Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly – 30 August 2012

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Nikhil Desai – Energy Security Contributor Between a third and a half of humanity either don’t have the electrical grid or gas/heat pipelines, or can’t rely on them. Though billed as the largest blackout in history…, "Nautilus Peace and Security Weekly – 30 August 2012", NAPSNet Weekly Report, August 30, 2012, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-weekly/nautilus-peace-and-security-weekly-30-august-2012/

CONTENTS

See this week’s blog: Energy insecurity at the Bottom of the Pyramid, from our Energy Security contributor, Nikhil Desai.

DETERRENCE:  CNA maritime Asia project: workshop one: The Yellow and East China Seas, Michael McDevitt, Catherine Lea, Center for Naval Analyses (May 2012) [PDF, 3.1MB]

Vital Chinese interests and US security obligations to Taiwan, Korea, and Japan overlap in the South China and East China Sea/Yellow Seas as potential flashpoints of US-China conflict. Happily, the prospect of a China-Taiwan confrontation is remote.

DPRK: Chef’s redemption tells of a softening North Korea,  Martin Fackler, New York Times (24 August 2012)

Japan and North Korea are holding the first direct talks in 4 years in likely signs of a rapprochement.  Japanese chef going to and coming from North Korea may symbolize Japanese abduction issue.  North and South Korea are discussing flood aid even as North Korea excoriates South Korea and the U.S. for their war games.

ENERGY SECURITY: Satisfying India’s thirst for power could be nation’s biggest challenge, Simon Denyer and Rama Lakshmi, The Washington Post (23 August 2012)

Power shortages are common in the developing countries – from India to Nigeria, South Africa to China. They constrain growth, and perpetuate inequitable development. About a half of the developing country population has either no power or limited power. The UN Sustainable Energy for All initiative – dreaming of some one billion new household grid connections by 2030 at a cost of a trillion US dollars – has spluttered, another example of sustained fantasizing.

NAPSNet Blog: Energy insecurity at the Bottom of the Pyramid

by Nikhil Desai – Energy Security Contributor Between a third and a half of humanity either don’t have the electrical grid or gas/heat pipelines, or can’t rely on them. Though billed as the largest blackout in history…

GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Tokyo, Pyongyang seek talks to increase leverage over Seoul, Kim Young-jin, Korea Times (16 August 2012)

While Japan, China and the ROK are caught in territorial disputes, the DPRK has met with multiple groups in the region. China pledged continued support for a DPRK economic zone. Iran and the DPRK met on the sidelines of the NAM summit and a Japanese civil group went to the DPRK to assess the state of Japanese nationals’ remains, prompting some ROK analysts to fear that Japan and the DPRK may use this cooperation as leverage against Seoul.

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: The influence of multilevel governance systems on the development and implementation of climate adaptation practices within organizations in Australia, draft report, L.E. Bateset al., CSIRO (2012) [312 KB, PDF]

The majority of social research about climate change adaptation is focused on individual behavior with less emphasis on organizational readiness and response. However, organizations face considerable challenges in dealing with the anticipated impacts of climate change. Among these challenges is the need to develop appropriate plans that encompass broader issues of linked environmental, economic, societal and cultural sustainability.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND SECURITY: Chaotic climate change and security, Maximilian Mayer, International Political Sociology 6 (8 June 2012)

The framing of climate change has turned into a highly nonlinear danger that threatens national security. Practices and materials have become entangled across professional and disciplinary contexts. The growing association of chaotic climate change encompasses climatologists, who challenge the mainstream ontology of climate; economists, who started to revisit their economic models; and strategic communities, which began to pick up nonlinear climate changes foregrounding national security.

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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