1. Tokyo Urged to Consider N-Bombs
2. Downer Defies UN over Timor Troops
3. Violence in Papua More Than Just About Tribal Rivalry
4. Afghanistan: Campaign against Taliban ‘Causes Misery and Hunger’
5. Australia: Submarine Fleet ‘Should Go Nuclear’
6. US Spy Chief Makes Not-So-Secret Visit
7. Pacific: Newcomers Face a Rising Tide of Resentment

Austral Policy Forum 06-31A: Preventing Accidental Disease Outbreaks: Biosafety in East Asia – Christian Enemark

1. Tokyo Urged to Consider N-Bombs, Peter Alford, Australian, 2006-09-07

   Japan should study the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons, says former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, because its US security blanket cannot be guaranteed to last forever. Mr Nakasone’s call for the next government to consider nuclear weapons and to prepare an independent defence strategy comes from a man who as prime minister was the most outspoken Japanese leader in support of the US security alliance.

   • Nakasone-Headed Think Tank Calls for Revision of Article 9, Daily Yomiuri, 2006-09-06

2. Downer Defies UN over Timor Troops, John Kerin, AFR*, 2006-09-06

   Foreign Minister Alexander Downer pledged to leave at least 650 Australian troops in East Timor as back-up for a 1600-strong UN-led policing mission, defying UN calls for Australia to wind back its presence. He said the UN had made it clear it wanted only about 350 troops to stay but Australia believed it should maintain up to double that number.
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   • Malaysia Officially Dissolves Peacekeeping Force to Timor Leste, Bernama, 2006-09-06

3. Violence in Papua more than just about Tribal Rivalry, Deborah Steele, ABC, 2006-09-04

   Hundreds of extra police and troops have been sent to a remote area in the Indonesian province of Papua, after inter-tribal fighting on the weekend killed three people and injured more than 80. It’s believed those killed were Catholics from the Dani tribe. But there are warnings that the fighting is linked to the controversial Freeport McMoRan gold and copper mine.

   • Papua: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, Asia Briefing N°53, International Crisis Group, 2006-09-05

   • Papuans Protest Over Tribal Fighting, Jakarta Post, 2006-09-03

4. Afghanistan: Campaign against Taliban ‘Causes Misery and Hunger’, Kim Sengupta, Independent, 2006-09-06

   Two international think-tank reports highlighted failures of US and UK policy in Afghanistan. The Senlis Council claimed the campaign against the Taliban had inflicted lawlessness and starvation on the Afghan people. The International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) said that a vital opportunity was lost when the West failed to carry out adequate reconstruction work after the 2001 war.

    

   • Afghanistan Five Years Later: The Return of the Taliban, Senlis Council, 2006-

   • Strategic Survey 2006, Alex Nicoll [Ed], The IISS Annual Review of World Affairs*, 2006-09-05

      

5. Submarine Fleet ‘Should Go Nuclear’, Katharine Murphy, Age, 2006-09-05

   Australia must consider commissioning a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, a submission to the nuclear taskforce says. Former head of the navy’s submarine team, Rear Admiral Peter Briggs, and one of Australia’s top national security analysts, Allan Behm, claim the national debate on nuclear energy allows Australia to consider seriously the advantages of acquiring nuclear-powered submarines to replace the Collins class.

   • Submission to the Uranium Mining Processing and Nuclear Energy Review, Submarine Institute of Australia, 2006-08-09 [PDF]

      

6. US Spy Chief Makes Not-So-Secret Visit, Brendan Nicholson, Age, 2006-09-06

   When the US sent its national security chief, Mr Negroponte, to the Pine Gap spy base for secret talks in December, more than a billion Chinese were told, but Australians were not allowed to know. Labor backbencher, Daryl Melham, said, “It’s absurd that even now the Defence Minister cannot confirm or deny that Mr Negroponte visited Pine Gap.”

    

7. Newcomers Face a Rising Tide of Resentment, Hamish McDonald, SMH, 2006-09-07

   Migrants seeking their fortune are fuelling tensions in PNG and the Solomons. [Some] high-level interest is widely seen as helping explain the rush of mainland Chinese entrepreneurs into the Pacific, joining earlier arrivals of Chinese from Malaysia and other South-East Asian countries seen by many as enjoying freedom from normal rules, especially in the logging and fishing industries.

   • Should Australia and New Zealand Open Their Doors to Guest Workers from The Pacific? Costs and Benefits, Helen Hughes and Gaurav Sodhi, CIS Policy Monograph 72, 2006 [PDF]

      

Austral Policy Forum 06-31A: Preventing Accidental Disease Outbreaks: Biosafety in East Asia – Christian Enemark

Christian Enemark from the University of New South Wales (Australian Defence Force Academy campus) writes that the expansion of interest and investment in biotechnology in East Asia is

“being driven mainly by infectious disease challenges, economic interests, and security concerns about biological weapons.”

However, he cautions,

“a key challenge will be to ensure strict biosafety measures extend to all new laboratories-it would be tragically ironic if a leaky laboratory became the source of an infectious disease outbreak crisis. In East Asia, it is clear that biosafety lags dangerously behind expansions in the biotechnology industry.”

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