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21 - 2020

The State Of The World Order In The Time Of Coronavirus: Time for a Responsible Connectography

By |2020-04-03T09:43:43-10:00April 3rd, 2020|

A State is the product of a social contract among its citizens who willingly transferred a part of their freedom to a central authority in lieu of assurance of security. In a way, this represents the management of internal anarchy. The internal bargain is strengthened by the external assertion of sovereignty, which separates a community of people legally, and therefore, all political communities are theoretically equal. This idea of external anarchy runs the international system, where there is no international government. External anarchy logically flows from this, and is the realist dictum of ‘there is no international community beyond the [...]

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Enabling the sharing of original, timely and creative macro-and micro-level response concepts, systems, and ideas

By |2020-04-03T09:10:12-10:00April 3rd, 2020|

In the opinion of one who has witnessed, and participated in, responses to numerous public health emergencies (PHEs) and epidemic outbreaks throughout the world for many years — from Cholera in Zimbabwe; to Ebola in Sierra Leone; to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in Iraq; to all of the longer-term issues associated with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, or malaria in the South Pacific — the government’s response thus far to Ireland’s health security concerns deserves to be complemented, if not yet lauded. (One wonders how a less-developed regime would have dealt with these challenges and the associated need for swift, decisive, and potentially [...]

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Can the Pacific Island Games be a Positive Influence to Bring Pacific Island Nations Together to Affect Positive Change Regionally?

By |2020-04-02T14:19:10-10:00April 2nd, 2020|

Key Points Personal relationships centered on mutual respect and compassion are key to engagement within the Pacific Island Nations. It is possible to unify people in the achievement of a common goal while still respecting a nations individual culture, customs, and sovereignty. The unique culture of the Pacific Island Nations provides a blueprint for others to engage productively on highly sensitive issues. Sports and competition are the modern day expression of the Pacific Islander’s Warrior culture. View/Download Document

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Coronavirus, Terrorism, and Illicit Activity in the Indo-Pacific

By |2020-04-03T14:29:38-10:00April 2nd, 2020|

What are the “bad actors” in the Indo-Pacific up to as a result of the coronavirus pandemic? Those involved in illicit activities are taking advantage of an environment where nations across the region are focused on immediate health threats over security. The Islamic State (IS) has described the global pandemic as painful torment inflicted upon “crusader nations.” The latest issue of IS’ al-Naba newsletter encourages jihadists to free prisoners and devise new attacks while the West is struggling. But it is not just terrorists who are looking to benefit from the security vacuum that has overpowered the world. Criminal organizations [...]

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Incremental Community-Based Exit Strategies for Initiating and Removing COVID-19 Lockdowns

By |2020-04-22T15:37:51-10:00April 1st, 2020|

Many nations across the Asia-Pacific have implemented guidelines for social distancing and introduced lockdowns to control COVID-19. However, now many leaders face the question of how they will be able to relieve their communities of the protective constraints in place. Who decides when safe is ‘safe enough’, or what level of residual risk is acceptable? Getting this wrong is something no leader can afford. By applying a community-based incremental approach to the easing of lockdowns, tailored to demographic and social stratifications of risk, much of the guesswork can be eliminated. View/Download Document

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Implementation of Lockdown and Social Distancing

By |2020-04-02T11:11:37-10:00March 31st, 2020|

What urges me to write this letter is my sense of wanting to support my country and government in achieving absolute success in controlling and mitigating the spread of COVID-19. I have been closely observing how this pandemic is being managed globally. As I have also been living in China for three years, I have experienced the unfolding of COVID-19 in China, right up to the stages of Lockdown order in Wuhan and the entire Hubei Province, and China-wide strict restrictions. View/Download Document

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The COVID-19 Crisis and the Coming Cold War

By |2020-04-02T11:14:06-10:00March 30th, 2020|

The COVID-19 Crisis has been a significant global event, putting stress on states in how they respond, exasperating geopolitical tensions between great powers, and impacting manufacturing and shipping. Many are scrambling to understand the long-term consequences, with Foreign Policy’s recent review by 12 leading intellectuals being an obvious example. Notable predictions from them include the possible end of (economic) globalization, or at least the end of US-led globalization; other predictions include the rise of state power, diminishing individual liberties and highlighting the limitations of international organizations (“the state is back”); and others note the implicit ideological struggle between the authoritarian [...]

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Mass Surveillance and Individual Privacy

By |2020-04-02T11:13:20-10:00March 30th, 2020|

During a crisis, governments will seek to implement technological solutions in an effort be responsive. The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception—in order to contain the spread of an outbreak and to assist with contact tracing, governments are using technologies, such as facial recognition, surveillance cameras with artificial intelligence, and mobile phone apps. The use of technological solutions, however, comes at a cost to individual privacy. View/Download Document

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COVID-19: End of Hyper-globalization and Start of Hyper-Localization?

By |2020-04-02T11:10:06-10:00March 27th, 2020|

The 1918 Spanish flu immediately following World War-I, the Second World War, breakdown of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War, 9-11 terror attacks, and collapse of the Lehman Brothers and the 2008 Financial Crisis, all of these events were world altering events. They changed the course of human societies and political, economic, and societal organizations in some fundamental ways. The 2008 collapse of the financial markets saw the tightening of the loan requirements and consumer credit markets, 9-11 terror attacks saw the implementation of rigorous airport security checks and immigration control at every airport across the world, [...]

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North Korea as a land of cooperation between America and China

By |2020-04-02T11:21:08-10:00March 27th, 2020|

Key Points: North Korea's problems can provide an opportunity for security cooperation between the two great powers in the midst of strategic competition. Many security experts in the West tend to agree that there are four flashpoints where the United States and China may conflict militarily, which are the South China Sea, East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, and the Korean Peninsula. Chinese analysts do not agree on where a massive military conflict is most likely to occur between the United States and China. View/Download Document

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