NTS-Asia Newsletter No. 29

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Announcements

BIPSS Joins EU-Asia Network

The Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) is now a member of the EU-Asia Network. The EU-Asia Network aims to be a pioneer network linking leading think tanks in Asia and Europe to generate discussions on how EU-Asia relations should look like in the 21st century.  Emphasising the necessity of an EU-Asia bridge, this network will also seek to evaluate EU’s approach to Asia. The research pillars of the EU-Asia Network include global governance and regional setting, the security-development nexus, trade, energy and climate change, as well as democracy and human rights.

CSDS-Lokniti Receives Research Grant from Indian Council of Social Science Research

The proposed study by the Centre for Developing Societies’ (CSDS’)-Lokniti Programme for Comparative Democracy has received a research grant from the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) as part of its call for proposals under the two themes of ‘National integration: Old and New Bearings’ and ‘Democracy: New Publics’.

The project contains a series of activities distinct to each theme but which still links the themes together. The project will seek to investigate the relationship between state-formation, nation-building and constitution of public(s) under conditions of democratic contestation.

CISS Announces New Academic Appointments

The Centre for International Security Studies (CISS) in the University of Sydney, is pleased to announce the appointment of three new academics due to begin in the next 6 months.

Dr Adam Kamradt-Scott comes to the Centre from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he has been based since 2009. Dr Kamradt-Scott has a background in nursing prior to his academic career in international security and has worked with senior policymakers in Australia on pandemic preparedness plans. He will be joining the Centre as a Senior Lecturer from November 2011.

Dr Frank Smith is currently a Research Fellow at Griffith University and an Associate Investigator with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security. He specialises in technology and international security with a focus on biosecurity and US defence policy. Dr Smith will be joining the Centre as a lecturer from January 2012.

Dr John Lee joins the Centre as an Adjunct Associate Professor and the Michael Hintze Fellow for Energy Security. Dr Lee holds a PhD in international relations from Oxford University and is one of Australia’s rising academic talents with a high media profile and a demonstrated capacity to work across disciplinary and geographical spaces. He joined the Centre in August.

Click here to find out more about CISS activities.

CSDS Conducts State of the Nation Survey 2011

Lokniti-CSDS in collaboration with CNN IBN and CNBC–TV 18 conducted the State of the Nation Survey August 2011 study across 19 states in India.

Fieldwork for the study was conducted between 25 and 31 July 2011. 39,000 randomly selected names from the updated electoral rolls were approached for interview, of which 20,268 interviews were successfully completed. Women, Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims and rural persons comprised 46 per cent, 21 per cent, 7 per cent, 10 per cent and 73 per cent of the sample respectively. The composition reflected the representativeness of the sample despite a slight over-representation of dalits and a slight under-representation of Muslims. Results of the study were published in the media.

Libya and the Responsibility to Protect: The Exception and the Norm
Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (APCR2P)
Alex J. Bellamy, Ethics & International Affairs, Vol. 25.3, 20 September 2011.

The Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) played an important role in shaping the world’s response to actual and threatened atrocities in Libya. Not least was the adoption of Resolution 1973 by the UN Security Council on 17 May 2011 which reflected a change in the Council's attitude toward the use of force for human protection purposes; and the role played by the UN’s new Joint Office on the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect which points toward the potential for this new capacity to identify threats of mass atrocities and to focus the UN's attention on preventing them. These two facts suggest that significant progress on the RtoP has been made. Where it was once a term of art employed by a handful of like-minded countries, activists, and scholars, but regarded with suspicion by much of the rest of the world, RtoP has now become a commonly accepted frame of reference for preventing and responding to mass atrocities.

Libya and the State of Intervention
Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (APCR2P)
Tim Dunne, R2P Ideas in Brief, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2011.

This is a briefing written by Tim Dunne, Research Director at the APCR2P, which focuses on difficult issues related to Libya and state intervention, including the hard question about the RtoP and regime change. It also gives background information on past humanitarian actions, and the context of Australia's activism on RtoP.

Farmers’ Suicides and Statehood Demand in Bundelkhand
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)
A.K. Verma, Economic And Political Weekly, Vol. 46, No. 28, pp. 10–11, 9–15 July 2011.

Farmers’ suicides in Bundelkhand, India, are a result of several years of neglect of the agricultural sector and industrial backwardness. Neither the Uttar Pradesh nor the Madhya Pradesh government has made efforts to address the basic issues of ecological degradation, agricultural modernisation and rural indebtedness. The demand for a separate state only serves to satisfy political ends and is no solution for the multiple problems of Bundelkhand’s farmers.

Human Trafficking: A Security Concern for Bangladesh
Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS)
Issue Brief, No. 9, August 2011.

This Issue Brief explores the problem of human trafficking, a growing security threat for Bangladesh. It highlights the challenges and implications of human trafficking from both human and national security dimensions. The Brief focuses specifically on the issue of trafficking in persons. In Bangladesh, human trafficking has become an acute problem. Doubt has been cast on the government’s willingness to address the issue given the complicity of the government with the trafficking nexus. The US Department of State has placed Bangladesh in Tier 2 of its trafficking watchlist, which poses a threat of sanctions being placed on Bangladesh if the country fails to improve efforts to counter the threat of the trafficking in persons by next year. 

Report on the International Workshop on ‘Security Implications of Climate Change in the Asia-Pacific’
Ilmin International Relations Institute (IRRI)
Workshop Report, July 2011.

This report summarises the proceedings of the Ilmin International Relations Institute-Global Green Growth (IIRI-GGGI) Workshop on ‘Security Implications of Climate Change in the Asia-Pacific’ held on 8 April 2011 in Korea University in Seoul. The workshop was supported by the Ford Foundation through the Consortium of Non-Traditional Security Studies in Asia (NTS-Asia).

The workshop aimed to address climate security and explore national and regional policy responses. Topics that were discussed included the security aspects of climate change, current responses to climate change in the region, and the increasing accountability of regional organisations to address climate change in the Asia-Pacific.

Women, Peace and Security: Moving from Rhetoric to Action
Institute for Human Security (IHS), La Trobe University
Jasmine-Kim Westendorf, IHS Working Paper Series, No. 4, 2011.

With the changing nature of warfare over the past half century, and the increasing awareness of the specific impact of warfare on women, the international legal framework has been expanded to address the particular challenges faced by women in conflict and post-conflict contexts. This process culminated in 2000 with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on women, peace and security, which was the first UN document to explicitly address the role and needs of women in peace processes. Ten years on, this paper assesses the current state of UNSCR 1325 implementation globally, and explores the opportunities and challenges involved in using National Action Plans (NAPs) to systematise the resolution’s implementation at national levels.

International Pandemic Preparedness and Response Conference
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
Conference Report, August 2011.

This report covers the proceedings of the International Pandemic Preparedness and Response Conference 2011 themed ‘Finding the Balance between Vigilance, Warning and Lessons from Disaster Management’ convened by the RSIS Centre for NTS Studies in Singapore on 18–19 April 2011.

The Conference brought together a wide array of participants from across Asia and beyond to share information and exchange ideas on the lessons to take away from the handling and management of past pandemics in the region. It also aimed to discuss and determine the best ways forward to prepare for future pandemics or outbreaks without compromising other health security and disease priorities.

Symposium on Inter-State Water Conflicts in Southern Asia
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
Conference Report, June 2011.

Water conflicts are a subject of intense debate and discussion in Southern Asia with factors such as the history of partition, a burgeoning population, increasing urbanisation and scarcity of water resources, serving only to magnify transboundary river disputes in the region.

This report summarises the proceedings of a ‘Symposium on Inter-State Water Conflicts in Southern Asia’, organised by the South Asia Programme of the RSIS Institute for Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS), and the RSIS Centre for NTS Studies, on 18 February 2011. The Symposium brought together participants from diverse fields to present points of view from both sides of India's water conflicts with Pakistan, Bangladesh and China, and to discuss those perspectives. The aim was to understand and identify areas of agreement and disagreement, devise ways to reduce differences, and explore new, practical steps to reduce friction among states.

NTS-MacArthur Digest
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
September 2011.

This second issue of the NTS-MacArthur Digest provides a broad summary and web links to 12 working papers of the MacArthur Asia Security Initiative Policy Series published under the MacArthur Asia Security Initiative beginning from March this year.

Papers in this issue cover topics such as REDD and REDD+ in Indonesia, ASEAN and security sector governance, gender and climate change, and energy security cooperation.

Forests, Food and Fuel: REDD+ and Indonesia’s Land-use Conundrum
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
J. Jackson Ewing, MacArthur Asia Security Initiative Policy Working Paper, No. 19, August 2011.

Indonesia faces pronounced land-use challenges. The country must deal with the legacies of short-sighted land conversions, the need to pursue foreign investment, capital growth and employment generation through profitable land intensive industries, and the rising food demands of a growing and increasingly urban population. Moreover, Indonesia must pursue these daunting objectives without overly compromising its endowment of forest resources; which provide a range of valuable services both domestically and internationally.

This paper takes as its point of entry the movement of the Reduced Emissions through Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) programme into Indonesia’s land-use calculus.

Cooperating in the Energy Security Regime Complex
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
Jochen Prantl, MacArthur Asia Security Initiative Policy Working Paper, No. 18, August 2011.

Existing work on energy security tends to overemphasise the prospect of competition and conflict over resources while under-exploring the promise of cooperation among global and regional economies. Viewing energy security through the spectre of armed conflict traps policy planners in a zero-sum analysis and strongly suggests that the energy security of one country can only be achieved at the expense of another. Yet such a conclusion is fundamentally flawed, since it ignores the increasingly complex interdependence in the energy and product trade chain among countries, globally and regionally.

This paper provides an analytical framework for understanding and explaining energy security and highlights some building blocks for crafting energy cooperation in East Asia. There is no integrated regime to address issues related to energy security. Instead, there is a patchwork of loosely coupled rules, regulations and institutions, overlapping and sometimes competing, which amount to a regime complex.

(Not) Reconciling International Security (IS) with Non-traditional Security (NTS) Studies: Westphalia, the 'West' and the Long Shadow of 1944
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
Shaun Breslin, MacArthur Asia Security Initiative Policy Working Paper, No. 17, August 2011.

The end of the Cold War has seen a shift away from states towards more people-centred understandings of security, leading to some previously neglected issues becoming part of the international security agenda. However, the move to address NTS challenges tends to be limited to the causes of insecurity for people in the developed world. The causes of fear and want of millions in the developing world are left outside the discourses of international security (IS), and consequently, these concerns are often marginalised when it comes to attempts to find new ways of ensuring international security.

This paper argues that the differences between NTS and IS studies may be too fundamental for them to ever find a comfortable common ground; and it suggests that the sub-disciplines of regional/area studies and international political economy (IPE) may offer greater utility in moving forward the NTS discourse.

Climate Insecurities in Indonesia: Implications and Challenges for Defence Transformation
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
Evan A. Laksmana, MacArthur Asia Security Initiative Policy Working Paper, No. 16, July 2011.

This paper seeks to identify and assess key climate insecurities in Indonesia and further explore how they could potentially influence the process of defence reform that has been ongoing in Indonesia since Suharto's downfall in 1998. Key climate insecurities in Indonesia are related to energy and food security, large-scale disasters, drought, changing climate patterns and rising sea levels. Furthermore, this paper argues that given these security implications, the Indonesian National Defence Forces (TNI) has yet to seriously assess and incorporate climate change into its force development plans. Finally, this paper outlines some of the key challenges and prospects for TNI’s defence reform process, as it relates to climate change.

Differentiated Policies: Indonesia's International Leadership and Internal Challenges
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
Alistair D.B. Cook, NTS Policy Brief, No. 12, June 2011.
 
Indonesia’s position as a regional champion of democracy and human rights has become prominent in international forums since the resignation of President Suharto in 1998 and the subsequent period of internal democratic reform. Its proactive foreign policy culminated in the establishment of the Bali Democracy Forum in 2008 to promote and strengthen democracy and the rule of law in Asia through a process of learning and sharing. While Indonesia's proactive foreign policy continues, significant internal challenges remain. This policy brief offers an insight into one of Indonesia’s longest running internal challenges, Papua, and suggests the use of the human security lens as an alternative to the dominant traditional security lens used by many policymakers, in an effort to promote conflict resolution and match developments at home with its proactive strategies abroad.

Food Production and Environmental Health in Southeast Asia: The Search for Complementary Strategies
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
J. Jackson Ewing, NTS Policy Brief, No. 11, May 2011.

Growing food demands and escalating environmental stresses create a series of challenges throughout Southeast Asia. Projected population and consumption patterns strongly suggest that food production will have to increase markedly in the coming decades to avoid a reduction in the quality of life and pronounced food insecurities in various parts of the region. Efforts to increase food production may in turn place greater stress on vital environmental systems and cause a range of negative and lasting corollary effects. Such a scenario is far from inevitable, however, and many tools are already in existence that can help the region concurrently achieve greater food producing capacities and the environmental conditions necessary to sustain future social progress. This policy brief offers analyses that address how such a future can be attained, and presents recommendations for those in search of complementary environmental and food production strategies.

The Challenges and Opportunities of Farmland Acquisition in Southeast Asia
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
Irene A. Kuntjoro and Pau Khan Khup Hangzo, NTS Perspectives, Issue 7, July 2011.

One of the lingering effects of the food price crisis of 2007–2008 is a surge in the acquisition of farmland in developing countries by wealthier, food-insecure nations and private investors, with the aim of producing crops for their own markets. These projects could lead to much-needed investment being injected into rural, agricultural areas. However, there are also potential negative consequences, such as the poor losing access to, and control over, land on which they depend. It is therefore crucial that these land deals and the environment within which they take place are structured in such a way that they minimise the threats to human security and optimise the benefits.

New Institutional Developments in ASEAN: Towards A More Effective (Genuine) Security Architecture?
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
Holly Haywood, NTS Alert, Issue 2, September 2011.

The recent establishment of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) as an integral part of the ADMM, a forum created in 2006 as a means of fostering defence and security dialogue and cooperation within the region, has elevated the buzz surrounding ASEAN’s efforts to consolidate regional political and security cooperation, with many positing that the new forums are a significant step towards the formation of an ASEAN security community. This NTS Alert considers the kind of security governance that ASEAN’s new and existing institutions – specifically the ADMM and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) – appear geared towards; and whether there are indications that ASEAN is attempting to evolve its framework for regional (security) governance – constituted by an array of overlapping institutions – into a more coherent security architecture.

Examining ASEAN Capacity in the Context of the Thai-Cambodian Border Dispute
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
Holly Haywood, NTS Alert, Issue 1, September 2011.

Amidst heightened expectations regarding ASEAN’s contribution to international order, particularly in the context of a trend towards multilevel security governance, ASEAN is attempting to transform itself into a more proactive and effective organisation. Under Indonesia’s chairmanship, it has approached the border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia as a significant opportunity to develop its capacity for conflict management and resolution. However, the ensuing diplomatic saga in the Thai, Cambodian and Indonesian capitals has served to remind us of the many obstacles that ASEAN invariably faces in this endeavour, not least of which are powerful domestic interests and actors with divergent motivations.

Responding to Protection Gaps in Malaysia’s Anti-Human Trafficking Policies
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
Manpavan Kaur, NTS Alert, Issue 2, August 2011.

This NTS Alert discusses the protection gaps in national anti-human trafficking policies perpetuated by the dominant influence of the US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Reports. Using Malaysia as a case study, this NTS Alert discusses how over-reliance on the US TIP Reports has led certain states to focus their national policies on prosecuting traffickers. Without a more balanced approach, trafficked persons remain inadequately protected. The experiences of local communities in Malaysia can be tapped upon to inform more holistic anti-human trafficking policies; they currently collaborate with the non-government sector to assist with these protection needs. However, the non-government sector experiences restrictions in influencing policy changes. Thus, it is suggested that a rebalancing of the US Department of State’s skewed focus on prosecuting traffickers is needed to promote internal policy changes in Malaysia.

The Implications of the US Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy for National Policies: The Case of Malaysia
RSIS Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies
Manpavan Kaur, NTS Alert, Issue 1, August 2011.

The annual US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report has become the primary international enforcement mechanism against human trafficking. This NTS Alert discusses the role played by this mechanism, and critically analyses its effectiveness in combating human trafficking and influencing national policies. The case of Malaysia is used to assess the impact of this US strategy on national policies. One shortcoming of the strategy is highlighted: it prioritises prosecution rates of traffickers over the rights protection of those trafficked, thereby creating a human security deficit in responding to human trafficking.

Financing Smallholder Aquaculture Enterprises
The Worldfish Center
Policy Brief, No. 7, 2011.

This policy brief provides guidance on investing in the improvement or establishment of smallholder aquaculture enterprises. It builds upon experiences of working with smallholder commercial farmers in Asia, and particularly from facilitating improvements with small-scale shrimp and fish farmers in Aceh, Indonesia, analyses of the Vietnamese catfish industry, a review of aquaculture producer organisations as well as cross-commodity and country comparisons. It is intended to guide both public and private actors in approaches to financing improvements in business oriented smallholder aquaculture, and to be an entry point for the private sector on more inclusive ways to engage smallholders in value chains.

Aquaculture and Markets: A Research Agenda
The Worldfish Center
A. Gordon and L. Kassam, Issues Brief, No. 34, 2011.

This issues brief proposes an agenda for markets and trade research that supports pro-poor development of aquaculture. It summarises key trends and issues relating to global aquaculture development and identifies critical markets and trade dimensions. Coinciding with renewed interest and change in global agricultural research, this brief is targeted at aquaculture development practitioners and researchers.

Gender and Aquaculture: Sharing the Benefits Equitably
The Worldfish Center
Nireka Weeratunge-Starkloff ands Jharendu Pant, Issues Brief, No. 32, 2011.

Aquaculture is the fastest growing agricultural sector in the world; it can meet both the food security and cash needs of poor households in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. This brief asserts that social inclusion and ecological sustainability are crucial to ensure that aquaculture interventions have lasting impacts on livelihoods. There is thus a need for policies in the aquaculture sector to ensure that outcomes are gender equitable, pro-poor and environmentally sustainable.