Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly

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"Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly", NAPSNet Weekly Report, July 12, 2012, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-weekly/nautilus-peace-and-security-weekly-13/

12 July 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 adaptation, the DPRK, 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.

CONTENTS

See this week’s blog from our Governance and Civil Society contributor, Yi Kiho.


DETERRENCE:  Should the US consider redeploying tactical nukes in South Korea?  A tactical step that makes sense for South Korea, Seongwhun Cheon, Global Asia ( June 2012)

Nuclear assets are the surest strategic balancer against an   enemy’s nuclear arsenal as no conventional weapons can match nuclear weapons. Bringing back tactical nukes to South Korea would dramatically increase the   alliance’s bargaining power, and shift nuclear negotiations in our favor.


DPRK: N. Korea’s top diplomat arrives in Cambodia for ASEAN Forum, Kim Deok-hyun, Yonhap News (11 July  2012)

North Korea has been fairly quiet, even as various issues remain intractable. About ten North Korean Diplomats will attend the ARF conference, the first possibility of Ministerial-level “unofficial” inter-Korean meeting since Kim Jong Il’s death. North Korea will be exposed to Nuclear Weapons Free Zones. Kim Jong Un appeared with an unknown woman and Disney characters revealing yet again we really don’t know why some things happen in North Korea.


ENERGY SECURITY: Inquiry declares Fukushima crisis a man-made disaster, Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times (5 July 2012)

The Japanese Diet’s Investigation Commission on Fukushima submitted its report, with the Chairman claiming “It was a profoundly man-made disaster – that could and should have been foreseen and prevented.” But that begs the question how many such events that only in retrospect look foreseeable and preventable are not yet foreseen and prevented. Deification of technology goes with demonization of human frailty and Japanese culture. The addiction continues.


GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Central government plans to buy Senkaku Islands, Asahi Shimbun (7 July 2012)

Japan’s central government has stated its intent to purchase the Senkaku Islands after plans to buy the islands were first floated by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara. China and Taiwan both dispute Japan’s sovereignty over the islands. China began annual naval military exercises in nearby waters and Taiwanese activists staged a protest in waters off the islands with support from the Coast Guard, claiming the islands as Taiwanese territory.


Check out this week’s Governance and Civil Society blog: New Line of East Asia: Can Japan return to Asia?


CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Climate change vulnerability assessments as catalysts for social learning: four case studies in South-Eastern Australia, Yuen, E.J., Stone Jovicich, S., Preston, B.L., Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change (2012) [366 KB, PDF]

Technical assessments of vulnerability and/or risk are increasingly being undertaken to assess the impacts of climate change. Underlying this is the belief that they will bring clarity to questions regarding the scale of institutional investments required, plausible adaptation policies and measures, and the timing of their implementation. Despite the perceived importance of technical assessments in ‘evidence-based’ decision environments, assessments cannot be undertaken independent of values and politics, nor are they capable of eliminating the uncertainty that clouds decision-making on climate adaptation.


AUSTRAL PEACE AND SECURITY: Seeing red: ADF at the crossroads, Deborah Snow and Hamish McDonald, The Age (7 July 2012)

Lieutenant-General Peter Leahy, head of the National Security Institute, is watching growing Chinese-US rivalry in the region with increasing alarm, urging Canberra to be wary about falling in with US ambitions to maintain ”primacy” in China’s maritime backyard. ”’My concern is that we are so embedded in the US planning process, we are so interoperable with them, that there’s this expectation we will be involved in whatever [the US] does. We have to be careful that doesn’t overwhelm our sovereign decisions.”


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