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AdaptNet for 9 March 2010

Australian Government’s Vision for Climate Adaptation; Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change; Four Reasons for Concern about Adaptation to Climate Change; An E-Science Approach to Climate Change Adaptation; A New Pragmatic Procedure: The Climate Learning Ladder; Mekong Environment and Climate Symposium - Vietnam.

• English edition, produced by RMIT Climate Change Adaptation.
• Terjemahan dalam Bahasa Indonesia (Bahasa Indonesian edition), produced by Pelangi.
• Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese edition), produced by the Vietnam Green Building Council.

APSNet for 4 March 2010

Passport probe: AFP officers in Israel; Joint approach to stabilise and rebuild Afghanistan; Bailout broke laws, says Indonesia's divided house; U.S. floats plan to lift ban on training Indonesia's Kopassus unit; Angelita Pires acquitted of Timorese plot to kill; In Afghanistan, Karzai's invitation to Taliban creates discord and confusion; Afghan police still out of step.

The path not taken, the way still open: Denuclearizing the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia

Michael Hamel-Green and Peter Hayes argue that a Korean Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (NWFZ) “benefits to the United States in preventing a major direct and wider proliferation threat from North Korea, and to China, Japan and South Korea in maintaining stability in the Northeast Asian Region, it would also serve to address North Korean security concerns about potential US nuclear strikes”. They point out that the 1992 Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korea Peninsula could form the basis of a NWFZ covering the peninsula. Alternately, they suggest, the ROK and Japan could create a Japan Korea NWFZ via a bilateral treaty.

Value-subtracting: Form vs. substance in Australian uranium safeguard policy

Richard Leaver writes that the Australian activist foreign policy tradition in disarmament has long been “in a state of decline, and the main source of this slippage has been the gradual triumph of form over substance in the realm of safeguards and disarmament diplomacy.” Leaver emphasizes the futility of the contemporary situation that has seen Australian acquiesce to the Indian exemption in the Nuclear Suppliers Group come together with a formalistic reiteration of demands that India sign the NPT. He concludes with suggestions for reversing the decline, beginning with policy towards India. 

Rethinking extended nuclear deterrence in the defence of Australia

Richard Tanter examines the foundations and rationale for Australian reliance on US assurances of extended nuclear deterrence (END). He writes that the Australian model of END “is marked by its lack of public presence, a lack of certainty about its standing and character in American eyes, its lack of a direct nuclear threat, and its resurgence at a time when nuclear abolition possibilities are being embraced by the leader of the deterrence provider.” Australian policy, Tanter argues, “amounts to a claim that the nuclear guarantee is necessary ‘just in case’ – though without any plausible specifics.” “The fundamental questions”, he concludes, “remain as Percovich has outlined them for other cases: what threats, what probabilities, what alternatives? These have never been seriously discussed in public in Australia.”

Extended nuclear deterrence, Global Abolition and Korea

Peter Hayes analyses developments in the system of United States nuclear hegemony in East Asia deriving from North Korea’s drive for nuclear weapons. Hayes argues that “the nuclear threat projected by the US in this hegemonic system drove the DPRK to adopt a nuclear weapons proliferation strategy that was aimed at compelling the United States to change its policies towards the DPRK. The latter’s successful nuclear breakout demonstrates that ... it is not capable of stopping nuclear breakout by a key adversary.” Hayes concludes that only conventional deterrence “is likely to curb the DPRK’s nuclear threat, head off long-run proliferation by the ROK and Japan, and by realigning its legitimating ideology (“Global Abolition”) with alliance institutions and force structures, restore the now rapidly dwindling US hegemony in the region.” 

Progress on Community-based Adaptation

In this AdaptNet special report, Jessica Ayers, Tim Forsyth and Saleem Huq ask, "What is community-based adaptation (CBA) to climate change (versus more general climatic variability?) How do we do it? Who or what adapts? How does CBA fit with larger scale adaptation policies and programs?" The article looks at the progress that has been made on CBA over the past few years and considers the challenges that remain for those engaged in CBA.

Sustainable Built Environments in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City

Infrastructure scoping study of sustainable built environments in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Regarding May 2009 DPRK nuclear test

Reactions, statements and analysis by GPPAC Northeast Asia members in regards to the DPRK's nuclear test.

Conversation with the patriot - part 12

In Part 12 of Conversation with the Patriot, Erich Weingartner challenges Pak Kim Li's  claim that his faith in the Juche idea qualifies him as an atheist. First published in CanKor Report 315-316, 23 March 2009.

Sense-making and mind-mapping tools: Global Problem Solving

Global Sensemaking (GSm) is a group of people dedicated to helping humanity address complex, interrelated global problems—such as climate change, energy policy, poverty, and food security—by developing and applying new web-based technology to assist collaborative decision making and cooperative problem solving.