Nautilus Peace and Security – 27 November

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"Nautilus Peace and Security – 27 November", NAPSNet Weekly Report, November 27, 2014, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-weekly/nautilus-peace-and-security-27-november/


DETERRENCE: Air Force missile sites to get Wi-Fi, Brian Everstine, Air Force Times, (4 November 2014).

Partnering with Verizon, Air Force Global Strike Command announced that 45 missile alert facilities wireless Internet hotspots to improve morale, enabling airmen to use personal digital devices while they are deployed in isolated silos for 3-4 days.  The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirkland Air Force Base vetted the system.


DPRK: US experts: N. Koran envoy sent to Russia to ease diplomatic isolation, Jee Abbey Lee, Voice of America (25 November 2014).

North Korea’s moves towards Russia are classic North Korea balancing moves.  There are some genuine complementary interests such as minerals, and businesses centered on extraction, but not enough to sustain a strategic rapprochement and an end to North Korea’s international isolation. North Korea’s domestic system generally thrives in an antagonistic external environment.


GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Watchdog estimates N.K. development costs at $500b, Shin Ji-hye, Korea Herald (20 November 2014)

The ROK places official costs of DPRK development post-unification at a minimum of USD 500 billion, to be financed through ODA funds and debt financing, private investment and tax revenues. The ROK is largely unprepared for reunification, and reunification would involve several international players, from international banks to governments. Unification may also pose another challenge in terms of common communication, as the ROK and DPRK languages have diverged over the years.


CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Creating New Norms on Climate Change, Natural Disasters and Displacement: International Developments 2010 – 2013, Jane McAdam, Refuge, vol. 29, no. 2 (2014) [160 KB, PDF]

The creation of a new international treaty on climate change and displacement now seems even more unlikely than ever before. On the one hand, this is because of enhanced understanding within the international community about the conceptual difficulties involved in attributing displacement to the impacts of climate change alone. On the other hand, it stems from states’ reluctance to assume new legal obligations in the protection context – in other words, a lack of political will.


AUSTRAL PEACE AND SECURITY: Abbott clueless on how to handle US and China, Hugh White, The Age (25 November 2014)

Shifting tides: Former PM Fraser – beware our pro-US default setting. Obama  – let the right one in. Xi Jinping – trust us. PM Abbott in reply to Xi: “some of the shadows over our world lifted and the sun did indeed shine brightly”. White’s explanation: “Abbott does not know what he is doing,” blind to the depth of the rivalry and Australia’s room to move. White’s answer, not so far from Fraser’s: “In the end we cannot afford to side with either of them.”


The Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly Report presents articles and full length reports each week in six categories: Austral security, nuclear deterrence, energy security, climate change and security, the DPRK, climate change adaptation 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.

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