NAPSNet 21 July 2011
- DPRK: China launches data relay satellite
- ENERGY SECURITY: Japan’s prime minister calls for phase-out of nuclear power
- DETERRENCE: African nuclear-weapon-free zone in force: what next for Diego Garcia?
- AUSTRAL SECURITY: Smith bids to control defence budget
- CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Vulnerability, resilience, and policy: The challenge of environmental migration and displacement in the United…
- GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Citizens’ tax revolution
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.
- Secretary Gates and the North Korean missile threat, 38 North, (27 January 2011)
- DPRK foreign ministry spokesman blasts U.S. misinterpretation of satellite launch as ballistic missile launch, KCNA (04 May 2009)
- Space cadets – the Korean peninsula’s rocket competition, Jane’s: Defense & Security Intelligence & Analysis (18 August 2009) (subscription required)
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.
- A crisis of confidence, but nuclear power is here to stay, Global Asia (June 2011)
- A Second Nuclear Era? It’s not worth the risk NAPSNet Policy Forum (21 July 2011)
- Trends in various actors after nuclear accident: Trends in electric power suppliers and municipalities with nuclear power plants, Japan for Sustainability (20 July 2011)
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.”
- Assessing the idea of South Korea being a virtual NWFZ since the 1992 joint declaration for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, Nautilus Institute (15-16 June 2010)
- Revealing “secret U.S.-Japan nuclear understandings”: A solemn obligation of Japan’s new government, Asia-Pacific Journal (21 December 2009)
- Treaty on the Southeast Asia nuclear weapon-free zone: Article 2, ASEAN
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.
- Paper presented by minister for defence Stephen Smith MP to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Australian Government: Department of Defence (19 July 2011)
- Plan to reform support ship repair and management practices, Australian Government: Department of Defence (July 2011) [PDF, 1.9MB]
- Australian defence almanac 2011-2012, ASPI (19 July 2011)
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.
- United States environmental migration: vulnerability, resilience, and policy options for internally displaced persons, United Nations University (April 2011) [PDF, 167.37KB]
- The risks and reconstruction model for resettling displaced populations, World Development (October 1997)
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.
- Tax revolution party declaration (15 July 2011) [Korean]
- Look out tea party, here comes the tequila party, France 24 (15 July 2011)
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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