NAPSNet 21 July 2011

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NAPSNet 21 July 2011

DPRK: China launches data relay satellite, KCNA (14 July 2011)

North Korea’s KCNA reported the launch of a Chinese data relay satellite last week. KCNA has increased its coverage of satellite launches by China, Russia, Iran, and other countries over the last three months. North Korean maintains that it has a space program and has launched satellites for communication, instead of as a test of its ballistic missile system.

ENERGY SECURITY: Japan’s prime minister calls for phase-out of nuclear power, Washington Post (12 July 2011)

Writing for Washington Post, Chico Harlan reports that Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in a televised speech and in an address to lawmakers, said that the country should abandon its plans to increase use of nuclear energy, and that Japan “should decrease and eventually eliminate its reliance on nuclear energy”.  Kan provided no timetable or specific plan for reducing nuclear energy use, which will face numerous political obstacles.

DETERRENCE: African nuclear-weapon-free zone in force: what next for Diego Garcia?  American Society of International Law (28 August 2009)

The African nuclear weapon free zone explicitly covers the  Chagos Archipelago – Diego Garcia—a possible US nuclear weapons transit base–albeit “without prejudice to the question of sovereignty” due to an on-going UK-Mauritian dispute, writes Peter Sand. Moreover, treaty parties are required to not “contribute to any act which constitutes a violation of this treaty or protocol.”

AUSTRAL SECURITY: Smith bids to control defence budget, SMH (19 July 2011)

Australian Defence Minister, Stephen Smith has ordered another defence force posture review to assess if the “Australian Defence Force is appropriately geographically positioned to respond in a timely way to Australia’s strategic and security demands”. The Australian defence forces have been beset with trouble as the recently published Rizzo Report highlights. The following articles review the position and placement of major Australian Defence assets heading into the Asia-Pacific century.

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Vulnerability, resilience, and policy: The challenge of environmental migration and displacement in the United States,

Colorado State University (2011) [PDF, 351 KB]    

Drawing on evidence from previous disasters and predicted climate change impacts, Michelle Lueck shows that internal environmental migration is an emergent challenge to the US disaster policy. To discuss this challenge, she adapts the model of population displacement from Cernea (1997) to reflect the barriers to resilience, related to housing, finances, health, and discrimination, facing populations displaced in the US.    

GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Citizens’ tax revolution, Hankyoreh (18 July 2011)

The Tax Revolution Party officially launches in Korea. A citizen taxpayer organization, it exposes tax policies that favor conglomerates to maintain government accountability and protect citizen rights, much like MoveOn in America. In a similar strain, the Tequila Party was also officially launched in the US in response to the Tea Party, focusing on Hispanic issues such as immigration and education.

 

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