APSNet for 6 December 2007
Austral Peace and Security Network (APSNet)
Twice weekly report from the Nautilus Institute at RMIT, Australia.
Thursday 6 December 2007
- Australia and the Future of Nuclear Deterrence
- Australia and United States Treaty on Defense Trade Cooperation
- Iraq ‘Ready’ for Withdrawal
- National Intelligence Estimate about Iran’s Nuclear Program
- UN Chief Warns of Water Wars
- Afghanistan: Letter to the Editor
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Australia and the Future of Nuclear Deterrence, Robyn Lim, Centre for Independent Studies, 2007-03-01
Australia, including for reasons of distance, can afford to rely more than Japan does on extended deterrence in relation to both China and North Korea. But it may not elect to do so if in future Indonesia were to decide it needed its own deterrent….So for security as well as economic reasons, Australia is successfully resisting aspects of President Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) that would have seen Australia required permanently to give up the option to enrich uranium.
- The Re-Emergence of an Australian Nuclear Weapons Option? Richard Tanter, Austral Policy Forum 07-20A, 29 October 2007
- Australia’s New Nuclear Ambitions: Richard Broinowski, Austral Policy Forum 06-24a, 24 July 2006
- The Bomb in the Mind, Jonathan Schell, Tomdispatch.Com, 2007-12-04
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Australia and United States Treaty on Defense Trade Cooperation, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2007-09-05
The text of the Treaty between Australia and the United States concerning Defence Trade Cooperation has been released by the Australian and US Governments. The Treaty was signed by the then Prime Minister, the Hon John Howard MP, and the President of the United States, the Hon George W. Bush, in Sydney on 5 September 2007.
- Fact Sheet- Australia US Treaty on Defence Trade Cooperation, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, September 2007
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Iraq ‘Ready’ for Withdrawal, Sarah Smiles and Brendan Nicholson, Age, 2007-12-06
The Iraqi Army is ready to “stand on its own two feet” and could cope with the withdrawal of Australian combat troops from southern Iraq, says Australia’s top commander in the Middle East, Major-General Mark Evans. Senior US State Department official, Nicholas Burns, said the US appreciated what Australia had done in Iraq and looked forward to it playing a different role in the future.
- A Calmer Iraq: Fragile, and Possibly Fleeting, Alissa J.Rubin, New York Times, 2007-12-05
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National Intelligence Estimate about Iran’s Nuclear Program, Farideh Farhi, Informed Comment Global Affairs, 2007-12-03
The report judges with high confidence that Iran currently does not have a nuclear weapons program. It further states the intelligence community’s lack of knowledge about Iran’s intent to develop nuclear weapons, [and] should be seen as part and parcel of the debate that has been going on the in the United States between promoters of coercive diplomacy and military action.
- Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities, National Intelligence Estimate, National Intelligence Council, November 2007
- Iran, the United States and Europe: The Nuclear Complex, Jan De Pauw, Open Democracy, 2007-12-05
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UN Chief Warns of Water Wars, Leo Lewis, Australian, 2007-12-05
A struggle by nations to secure sources of clean water will be “potent fuel” for war, the first Asia-Pacific Water Summit heard yesterday. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates from across the region that the planet faced a water crisis that was especially troubling for Asia.
- A Climate of Conflict, Dan Smith and Janani Vivekananda, International Alert, December 2007
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Letter to the Editor, The Age, On the Record, Department of Defence, 2007-12-04
The suggestion that Australian soldiers could be complicit in the torture or mistreatment of detainees is a serious one and Tom Hyland should be more careful in the conclusions he draws from a recent Amnesty International report (Torture fear for diggers’ POW’s, Sunday 2 December 2007).
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