12 July 2012
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 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
- DETERRENCE: Should the US consider redeploying tactical nukes in South Korea? A tactical step that makes sense for South Korea
- DPRK: N. Korea’s top diplomat arrives in Cambodia for ASEAN Forum
- ENERGY SECURITY: Inquiry declares Fukushima crisis a man-made disaster
- GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Central government plans to buy Senkaku Islands
- CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Climate change vulnerability assessments as catalysts for social learning: four case studies in South-Eastern Australia
- AUSTRAL PEACE AND SECURITY: Seeing red: ADF at the crossroads
See this week’s blog from our Governance and Civil Society contributor, Yi Kiho.
DETERRENCE: Should the US consider redeploying tactical nukes in South Korea? A tactical step that makes sense for South Korea, Seongwhun Cheon, Global Asia ( June 2012)
Nuclear assets are the surest strategic balancer against an enemy’s nuclear arsenal as no conventional weapons can match nuclear weapons. Bringing back tactical nukes to South Korea would dramatically increase the alliance’s bargaining power, and shift nuclear negotiations in our favor.
- Should the US consider redeploying tactical nukes in South Korea? loose lips sink ships, so cut the nuke talk, Peter Hayes, Global Asia (June 2012)
- Extending deterrence from the triad, Jeffrey Lewis, Arms Control Wonk (12 May 2012)
- S.Korea needs to consider acquiring nuclear weapons, Kim Dae-joong, The Chosun Ilbo (11 July 2012)
DPRK: N. Korea’s top diplomat arrives in Cambodia for ASEAN Forum, Kim Deok-hyun, Yonhap News (11 July 2012)
North Korea has been fairly quiet, even as various issues remain intractable. About ten North Korean Diplomats will attend the ARF conference, the first possibility of Ministerial-level “unofficial” inter-Korean meeting since Kim Jong Il’s death. North Korea will be exposed to Nuclear Weapons Free Zones. Kim Jong Un appeared with an unknown woman and Disney characters revealing yet again we really don’t know why some things happen in North Korea.
- ASEAN postpones passage of nuclear weapons treaty, Jakarta Globe (9 July 2012)
- Mickey Mouses’s weird foray into North Korea, International Business Times (10 July 2012)
- Tough challenges, hard choices: dealing with North Korea after the collapse of the leap day agreement, Evans Revere, National Committee on American Foreign Policy (June 2012) [PDF, 214KB]
ENERGY SECURITY: Inquiry declares Fukushima crisis a man-made disaster, Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times (5 July 2012)
The Japanese Diet’s Investigation Commission on Fukushima submitted its report, with the Chairman claiming “It was a profoundly man-made disaster – that could and should have been foreseen and prevented.” But that begs the question how many such events that only in retrospect look foreseeable and preventable are not yet foreseen and prevented. Deification of technology goes with demonization of human frailty and Japanese culture. The addiction continues.
- The Fukushima nuclear accident independent investigation commission reports, The National Diet of Japan (5 July 2012)
- Japan’s nuclear meltdown could have been prevented, Editorial, The Washington Post (5 July 2012)
- Stop blaming Fukushima on Japan’s culture, Garald Curtis, Financial Times (10 July 2012) [Free registration required]
GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Central government plans to buy Senkaku Islands, Asahi Shimbun (7 July 2012)
Japan’s central government has stated its intent to purchase the Senkaku Islands after plans to buy the islands were first floated by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara. China and Taiwan both dispute Japan’s sovereignty over the islands. China began annual naval military exercises in nearby waters and Taiwanese activists staged a protest in waters off the islands with support from the Coast Guard, claiming the islands as Taiwanese territory.
- Govt: Senkaku plan not diplomatic matter, Yomiuri Shimbun (10 July 2012)
- Japan resists China over disputed islands, Money Control (10 July 2012)
- China launches naval war games, Agence France Presse (10 July 2012)
Check out this week’s Governance and Civil Society blog: New Line of East Asia: Can Japan return to Asia?
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Climate change vulnerability assessments as catalysts for social learning: four case studies in South-Eastern Australia, Yuen, E.J., Stone Jovicich, S., Preston, B.L., Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change (2012) [366 KB, PDF]
Technical assessments of vulnerability and/or risk are increasingly being undertaken to assess the impacts of climate change. Underlying this is the belief that they will bring clarity to questions regarding the scale of institutional investments required, plausible adaptation policies and measures, and the timing of their implementation. Despite the perceived importance of technical assessments in ‘evidence-based’ decision environments, assessments cannot be undertaken independent of values and politics, nor are they capable of eliminating the uncertainty that clouds decision-making on climate adaptation.
- Are adaptation studies effective, and what can enhance their practical impact? Eakin HC, Patt A, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 2(2), pp. 141-153 (2011)
- Framing climate change adaptation in policy and practice, Fünfgeld H, Mcevoy D, Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research-VCCCAR, Melbourne, Australia (2011) [PDF, 6.3MB]
AUSTRAL PEACE AND SECURITY: Seeing red: ADF at the crossroads, Deborah Snow and Hamish McDonald, The Age (7 July 2012)
Lieutenant-General Peter Leahy, head of the National Security Institute, is watching growing Chinese-US rivalry in the region with increasing alarm, urging Canberra to be wary about falling in with US ambitions to maintain ”primacy” in China’s maritime backyard. ”’My concern is that we are so embedded in the US planning process, we are so interoperable with them, that there’s this expectation we will be involved in whatever [the US] does. We have to be careful that doesn’t overwhelm our sovereign decisions.”
- Navy eyeing off new Japanese submarines, Hamish McDonald, The Age (9 July 2012)
- HMAS Adelaide, second Navy helicopter carrier, launched, Herald-Sun (6 July 2012)
- Rushing headlong to infirmity: Australian defence policy and force structure development, Desmond Ball, Security Challenges, Volume 3, Number 4 (November 2007) [PDF, 77.9KB]
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Editor
Contributors
- Deterrence: Peter Hayes
- Governance and Civil Society: Dyana Mardon, Yi Kiho
- Climate Change Adaptation: Saleem Janjua
- DPRK: Roger Cavazos
- Energy Security: Nikhil Desai
- Climate Change and Security: Richard Tanter