- DETERRENCE: Assessment of nuclear monitoring and verification technologies
- DPRK: Korean crisis prompts confrontation with China
- ENERGY SECURITY: Environmental groups say Obama needs to address climate change more aggressively
- GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Abe’s shrine visit blew Japan-S. Korea efforts for summit sky-high
- CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Policy and institutions in adaptation to climate change: case study on flood mitigation infrastructure in India and Nepal
- CLIMATE CHANGE AND SECURITY: Global Risks 2014
DETERRENCE: Assessment of nuclear monitoring and verification technologies, Defense Science Board (January 2014) [PDF, 3.5 MB]
New actors and new types of proliferation exceed the capacity of multilateral and national monitoring regimes. Convergent intelligence and monitoring architectures create “corridors of observation” in multiple domains, establish suspicious “patterns of life” therein, and focus persistent monitoring assets on individuals and activities of concern.
- Drones to be deployed as nuclear fallout detectors, Jeff MacMahon, Forbes (13 March 2013)
- UAV-based environmental monitoring, nuclear physics activities at the IAEA, Ralf Kaiser, IAEA (8 June 2013) [PDF, 6.6MB]
- Airborne multisensor pod system, Arms Control and Nonproliferation Technologies, U.S. Department of Energy, First Quarter 1998, pp.2 [PDF, 6.2MB]
DPRK: Korean crisis prompts confrontation with China, Jonathan D. Pollack and Richard C. Bush III, The Brookings Institute (23 January 2014)
The overall U.S.-China strategic relationship can be negatively – or positively – influenced by bi-lateral confrontation or peace on the Korean peninsula. Both Koreas proposed and counter-proposed to reunite some families separated by the Korean War, but only side made clearly unacceptable requests to cancel military exercises. Low levels of trust on all sides, increase the likelihood even bi-lateral humanitarian gestures will be cancelled again.
- NDC of DPRK sends open letter to South Korean side, (North) Korea Central News Agency, (24 January 2014)
- Sin Son-ho full UN news conference, Martyn Williams, North Korea Tech video channel. (25January 2014) [Video, 19:57]
- South Korea proposes dates to North for family reunions, Choe Sang-hun, New York Times (27 January 2014)
ENERGY SECURITY: Environmental groups say Obama needs to address climate change more aggressively, Juliet Eilperin and Lenny Bernstein, Washington Post (16 January 2014)
Tonight (28th January), Obama did pay lip service to carbon pollution in his lecture to the Congress, but did not mention Keystone pipeline, leaving Canada still in the limbo. In the meantime, train transport of oil has led to another fire, in North Dakota, after one in Quebec last July. James Hansen, now a major leader of the opposition to the pipeline, favors nuclear. He claims to know how many lives nuclear has saved and will save compared to coal power, but not how many lives a pipeline may save compared to train transport of crude oil.
- Investigation begins into fiery North Dakota oil train crash, Todd McDonald, National Public Radio (IS) audio and text (31 December 2013)
- Stop jerking Canada around, Opinion, Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post (23 January 2013)
- Nuclear power: the energy dream that refuses to die, John Kemp, Reuters via Financial Post (21 January 2014)
GOVERNANCE AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Insight: Abe’s shrine visit blew Japan-S. Korea efforts for summit sky-high, Yoshihiro Makino, Asahi Shimbun (28 January 2014)
Japan PM Abe’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine in December has thwarted diplomatic efforts between Japan and the ROK to arrange a high level meeting between the leaders of the two countries, according to sources on both sides. The U.S. wants assurances that Abe won’t make another visit to the site, and a poll shows Japanese voters split in their support for Abe’s visit. Regional tensions had some investors worried at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
- U.S. seeks Abe assurance he won’t visit war shrine, Yuka Hayashi, Wall Street Journal (23 January 2014)
- Japan-China tensions take centre-stage with Abe in Davos, Steve Adler and Paul Taylor, Reuters (22 January 2014)
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION: Policy and institutions in adaptation to climate change: case study on flood mitigation infrastructure in India and Nepal, Partha J Das and Himadri K Bhuyan, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (2013) [PDF, 555 KB]
Floods are the most frequent water-induced hazard in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. The Brahmaputra River Valley in Assam, India, and the Koshi River basin including regions of Nepal and India are two of the most severely flood-affected parts in this region. “Riverbank erosion and land degradation from the deposition of sand on a large scale are other water-induced hazards associated with flooding. These three hazards together have seriously affected people’s lives and livelihoods in many areas of these basins”.
- Adjusting to floods on the Brahmaputra plains, Assam, India, Partha J Das, Dadul Chutiya and Nirupam Hazarika, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (2009)
- Climate change is a depressing reality Assam, Aditya Malaviya (September 2012)
CLIMATE CHANGE AND SECURITY: Global Risks 2014, Ninth Edition, World Economic Forum (2014)
Something does not fit. Global economic and political elites see climate change as one of the highest global risks – both in terms of likelihood and impact. Stressing systemic risk interconnections, they see climate change as having pivotal importance and the strongest linkages, closely connected to global governance risks. Meanwhile, a statistical analysis of civil conflict in Asia maintains “climatic events appear to play a trivial role”.
- On climate variability and civil war in Asia, Gerdis Wischnath and Halvard Buhaug, Climatic Change (22 January 2014)
- Climate risk assessments need to go big, Francesco Femia and Caitlin Werrell, Thomson Reuters Foundation (22 January 2014)
- Global problems: introduction, Richard Tanter and Peter Hayes, Nautilus Institute
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.
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Editor
Contributors
- Deterrence: Peter Hayes
- Governance and Civil Society: Dyana Mardon
- Climate Change Adaptation: Saleem Janjua
- DPRK: Roger Cavazos
- Energy Security: Nikhil Desai
- Climate Change and Security: Richard Tanter