23 - 2022

Mongolian Sand and Dust Storms’ Impacts on Asia-Pacific Environmental Security

By |2022-12-12T15:17:08-10:00December 9th, 2022|

By J. Scott Hauger Abstract Mongolian sand and dust storms are an age-old phenomenon. Inter-annual variability is great, but March 2021 saw two extreme dust storm events with human security impacts reaching from Mongolia and China to Korea and Japan. The principal challenges to human security posed by Mongolian dust storms are food insecurity, threats to human health, and infrastructure degradation, plus human migration to escape those impacts. In modern times, dust storm events have not exceeded the capabilities of nations to manage their human security impacts. However, they can threaten regional security if they exceed a nation's ability to [...]

Politics by Numbers: Counting Plato’s Shadows

By |2022-11-21T15:01:57-10:00November 21st, 2022|

By James R. SullivanWSD-Handa Fellow Abstract / Summary Stories are at the core of our understanding of humanity, as well as central to many concepts at the heart of International Relations theory. The Chinese Communist Party has been adept at story telling for many years and for many purposes inclusive of intra-elite competition, maintenance of regime support, and tactical negotiations. These stories become especially critical during periods of regime transition, as we witnessed during the recently concluded Twentieth National Party Congress. This paper leverages Natural Language Processing techniques applied to the GDELT database to quantify tones expressed on a variety of [...]

U.S. Obsession with Old Dogma Facilitates a Chinese Quest for Pacific Control

By |2022-10-17T15:25:15-10:00October 17th, 2022|

By Commodore Kazi Emdadul Haq, BSP, ndu, psc, BN (retd) Founding Member, Bangladesh Institute of Maritime Research and Development (BIMRAD)    Abstract Pursuing Sun Tzu's strategy of deception to win without waging war, China has not only risen but challenged US supremacy, especially in the Pacific region. Awoken from hibernation, the United States found it difficult to maintain freedom at sea following Mahan's sea control strategy. The United States was obsessed for decades with Huntington's theory that made Islamic countries its enemy. The U.S, discovered, however, that China had become a formidable power challenging the US Monroe doctrine that serves [...]

Challenges of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations

By |2022-10-07T15:04:32-10:00October 7th, 2022|

by Muggi Tuvdendarjaa Keywords: The United Nations (UN), Security Council, General Assembly, Protection of Civilians, Armed Conflict, challenges, peacekeeping. Abstract: The United Nations provides peace and security throughout the world and has countless achievements and experience in peacekeeping operations. Its main objectives are to maintain international peace and security, take actions collectively, and to promote cooperation among the nations to support the resolution of the issues in the areas of economics, social, humanitarian, and human rights matters. It also acts as the main coordinator among the member nations in achieving these goals. According to many recent published studies by scholars [...]

Cross-Domain Repercussions of the Continuing India-China Border Conflict   

By |2022-06-03T16:44:57-10:00June 3rd, 2022|

By Srini Sitaraman Introduction In the summer of 2020, during the early peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, India-China clashed on the mountain ridges of the Himalayas. This collision involved hand-to-hand combat with clubs and metal rods that caused the death of 20 Indian military personnel and four Chinese PLA (People’s Liberation Army) soldiers.[1] As with the clash, the political and military relationship between India and China rapidly deteriorated. India and China have aggressively fortified the border areas and they are rapidly building military structures along the border areas that include the construction of access roads, bunkers, helipads, ammo depots, and [...]

The Nature of Power: A Metcalfe’s Law National Security Strategy

By |2022-06-03T15:21:25-10:00June 2nd, 2022|

by James SullivanAbstract / Summary Comments from government officials, inclusive of United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and European Union Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, clearly indicate the potential end of the “Washington Consensus” around global free trade and the potential for regime change. At the same time, peer competitors such as the People’s Republic of China actively discuss “changes not seen in a century” and a goal of global leadership by 2049. Both of these facts require a discussion and reanalysis of the basis of power in the international system. Conventional wisdom holds that centralized power within an authoritarian system [...]

  In Support of Hospital Ships:  A Need for Reform, not Rejection      

By |2022-07-11T15:03:53-10:00March 22nd, 2022|

By Sebastian Kevany, Michael S. Baker, Deon Canyon, Al Shimkus, Wade Turvold, Mark Middleton, and Amy Russell. A Noble History  Hospital and medical naval ships are by no means a recent addition to the defense toolkits of many world powers, despite them, only in recent years, having achieved public notice and attention.  In the United States, red-cross style military vessels date back as far as the early 19th century; the USS Intrepid and Red Rover ships were designated almost exclusively as humanitarian aid vessels during the Spanish-American and Civil wars.  In the First World War, the USS Solace was used [...]

The Education Agenda: Enabling Meaningful Participation of Women in Peace and Security

By |2022-02-03T14:38:42-10:00February 3rd, 2022|

By Dr. Saira Yamin[*] The paper was presented by the author at a conference titled “1325 Women, Peace and Security Agenda: Ensuring Human Security, Promoting Sustainable Peace and Preventing Conflicts” October 28-30, 2020. The event was organized by the Moldova Ministry of Defense in partnership with UN Women. "If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things." Plato. The Republic. Keywords: Education, critical mass, diversity, gender inclusion, leadership, National Action Plans, participation, peace processes, security sector, UNSCR 1325, Women, Peace and Security.   Abstract:  This paper brings the importance of women's [...]

The U.S. Government & Climate Security: History and Prospects

By |2022-01-18T08:38:11-10:00January 14th, 2022|

Scott Hauger, Ph.D. [*] Abstract: In the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, the Obama Administration recognized climate change as a serious security threat. By 2014, policy documents reflected a “securitization” of climate change, recognizing it as an existential threat to global security. In 2015, the U.S. led in the framing of the Paris Accord. In 2016, President Trump reversed course, in effect, undertaking a desecuritization of climate change. He declared economic security through energy independence as a security priority. He characterized the Paris Accord as a threat to that security and withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Accord, effective November 2020. [...]

Bangladesh at 50: The Rise of A Bangladesh That Can Say No

By |2022-01-07T08:52:06-10:00January 6th, 2022|

By Lailufar Yasmin[*] Abstract: Bangladesh celebrated its 50 years of independence in 2021. Since October 2020, as Bangladesh’s per capita income increased beyond that of India, it has gained international attention about its success and has become a center of analysis as to why. This article argues that the existing analyses misses the notion that Bangladesh’s internal economic success is very much connected with its foreign policy choices. Gradually, within 50 years of its existence, Bangladesh has also acquired the power to be an agenda-setting nation, at least on regional issues and in terms of making its foreign policy choices. [...]

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