NAPSNet 10 November 2011
- DETERRENCE:Nuclear materials and commodities smuggling
- DPRK:North Korea’s digital transformation: implications for North Korea policy
- ENERGY SECURITY:University develops nanodisk formation technology for highly efficient quantum-dot solar cells
- GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY:KORUS FTA battle approaches railroad or referendum
- CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION:Climate change, disaster risk, and the urban poor
- AUSTRAL SECURITY:Diggers want to catch rogue soldier alive
DETERRENCE: Nuclear materials and commodities smuggling, Daniel Joyner, NAPSNet Special Report (10 November 2011)
A multilateral treaty that makes nuclear materials and commodities smuggling an international crime could strengthen the effectiveness of the international legal regulation of nuclear materials and commodities smuggling, including clarification of the scope and criteria of this crime, and establishing universal jurisdiction of states over perpetrators.
- Cooperation to control non-state nuclear proliferation: Extra-territorial jurisdiction and UN Resolutions 1540 and 1373, April 3-4 2011 workshop papers, The Nautilus Institute (3-4 April 2011)
- Limiting transfers of enrichment and reprocessing technology: Issues, constraints, options, Fred McGoldrick, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School (May 2011) [PDF, 0.9MB]
- India stung by tightened rule on supplying sensitive nuclear technology, Washington Post (6 July 2011)
DPRK: North Korea’s digital transformation: implications for North Korea policy, Peter Hayes, Scott Bruce, and Dyana Mardon, The Nautilus Institute (November 8, 2011)
The authors examine the implications of the rapid development of IT in North Korea given the DPRK’s social structure. The authors examine three responses to the change in IT use in the DPRK, circumventing the state’s controls to stimulate dissent, engaging the legitimate software industry in North Korea, or cultivating knowledge of development issues in North Korea by feeding information into the DPRK intra-net via “safe” countries.
- North Korea on the cusp of digital transformation, Alexandre Mansourov, The Nautilus Institute (20 October, 2011)
- Orascom’s internet service in North Korea, Geoffrey See, Chosun Exchange (16 October 2011)
- North Korea: An up-and-coming it-outsourcing destination, Paul Tjia, 38 North (26 October 2011)
ENERGY SECURITY: University develops nanodisk formation technology for highly efficient quantum-dot solar cells, Japan for Sustainability (5 November 2011)
A Tohoku University research group has developed a process for manufacturing “quantum dot” based solar photovoltaic (PV) cells with expected conversion efficiencies of 45% or more—about 3 times that of typical PVs in use today. The process deposits 10-nanometer quantum nanodisk array structures onto a silicon substrate. The group intends to experimentally manufacture nanodisk solar cells in 3 years, with commercialization in about 2020.
- A painful eclipse, The Economist (15 October 2011)
- China tackles energy-wasting buildings, Coco Liu and ClimateWire, Scientific American (27 July 2011)
- New waterless fracking method avoids pollution problems, but drillers slow to embrace it, Anthony Brino, InsideClimate News and Brian Nearing, Albany Times-Union (6 November 2011)
GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: KORUS FTA battle approaches railroad or referendum, The Hankyoreh (5 November 2011)
ROK legislators remain divided over ratification of the US-ROK FTA, with the ruling Grand National Party planning to raise a motion and the Democratic Party arguing for a national referendum to be held during the April 2012 elections. On Thursday, 2000 protestors rallied outside the National Assembly, clashing with police; meanwhile, a group of opposition lawmakers barricaded themselves in the National Assembly to prevent voting on the bill.
- South Koreans protest free trade agreement with US, lawmakers postpone ratification, Windsor Genova, All Headline News (4 November 2011)
- Clashes outside South Korea assembly over US trade deal, Jack Kim, Reuters (3 November 2011)
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Climate change, disaster risk, and the urban poor: Cities building resilience for a changing world, The World Bank (June 2011)
The urban poor living in slums – now estimated at approximately one billion people – are at particularly high risk from the impacts of climate and natural hazards. The impacts of natural hazards and climate change can vary substantially with important distinction in spatial and location characteristics. The inter-linkages between climate change, disaster risk, and the urban poor need to be examined.
- Pro-poor adaptation to climate change in urban centers: Case studies of vulnerability and resilience in Kenya and Nicaragua, Caroline Moser et al., Report No. 54947-GLB, The World Bank (June 2010) [PDF, 2.13MB]
- State of the world’s cities 2008/9: Harmonious cities, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), Earthscan Publications Ltd. (2008) [PDF, 716KB]
AUSTRAL SECURITY: Diggers want to catch rogue soldier alive, Australian (10 November 2011) [Subscription required]
The recent attack on three Australian soldiers by an Afghan soldier has raised multiple issues; did the afghan solider act alone or was he a part of a co-ordinated insurgent strategy to weaken trust. While the Government continues its commitment to Afghanistan and its US allies, Australians question the commitment and call for a troop withdrawal.
- We cannot win the Afghanistan war, The Drum Opinion (10 November 2011)
- Afghan ally wants out, Age (10 November 2011)
- Minister for defence – Paper on Afghanistan, tabled in conjunction with a ministerial statement, Australian Government, Department of Defence (13 October 2011)
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Editors
Contributors
- Deterrence: Peter Hayes
- Governance and Civil Society: Yi Kiho
- Climate Change Adaptation: Saleem Janjua
- DPRK: Scott Bruce
- Energy Security: David von Hippel
- Austral Security: Arabella Imhoff, Mihiri Weerasinghe