NAPSNet 20 October 2011

• DETERRENCE: Precision technologies as possible alternatives to nuclear weapons
• AUSTRAL SECURITY: People’s congress forcefully dispersed [Indonesia]
  
• GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: S. Koreans hold ‘occupy wall street’ protest in Seoul
• CLIMATE CHNAGE ADAPTATION: Extreme weather and climate change: understanding the link, managing the risk
• ENERGY SECURITY:The old model isn’t working: Creating the energy utility for the 21st century
• DPRK: Doctors check on North’s hibakusha

DETERRENCE:  Precision technologies as possible alternatives to nuclear weapons, Nonproliferation Policy Education Center (19 July 2011)

Steve Lukasik, former director of the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, assesses the potential of emerging, highly precise conventional military technologies to accomplish the missions currently assigned to nuclear weapons, “The short answer is to a great extent but not entirely.”

• Integration and separation of nuclear and non-nuclear planning and forces, In the Eyes of the Experts, Analysis and Comments on America’s Strategic Posture, US Institute of Peace (2009) [PDF, 3.1MB]
• Conventional deterrence in the second nuclear age, Parameters ( Autumn, 2009) [PDF, 0.3 MB]

AUSTRAL SECURITY: People’s congress forcefully dispersed, Jakarta Post (20 October 2011)

Indonesian security forces fired on a mass meeting of West Papuans and arrested leaders and activists after participants at the Papuan People’s Congress declared independence for the restive region.

• 5,000 attend 3rd Papuan people’s congress, Jakarta Post (18 October 2011)
• Troops open fire on Papuan gathering, newmatilda.com (20 October 2011)
• ‘Chaos’ as shots ring out at Papuan peoples’ congress, Jakarta Globe (19 October 2011)

GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: S. Koreans hold ‘occupy wall street’ protest in Seoul, Yonhap News (15 October 2011)

An ‘Occupy Seoul’ protest held in solidarity with global ‘Occupy Wall Street’ demonstrations decried financial greed in conglomerates, the widening wealth gap and the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Korean-American activists gathered outside the White House during a state dinner between Pres. Lee and Obama to protest the FTA and the construction of a naval base on Jeju, but were shut down by the Secret Service for being a security threat.

• Legal protest dispersed during S. Korea-US summit, Hankyoreh (17 October 2011)
• Rallies show anger at rising inequality, Joongang Daily (17 October 2011)

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Extreme weather and climate change: understanding the link, managing the risk, Pew Center on Global Climate Change (June 2011) [PDF, 897KB]

Understanding the link between extreme weather and climate change is part of the battle. Figuring out how to protect ourselves now and in the future when these events become more severe and common is the basis behind this paper. The paper draws from recent individual weather events and provides lessons to help take action to reduce climate change impacts.

• Anthropogenic greenhouse gas contribution to flood risk in England and Wales in autumn 2000, Nature (16 February 2011) 
• Weather and climate extremes in a changing climate: Regions of focus: North America, Hawaii, Caribbean, and U.S. Pacific Islands, U.S. Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.3 (June 2008)

ENERGY SECURITY: The old model isn’t working: Creating the energy utility for the 21st century, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (14 September 2011) [PDF, 406 KB]

Rate regulation of energy utilities as typically practiced is in conflict with providing utility programs to improve consumers’ energy use efficiency, since sales decrease as energy use falls.  New business models and regulatory approaches—cost recovery for efficiency programs, removing financial incentives to increase sales, and providing earnings opportunities for shareholders–are needed to motivate utilities to help customers save energy. 

• Energy efficiency: Utilities at a turning point, Utilities Unbundled (May 2011) [PDF, 5.97MB]   
• Generating “negawatts”: Energy efficiency’s threats and opportunities for European utilities, Dexia Asset Management (May 2010) [PDF, 1.15MB]
• Kitakyushu to test dynamic pricing for electricity in FY2012, Japan for Sustainability (17 October 2011) 

DPRK: Doctors check on North’s hibakusha, Kyodo News (17 October 2011)

Six Japanese doctors returned from a trip to North Korea where they interviewed and treated victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima who now live in the DPRK. “We will urge the Japanese government to support the North Korean survivors who are aging and have little time left to live,” said Shizuteru Usui. Until now, the DPRK insisted that it provides the hibakusha with the best care possible and Japanese specialists have nothing to offer it.

• The North Korea nuclear crisis: Five guiding principles, Japan Center for International Exchange (July 2009)
• Chapter 17: Pikaton, in Pacific Powderkeg, Lexington Books, D.C. Heath and Company/Lexington, Massachusetts/Toronto [PDF, 16.10MB]
• Support scarce for N. Korean hibakusha, Japan Times (3 August 2006)

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Editors

• Arabella Imhoff & Mihiri Weerasinghe

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