APSNet for 20070419

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"APSNet for 20070419", APSNet Briefing Notes, April 19, 2007, https://nautilus.org/apsnet/apsnet-for-20070419-2/

APSNet for 20070419

Austral Peace and Security Network (APSNet)

Twice weekly report from the Nautilus Institute at RMIT, Australia.

Thursday 19 April 2007

  1. Refugee Deal to Bring Cubans to Australia
  2. First Additional Troops Arrive in Afghanistan
  3. Fiji Administration Gazettes Suspension of Great Council of Chiefs
  4. Fiji: Troops in Iraq Bring in $1.2m
  5. Seasonal Workers Scheme Designed to Protect Pacific Workers in New Zealand
  6. Howard Can Make History with Indian Alliance
  7. Chinese Military Bases in Burma: The Explosion of a Myth

Austral Briefing Note: The Re-Discovery of Theories of Counter-Insurgency: New US Strategy in Iraq – Richard Tanter

  1. Refugee Deal to Bring Cubans to Australia, Kirrin McKechnie, ABC, 2007-04-18

    The Australian and US governments have signed off on a new refugee exchange program which will see Cuban refugees from Guantanamo Bay considered for resettlement in Australia. Under the deal, signed by immigration authorities in Washington, asylum seekers held on Nauru would be considered for resettlement in the US. The deal allows for a maximum of 200 asylum seekers to be resettled in both countries every year.

  2. First Additional Troops Arrive in Afghanistan, AAP, Australian, 2007-04-17

    The first of 300 Australian special forces soldiers have arrived in Afghanistan, with the full deployment to be completed by the end of May, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson says.

  3. Fiji Administration Gazettes Suspension of Great Council of Chiefs, RNZI, 2007-04-18

    Fiji’s interim administration has published an extraordinary government gazette suspending the Great Council of Chiefs. The action follows the refusal of the Great Council to endorse President Iloilo’s nomination to fill the vice presidency on the grounds that it considered the interim administration illegal.

  4. Troops in Iraq Bring in $1.2m, Fiji Times, 2007-04-19

    Military spokesman Major Neumi Leweni said cost for the Fiji contingent serving under the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) brought in a reimbursement of $1,216,139.36 as remittances earlier this month. He said this was for their services for the months of October to December.

  5. Seasonal Workers Scheme Designed to Protect Pacific Workers in New Zealand, RNZI, 2007-04-18

    The New Zealand Labour Department says the new Recognised Seasonal Employers Agreement should help safeguard some Pacific workers from dodgy middle men. The Recognised Seasonal Employers scheme involves five thousand workers from four Pacific countries, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Samoa to work in horticulture and viticulture farms in New Zealand for six to seven months.

  6. Howard Can Make History with Indian Alliance, Greg Sheridan, Australian, 2007-04-19

    The Prime Minister has good reasons to cement an important new strategic and economic relationship with the world’s largest democracy, India. On the four-part security dialogue, the thinking now is not to expand the existing US-Japan-Australia strategic dialogue to include India, but to create a separate process involving the four nations.

     

  7. Chinese Military Bases in Burma: The Explosion of a Myth, Andrew Selth, Regional Outlook Paper No.10, Griffith Asia Institute, April 2007 [PDF]

    In 2005, the Chairman of the Indian Defence Force’s Chiefs of Staff Committee conceded that reports of a Chinese intelligence facility on one of Burma’s offshore islands were incorrect. He also announced that there were no Chinese naval bases in Burma. This raises serious questions about current analyses of China’s relations with Burma, and of China’s strategic interests in the northern Indian Ocean region.

     

Austral Briefing Note: The Re-Discovery of Theories of Counter-Insurgency: New US Strategy in Iraq – Richard Tanter

The current US “surge” strategy approach in Iraq involves sending in more combat troops, extending the service of those already deployed, and the appointment of a new commander of the Multi-National Force, General David Petraeus – a specialist in counter-insurgency warfare. One of Petraeus’ key advisers is Australian Colonel David Kilcullen. Kilcullen’s writings on counter-insurgency have been widely disseminated on the web. The sharpest critique of the “new thinking” on counter-insurgency came from the veteran American strategist Edward Lutwak, focussing on the US Army’s recently revised Field Manual on Counterinsurgency, issued under Petraeus’ name. Lutwak argued that imperial occupation has historically often overcome asymmetrical warfare by resistance groups, without resorting to counter-insurgency techniques of warfare,

“if they are willing to out-terrorize the insurgents, so that the fear of reprisals outweighs the desire to help the insurgents or their threats.”

Kilcullen replied to Lutwak in the blog Small Wars Journal in April 2007. The renewed US interest in the theory of counter-insurgency and asymmetrical warfare inevitably brings to mind the content and tone of the comparable internal US military debate in Vietnam, and the role of military intellectuals.

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