate the need for one nuclear reactor.


CLIMATE CHANGE AND SECURITY: Indonesia’s forests of corruption, Michael Bachelard, Sydney Morning Herald (10 June 2012)

“The forestry sector,” said Chandra Hamzah, the deputy chairman of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission, in 2010, “is a source of unlimited corruption.” On climate change, Indonesia is being pulled in two directions. Politically it appears serious about the task of reducing its emissions, 60 to 80 per cent of which are due to deforestation. But economically, the drivers of deforestation have not changed. There is big foreign cash to be earned as a coal and timber producer and the world’s largest exporter of palm oil.


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