- DETERRENCE: Deterrence, Kim Jong Un’s Nuclear Doctrine and Strategy: What Everyone Needs to Know
- DPRK: North Korea’s cyber warfare and challenges for the U.S.-ROK alliance
- GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Gay rights opponents block hearing in Seoul
- CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Climate Change and the City: Building Capacity for Urban Adaptation
- CLIMATE CHANGE AND SECURITY: Good COP, bad COP: Winners and losers at the Lima climate conference
DETERRENCE: Deterrence, Kim Jong Un’s Nuclear Doctrine and Strategy: What Everyone Needs to Know, Alexandre Mansourov, NAPSNet Special Reports, December 16, 2014
Open source North Korean texts suggest nuclear weapons goals include self-defense, deterrence, and compellence; reflect its victim-centric view, exposure to nuclear threat, and domestic political-economic considerations. KCNA says that US-DPRK dialogue on the nuclear issue is meaningless given the human rights attack.
- U.S. Will Face DPRK’s Toughest Counteraction: Spokesman for DPRK FM, KCNA, December 15, 2014
- North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons: Future Strategy and Doctrine, Policy Brief, Terence Roehrig, Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School, May 2013
- Unprecedented Nuclear Strikes of the Invincible Army: A Realistic Assessment of North Korea’s Operational Nuclear Capability, Peter Hayes and Scott Bruce, NAPSNet Special Reports, September 22, 2011
DPRK: North Korea’s cyber warfare and challenges for the U.S.-ROK alliance. Alexandre Mansourov, Korea Economic Institute of America. (2 December 2014). [PDF, 648 KB]
Because economies generally underpin military capabilities, North Korea’s focus on asymmetric capabilities is very much a function of necessity. North Korea is mostly impervious to cyber-attack while the other half of the peninsula is very dependent on almost all aspects of cyber. Psychological warfare is also a cost effective, utilitarian asymmetric weapon for North Korea since South Korea’s press is generally open – even with National Security Law restrictions in place while North Korea is closed to most outside information.
- North Korea on the cusp of digital transformation. Alexandre Mansourov. The Nautilus Institute (20 October 2011) [PDF, 1.18 MB]
- Has North Korea entered the telecommunications revolution? Kim Yonho, US Korea Institute at SAIS (2014) [PDF, 1.36 MB]
- A quiet opening: North Koreans in a changing media environment. Nat Kretchun and Jane Kim, InterMedia (May 2012) [PDF, 2.21 MB]
GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Gay rights opponents block hearing in Seoul, Lee Kyung-min, Korea Times (20 November 2014)
The Seoul government is backtracking on a human rights charter following protests from groups against language protecting sexual minorities. Seoul’s mayor, a former human rights lawyer, is facing criticism from human rights groups for delaying approval of the charter, with groups for and against the clause occupying City Hall.
- Seoul mayor blasted for human rights hold up, Claire Lee, Korea Herald (4 December 2014)
- Problems pile up for Seoul mayor, Kang Ki-heon and Lee Eun-jeong, Joongang Ilbo (9 December 2014)
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Climate Change and the City: Building Capacity for Urban Adaptation, Jeremy G. Carter et al., Progress in Planning, vol. 95, pp. 1-66 (January 2015)
The significant shifts in climate variables projected for the 21st century, coupled with the observed impacts of ongoing extreme weather and climate events, ensures that adaptation to climate change is set to remain a pressing issue for urban areas over the coming decades. The development of a collaborative, sociotechnical agenda is vital if we are to meet the climate change adaptation challenge in cities.
- Successful Adaptation to Climate Change Across Scales, Adger, W. N., Arnell, N. W., & Tompkins, E. L., Global Environmental Change, vo. 15, no. 2, pp. 77–86 (July 2005) [subscription required]
- Adapting Cities for Climate Change: The Role of the Green Infrastructure, Gill, S., Handley, J., Ennos, A., & Pauleit, S., Built Environment, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 115–133 (2007)
CLIMATE CHANGE AND SECURITY: Good COP, bad COP: Winners and losers at the Lima climate conference, Mat Hope, The Carbon Brief (15 December 2014)
The fundamentals of climate security centres on mitigation strategies. A year out from Paris decision-time, the Lima preliminary conference does not augur well. Previous rounds of negotiation fatigue have been followed by renewed interest in geo-engineering, including carbon capture and storage, with largely ignored complex, and simple, security implications. Meanwhile, fed by unbearable anxiety, denial largely rules, albeit with a lot of help from power, providing global tinder for profound future visceral conflict.
- Even climate change experts and activists are in denial about climate change, Aanka Batta and Steffen Böhm, Washington Post (4 December 2014)
- Geoengineering: The good, the MAD, and the sensible, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, (20 December 2011) 108(51): 20277–20278.
- Climate change: you can’t ignore it, Anne Karpf, The Guardian (1 December 2012) (Review essay on Sally Weintrobe, editor, Engaging with Climate Change: Psychoanalytic and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Routledge, 2013.)
The Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly Report captures multiple perspectives on six threats to global security. Our contributors select items that highlight the links among these themes.
Subscribe to NAPSNet to receive free weekly email reports.
Contributors:
- Deterrence: Peter Hayes
- DPRK: Roger Cavazos
- Governance and Civil Society: Dyana Mardon
- Climate Change Adaptation: Saleem Janjua
- Austral Peace and Security: Richard Tanter
- Climate Change and Security: Richard Tanter
NAPSNet Editor: Rebecca Pollack