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NTS Bulletin November 2012

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NTS VIEWPOINT

Nuclear and safety: Can the two ever meet?

By Lina Gong

In September, the Japanese government announced that it would phase out nuclear energy by 2040. Just one week later, it stepped back from specifying an explicit timeframe. The about-turn illustrates Japan’s dilemma: should it prioritise safety, or energy security? With energy demand rising in East Asia, other countries in the region are grappling with the self-same question.

Safety risks inherent in nuclear energy were dramatically brought to public consciousness by the Fukushima nuclear crisis of 2011. Following that crisis, communities in Japan were vocal in expressing their worries over nuclear safety. However, the Japanese government has had to weigh such concerns against the need to meet energy demand in the country. Before Fukushima, nuclear energy was the most important domestic source of energy, generating 30 per cent of Japan’s electricity.

Given the importance of nuclear energy for Japan’s energy security, any re-alignment to alternative sources of energy would be a long and intricate process. Japan in fact reopened two reactors in July 2012, after just two months of being nuclear free. It is clear that the complete abandonment of nuclear energy is not realistic in the near and medium term, and that Japan would have to instead pay attention to reducing nuclear risks.

An investigation into the Fukushima crisis revealed that, with safety processes properly implemented, the effects of the earthquake could have been mitigated, and disaster prevented. Other experts pointed out that the damage wrought by the Great East Japan Earthquake was made worse by loopholes in enforcement of safety standards.

The Fukushima crisis thus underlined the critical importance of effective regulation and supervision of nuclear facilities. In September 2012, Japan strengthened regulation on nuclear safety, replacing the country’s Nuclear Safety Commission and its Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency with the Nuclear Regulation Authority. In addition to improved regulation at the national level, nuclear safety could also be enhanced through cooperation and coordination with international organisations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Nuclear energy appears here to stay, and not just in Japan. China recently started approving new nuclear projects again, after a hiatus of more than a year. Its first white paper on energy policy released in October 2012 envisions that its use of nuclear energy will continue to rise. Southeast Asia has also seen a nuclear renaissance in recent years. And while the Singapore government recently declared current nuclear technologies not suitable for Singapore, the door for nuclear energy is not fully closed.

With nuclear use on the rise, countries in the region need to pay attention to safety, particularly as nuclear accidents could have devastating cross-border consequences. Regional institutions could take the lead here, providing a platform for countries to share information and lessons. It is thus encouraging that at a recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, member countries signed a declaration emphasising the importance of safety even as the region diversifies its sources of energy. Such regional-level action must continue to be vigorously pursued.

Lina Gong is Research Associate at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

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CLIMATE CHANGE, ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY AND NATURAL DISASTERS

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

Plan International, 2012, Children’s action for disaster risk reduction: Views from children in Asia 2012, Bangkok: UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) Asia Pacific.

This publication documents the views of children from seven Asian countries on how disasters and climate change affect their lives and their rights. It reports the children’s thoughts on what they believe their role can be and what they are expecting from their governments and from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the private sector. Their experiences while participating in disaster risk reduction activities are also highlighted.

Recio, Eugenia, 2012, ‘On the road to Doha: Will the bell toll for the Kyoto Protocol?’, Policy Update No. 12, Climate Change Policy & Practice.

The first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol is set to conclude in December 2012. This policy update discusses why countries are keen to adopt a ‘robust’ second commitment period at the November 2012 UN Climate Change Conference in Doha, Qatar. It presents an overview of the main elements that need to be agreed upon to configure the second commitment period’s main features and rules.

Hirono, Miwa and Jacinta O’Hagan, 2012, Cultures of humanitarianism: Perspectives from the Asia-Pacific, Keynotes No. 11, Canberra: Department of International Relations, The Australian National University.

This publication addresses some of the questions about the ethics, concepts and practices that inform the ways in which humanitarianism is understood in the Asia-Pacific region. The short essays interrogate the concept of humanitarianism, and explore commonalities and variations in approaches to humanitarianism in China, Japan and Indonesia.

Events & Announcements

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ENERGY AND HUMAN SECURITY

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

Hangzo, Pau Khan Khup, 2012, ‘Transboundary rivers in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region: Beyond the “water as weapon” rhetoric’, NTS Insight, September, Singapore: RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies.

This article argues that China’s dam-building in its southwest region is primarily driven by domestic economic, and thus social and political, considerations. This perspective represents a departure from the traditional view that China wants to achieve strategic control over its transboundary rivers. The article also notes the need for more dialogue and exchange among related countries to address each other’s concerns.

Asian Development Bank (ADB), 2012, Greater Mekong Subregion power trade and interconnection: 2 decades of cooperation, Mandaluyong City.

This report reviews the achievements of the Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program (GMS Program) in enhancing regional energy cooperation. The GMS Program has been able to facilitate the development of a regional power market to make electricity available and affordable despite the fact that countries in the region vary in their levels of economic development and electricity-related infrastructure.

Events & Announcements

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FOOD AND HEALTH SECURITY

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), 2012, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012, Rome.

The FAO used revised methodology to determine the number of hungry and undernourished people in the world for this year’s report on global food insecurity. The number of undernourished people in the world is now estimated to be 870 million. This report provides new information on the impact of the global food price crises of 2007–2008, and outlines the key factors behind the vastly varying capacities of different developing countries to cope with economic shocks.

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), 2012, 2012 Global Hunger Index – The challenge of hunger: Ensuring sustainable food security under land, water, and energy stresses, Washington, DC.

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) presents multidimensional measures of global, national and regional hunger, taking a range of food security indicators into account. This year’s report notes that progress in reducing hunger has been slow in recent years, and global hunger overall remains ‘serious’ on the GHI scale. The 2012 report also highlights the importance of sustainable food security, particularly under increasing pressure on land, water and energy resources.

Events & Announcements

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INTERNAL AND CROSS-BORDER CONFLICT

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

Piiparinen, Touko, 2012, ‘Sovereignty-building: Three images of positive sovereignty projected through Responsibility to Protect’, Global Change, Peace and Security, Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 405–24.

This article examines the implementation of the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) principle in relation to the emergence of sovereignty-building as a new paradigm of global security. It draws on relevant literature as well as empirical evidence to posit that the image of responsible sovereignty in the RtoP is made up of three aspects: popular, spontaneous and indivisible sovereignty. That image, it is argued, is projected on states in the implementation of the RtoP.

Sagi-Schwartz, Abraham, 2012, ‘Children of war and peace: A human development perspective’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 56, No. 5, pp. 933–51.

Using the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as the context for analysis, this article synthesises research on the vulnerability and resiliency of children living under extreme circumstances of political violence in different war zones. It uses human development, socio-political psychology and trauma psychology to propose an ecological-developmental model to show how some children may or may not grow to become adults more willing to engage in conflict management and peacebuilding.

Events & Announcements

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TRANSNATIONAL CRIME

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

Williams, Phil and Vanda Felbab-Brown, 2012, Drug trafficking, violence, and instability, SSI Monograph, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), US Army War College.

Challenges posed by various kinds of violent armed groups reflect connections between security and governance and, in particular, the relationship between poor governance and violent armed groups. This monograph focuses on the complex links between human security, crime, illicit economies and law enforcement. It seeks to disentangle the linkages between insurgency on the one hand and drug trafficking and organised crime on the other, suggesting that criminal activities help sustain an insurgency, but also carry certain risks for the insurgency.

Blank, Stephen J. (ed.), 2012, Russia’s homegrown insurgency: Jihad in the North Caucasus, SSI Monograph, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), US Army War College.

The papers in this monograph provide an analysis of the insurgency and counterinsurgency campaigns being conducted by Islamist rebels against Russia in the North Caucasus. This conflict is Russia’s primary security threat, but it has barely registered on Western minds and is hardly reported in the West. To overcome this neglect, the papers go into detail concerning the nature of the Islamist challenge, the Russian response and the implications of this conflict.

Kar, Dev and Sarah Freitas, 2012, Illicit financial flows from China and the role of trade misinvoicing, Washington, DC: Global Financial Integrity (GFI).

According to this report, China lost USD3.79 trillion in illicit financial flows in 2000–2011. The authors write that one of the adverse effects of illicit flows from China has been a worsening of the country’s income inequality as the rich get richer through tax evasion (which comprises by far the major portion of such outflows) and through using the world’s shadow financial system to shelter and multiply their illicit wealth.

Events & Announcements

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WATER SECURITY

News & Commentaries

Selected Publications

Thornton, Philip and Laura Cramer (eds), 2012, ‘Impacts of climate change on the agricultural and aquatic systems and natural resources within the CGIAR’s mandate’, CCAFS Working Paper No. 23, Copenhagen: CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

This report observes that there is a need for a major overhaul of water management strategies in developing countries so as to enable the world’s poorest to cope with climate change. In regions where rainfall patterns are likely to become far less predictable, increasing the resilience of subsistence farmers would be important. Research suggests that developing resilience strategies for such vulnerable groups could have substantial payoffs.

Jacobsen, Michael, Michael Webster and Kalanithy Vairavamoorthy (eds), 2012, The future of water in African cities: Why waste water?, Washington, DC: World Bank.

With Africa’s urban population set to double by 2030, the region’s cities will have even greater difficulties providing sustainable water services. This report argues that the traditional approach of one source, one system and one discharge cannot close the water gap. It suggests that an Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) approach would be needed, and provides examples of cities in Africa and beyond that have implemented IUWM both in terms of technical and institutional solutions.

Trémolet, Sophie and Martina Rama, 2012, ‘Tracking national financial flows into sanitation, hygiene and drinking-water’, Working Paper, Geneva: World Health Organization (WHO).

The objective of the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) is to monitor the inputs required to extend and sustain water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems and services. This second UN-Water GLAAS report presents data received from 74 developing countries, covering all the Millennium Development Goal regions; and from 24 external support agencies, representing approximately 90 per cent of official development assistance for sanitation and drinking water.

Events & Announcements

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You are free to publish this material in its entirety or only in part in your newspapers, wire services, internet-based information networks and newsletters and you may use the information in your radio-TV discussions or as a basis for discussion in different fora, provided full credit is given to the author(s) and the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). Kindly inform the publisher (NTS_Centre@ntu.edu.sg) and provide details of when and where the publication was used.

About the Centre:

The Centre for NTS Studies, based in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), 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, Food Security, 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.

The Centre is the Coordinator of the ASEAN-Canada Research Partnership (2012–2015) supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. It also serves as the Secretariat of the initiative.

In 2009, the Centre was chosen by the MacArthur Foundation as a lead institution for its three-year Asia Security Initiative (2009–2012), to develop policy research capacity and recommend policies on the critical security challenges facing the Asia-Pacific. It 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.