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NTS Bulletin

NTS Bulletin May 2010 (Issue 1)
Issues:
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MAIN HIGHLIGHT

Earthquake rocks China again – were lessons learnt from Sichuan?

An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale rocked Southern Qinghai in China on Wednesday, 14 April 2010. Over 2,200 people have died in the earthquake. The population of the province is largely Tibetan. Despite the rough terrain, soldiers, civilians and Tibetan monks were seen working together in providing relief to those affected. However, looking at some lessons learnt from the Sichuan’s earthquake in 2008, questions about the preparedness of the authorities in the face of natural disasters still remain. Besides, with the collapse of many buildings, issues regarding shoddy construction are also being raised, with blame directed at the Chinese government for overlooking the issue of unauthorised construction and for the region’s relative poverty, which makes them more vulnerable to the impact of the disaster.




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HEALTH SECURITY

News and Commentaries

Papers and Reports

The rise of global health issues within the world of foreign policy is precipitating great interest in the concept and practice of health diplomacy. Much discussion of this new field, particularly within the global health community, has narrowly focused on how diplomatic negotiations and foreign policy can be used to support global health goals. Recent articles claim, for example, that ‘foreign policy is now being driven substantially by health”’ and that health can move ‘foreign policy away from a debate about interests to one about global altruism’.

New and unprecedented opportunities to bolster global health through diplomacy have emerged, but claims that health now drives foreign policy fail to appreciate how significantly traditional foreign policy interests continue to shape health diplomacy. Foreign policy interests play a critical role in determining which global health issues achieve political priority and attract funding. In addition, an important, but less analysed trend involves the increasing use of health interventions as instruments to advance foreign policy interests. Countries are increasingly using health initiatives as a means to improve security, project power and influence, improve their international image, or support other traditional foreign policy objectives.

WHO has developed a new health-financing strategy (2010–2015) for the Asia-Pacific region, which was adopted by Member States in September 2009. This article summarises the strategy’s four target indicators, comments on health expenditure within the region and outlines some of WHO’s guidelines for policymakers on appropriate health-financing policies.

The global economic crisis has slowed the pace of poverty reduction in developing countries, and is hampering progress toward the other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), says a new report from the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. The crisis is having an impact in several key MDG areas, including those related to hunger, child and maternal health, gender equality, access to clean water, and disease control, and it will continue to affect development prospects well beyond 2015, says the Global Monitoring Report 2010: The MDGs after the Crisis. The report projects that the number of extreme poor could total around 920 million five years from now, marking a significant decline from the 1.8 billion people living in extreme poverty in 1990.

Maternal mortality remains a major challenge to health systems worldwide. Reliable information about the rates and trends in maternal mortality is essential for resource mobilisation, and for planning and assessment of progress towards Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5), the target for which is a 75 per cent reduction in the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) from 1990 to 2015. Levels and trends in maternal mortality for 181 countries have been assessed in this article.

According to the authors, substantial, albeit varied, progress has been made towards MDG 5. Although only 23 countries are on track to achieve a 75 per cent decrease in MMR by 2015, countries such as Egypt, China, Ecuador, and Bolivia have been achieving accelerated progress.

Events & Announcements

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FOOD SECURITY

News & Commentaries

Papers & Reports

This article explains the technical potential of C (carbon) sequestration in world soils for mitigating climate change and describes its positive impacts on agronomic productivity and global food security through the improvement of soil quality. It also supports the idea of economic development through the provision of payments to farmers in developing countries for their stewardship and enhancement of ecosystem services. These would be generated by their use of recommended management practices for improved agriculture. Depending upon climate and other variables, C sequestration could increase cereal and food legume production in developing countries. It is precisely this strategy which would have received broad political support at the COP-15 meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009 from developing countries, emerging economies and the industrialised world. Addressing the issue of food in-security and global warming through sequestration of C in soils and the biota, along with payments to resource-poor farmers for the ecosystem services rendered, would be a timely win-win strategy.

Events & Announcements

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CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY AND NATURAL DISASTERS

News & Commentaries

Papers & Reports

This brief provides an overview of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, highlighting the institutional arrangements for each component, to ensure that poor people in developing countries are not excluded.

This Synthesis Report presents the key results of the second phase of a major analytic project on a reform of the Financial Mechanism of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It synthesises four OIES Energy and Environment Papers, and (updated versions) of four preliminary policy briefs by the lead author of this report, published in the run up to the recent Copenhagen Climate Conference.

By analysing both the risks and benefits to China of a shift to a low carbon economy and society, it is hoped that the National Human Development Report (NHDR) 2009/10 will provide considerable contribution to China’s rapidly evolving policies in this area. The 2009/10 NHDR highlights that if China can fully grasp and seize the opportunities at hand, it will be possible to move to a society which is not only environmentally sustainable, but with better conditions for greater job creation, resource efficiency, energy security, food security, and a much improved health situation for its people; a society which, in line with China’s own ‘Xiaokang’ vision, is well-balanced and moderately prosperous. In order for China to achieve a balanced low carbon development, the 2009/10 NHDR recommends a phased approach divided in urgent polices and measures, and a broader menu of mid- and long-term actions, in turn, divided into mitigation, carbon sink enhancement, technology, and capacity development and consumption.

The author argues that climate change has been a key factor in the rise and fall of societies and states from prehistory to the recent fighting in the Sudanese state of Darfur. It drives instability, conflict and collapse, but also expansion and reorganisation. He further argues that the ways cultures have met the climate challenge provide object lessons for how the modern world can handle the new security threats posed by unprecedented global warming. Combining historical precedents with current thinking on state stability, internal conflict and state failure suggests that overcoming cultural, social, political and economic barriers to successful adaptation to a changing climate is the most important factor in avoiding instability in a warming world.

Events & Announcements

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ENERGY SECURITY

News & Commentaries

Papers & Reports

In this paper, the authors discuss the issue of energy supply security with the aim of explaining the roles of science and economics in structuring this concept. After a brief survey of past and contemporary literature on the definition and measurement of energy security, they propose an additional dimension along which the indicators of energy security may be classified. These indicators – ex-post (mostly based on price developments) and ex-ante (largely aimed at illustrating potential problems) – are used for the authors’ illustration of the energy security concept. In conclusion, this paper suggests that the market structure needs to be taken into account alongside the political stability of energy exporting countries.

While renewable energy (RE) technologies possess the potential to mitigate climate change and meet rural electrification needs, the authors argue, the tendency to simply conflate these two drivers by installing RE technologies in rural regions for climate change mitigation rather than for development purposes can compromise both goals. The risk, they pointed out, is the support for sub-optimal rural RE policies especially in the real-world context of limited funding available for achieving both aims all at once. As such, the authors evaluate how these rural energy aims have been balanced by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) project. Using GEF project documents, the research yielded results which raise concerns about the effectiveness and appropriateness of GEF project funding and highlights the importance of post-Kyoto framework design to reduce carbon emissions while simultaneously promote development in the rural areas.

Nuclear can potentially form a vital part of the future energy mix. Notwithstanding the worldwide appeal of nuclear energy, the author in this report pointed out that nuclear expansion and the uncontrolled dissemination of fuel cycle technologies carry the potential of nuclear weapons proliferation. To date, a range of proposals had been recommended in the multilateralisation of the nuclear fuel cycle as a solution to the proliferation risks. However, these proposals had been rejected or blocked by nuclear fuel non-supplier states for a variety of reasons. In order to achieve real progress toward a multilateral approach to the nuclear fuel cycle, the author suggests that an international non-discriminatory nuclear fuel cycle control regime based on mutual interstate understanding is the way to go. Still, attaining this aim will require broad political consensus among the international community with due regard to an array of priorities and concerns surrounding technological access and the protection of national rights to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Events & Announcements

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Use of this article:

You are free to publish this article in its entirety or only in part in your newspapers, wire services, internet-based information networks and newsletters and you are also free to use the information in your radio-TV discussions or as a basis for discussion in different fora. We would, however, appreciate it if you could let us know when and where the article was used.

About the Centre:

The Centre for NTS Studies of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, was inaugurated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Dr Surin Pitsuwan in May 2008. The Centre maintains research in the fields of Climate Change, Energy Security, Health Security, as well as Internal and Cross Border Conflict. It produces policy-relevant analyses aimed at furthering awareness and building capacity to address NTS issues and challenges in the Asia Pacific region and beyond. The Centre also provides a platform for scholars and policymakers within and outside Asia to discuss and analyse NTS issues in the region.

In 2009, the Centre was chosen by the MacArthur Foundation as a lead institution for the MacArthur Asia Security Initiative, to develop policy research capacity and recommend policies on the critical security challenges facing the Asia-Pacific.

The Centre is also a founding member and the Secretariat for the Consortium of Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies in Asia (NTS-Asia). More information on the Centre can be found at www.rsis.edu.sg/nts


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