CONTENTS
- DETERRENCE: New Chinese leader meets military nuclear officers
- DPRK: North Korea rocket: international reaction
- ENERGY SECURITY: Doha climate conference opens gateway to greater ambition and action on climate change
- GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Reunified Korea ‘would distance itself from U.S.’
- CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Climate change adaptation: where does global health fit in the agenda?
- AUSTRAL PEACE AND SECURITY: A sovereign submarine capability in Australia’s grand strategy
See this week’s blog: Shining Missile, Troubled Shipping, from our DPRK contributor, Roger Cavazos.
DETERRENCE: New Chinese leader meets military nuclear officers, Jane Perlez, New York Times (6 December 2012)
China’s new leader, Xi Jinping, met with officers of China’s nuclear force, the 2nd Artillery Corps on December 5, 2012. The Corps “is the core force of our country’s strategic deterrent, it is a strategic pillar of our great power status, and an important bedrock for protecting our national security.”
- Leadership transitions in the Second Artillery Force at the 18th Party Congress: Implications for roles and missions, L.C. Russell Hsiao, Asia Eye, Project 2049 Institute Blog (7 May 2012)
- The bomb returns for a second act, Paul Bracken, Foreign Policy Research Institute (1 December 2012)
- China’s search for assured retaliation the evolution of Chinese nuclear strategy and force structure, M. Taylor Fravel, Evan S. Medeiros, International Security, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Fall 2010) [PDF, 0.3MB]
DPRK: North Korea rocket: international reaction, BBC Website (12 December 2012)
North Korea defied resolutions and expectations by successfully placing Kwangmyongsong 3-F2 in a 494 x 588 km sun-synch orbit, object 2012-072A with US catalog number 39026. They are entering a period of national mourning to mark the one year anniversary of Kim Jong-il’s death. Perhaps a more confident North Korea can enter talks with South Korea. However, other much more meaningful, military developments continue apace.
- Planning for the future: conditions of combined ROK-US military intervention in potential DPRK contingencies, Bechtol, Bruce, Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, (December 2012) [PDF, 49.6 KB]
- Sino-DPRK border billion dollar plan exposed: PLA can quickly enter North Korea, New Global Military Developments website (环球新军事) (10 December 2012) [Chinese language]
- Reunification could lead to a 10-fold rise in welfare spending: KDI, Arirang News (1 December 2012)
BLOG: Shining Missile, Troubled Shipping
by Roger Cavazos – DPRK Contributor
OK, North Korea successfully launched a missile/rocket and stole the spotlight again like a shaman chanting wild…
ENERGY SECURITY: Doha climate conference opens gateway to greater ambition and action on climate change, Press Release UNFCCC (8 December 2012) [PDF, 140.9KB]
The new normal is anxiety and advocacy forever. WMO issues notices of some concentrations, some temperatures, some extremes for whatever they mean. Expert confidence men (and women) of various stripes declare Road Map, Accord, Platform, and now Gateway, whatever they mean. The Kyoto dead horse is given eight more years. Hot air is mostly gone. “Do something-ism” will go on. A new cuisine of numbers is being invented – L&D (loss and damage). Self-perpetuation tactics of Secretariats, Commissariats, and Professoriats. Pay respect and security money. Or else the apocalypse is around the corner.
- 2012: Record Arctic Sea ice melt, multiple extremes and high temperatures, Press Release no. 966, WMO (28 November 2012)
- Greenhouse gas concentrations reach new record – WMO Bulleting highlights pivotal role of carbon sinks, Press Release no. 965, WMO (20 November 2012)
- Provisional annual statement on the state of the global climate, WMO (28 November 2012) [PDF, 288 KB]
- Approaches to address loss and damage associated with climate change impacts in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change to enhance adaptive capacity, Revised proposal by the President, UNFCCC (8 December 2012) [PDF, 275KB]
GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Reunified Korea ‘would distance itself from U.S.’, Chosun Ilbo (12 December 2012)
A US intelligence report predicts that a reunified Korea would engage in “strategic adjustments” to free itself from US influence. While US allies in the region would become economically closer to China, they will continue to rely on the US for security, including in dealing with the DPRK’s nuclear program. China has called for a return to the six-party talks in response to the DPRK’s rocket launch on Wednesday.
- Report: economic downturn in China could threaten regional stability, Park Hyun, Hankyoreh (11 December 2012)
- North Korea’s rocket launch riles neighborhood, but mild response from China expected, Austin Ramzy, Time (12 December 2012)
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Climate change adaptation: where does global health fit in the agenda? Kathryn J Bowen and Sharon Friel, Globalization and Health, vol. 8, no. 10 (2012) [128 KB, PDF]
Adapting to climate change is now seen as a core component of our climate change response arsenal. This is because, unfortunately, climate change mitigation strategies alone will not prevent adverse events resulting from existing climate change; we are now too far down the climate change road to avoid the repercussions of more severe weather events, changes to agricultural yields, conflict and displacement, and the health effects that arise from all of these impacts.
- Managing the health effects of climate change, Joan Ross Frankson, Commonwealth Secretariat (2009) [81.7 KB, PDF]
- Global health equity and climate stabilisation: a common agenda, Sharon Friel et al., vol. 372, pp. 1677–83, Lancet (2008) [307 KB, PDF)
AUSTRAL PEACE AND SECURITY: A sovereign submarine capability in Australia’s grand strategy, Paul Dibb, Centre of Gravity Series, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, ANU (December 2012) [PDF, 3.74mb]
Too many players, especially in Defence, have lost sight of the centrality of Australian sovereign independence when framing Australian defence priorities. This is a consequence of operating in a subordinate role to our great American ally over the last decade. Australia’s defence strategy is now principally a maritime one. Submarines are Australia’s most important strategic asset. Nuclear submarines are not a credible option for Australia.
- Australia’s submarine fleet among world’s worst, John Kerin, Australian Financial Review (12 December 2012)
- Right now, we don’t need an alliance with Japan, Hugh White, The Age (11 December 2012)
- The essential service: the future of the Australian army in a global age, Michael Evans, Quadrant, Volume 56 Issue 10 (October 2012)
The Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly Report presents articles and full length reports each week in six categories: Austral security, nuclear deterrence, energy security, climate change and security, the DPRK, climate change adaptation and governance and civil society. Our team of contributors carefully select items that highlight the links between these themes and the three regions in which our offices are found—North America, Northeast Asia, and the Austral-Asia region. Each week, one of our authors also provides a short blog that explores these inter-relationships.
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Editor
Contributors
- Deterrence: Peter Hayes
- Governance and Civil Society: Dyana Mardon, Yi Kiho
- Climate Change Adaptation: Saleem Janjua
- DPRK: Roger Cavazos
- Energy Security: Nikhil Desai
- Austral Peace and Security: Richard Tanter