While there had been agreements that the current global financial crisis which originated from the United States (US) would not be akin to the Asian Financial Crisis back in 1997- 1998, the resultant...
On 06 Mar 2016 The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali in December 2007 was a landmark meeting which culminated in the creation of the Bali Action Plan – a roadmap for a two-year process of formal negot...
On 06 Mar 2016 The year 2009 marks a new era of change. One would immediately associate it with the Obama administration and its promises for change, such as the US policies in addressing climate change. A shift has...
On 06 Mar 2016 This NTS alert looks at the state of pandemic preparedness in Southeast Asia, while in the second part later in the month we will turn our attention towards the issues of poverty and infectious diseas...
On 06 Mar 2016 In the second issue of the NTS Alert for February, we turn our attention towards the complex interactions between poverty and diseases. We briefly summarise the state of the world's health, identify l...
On 06 Mar 2016 Against the backdrop of the changing global demographic trends, this edition highlights issues which mitigate migration as a viable strategy to cope with threats to human welfare and dignity. It does...
On 06 Mar 2016 The economic crisis has had heavy exposure in international news, but its range of victims has extended beyond the subprime debtors and financial analysts of the developed world. Ignored by most devel...
On 06 Mar 2016 The doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect is a controversial and contentious one in Southeast Asia. It has been largely accepted in principle by most ASEAN states, which are generally supportive o...
On 06 Mar 2016 Current studies on pandemics explore the links between population mobility and health. These studies usually focus on regular population movement such as those of tourists and legal immigrants. Howeve...
On 06 Mar 2016 Due to the pragmatic need for ensuring energy security, governments of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have to date emphasised the potential economic and technological benefits of n...
On 06 Mar 2016 Notwithstanding the global financial crisis, energy security remains one of the top priorities for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The need to reduce reliance on fossil fuels in th...
On 05 Mar 2016 This NTS-Alert examines the nexus between water management and food security in Asia and how climate change exacerbates the adverse impacts that result from poor water management. It then highlights t...
On 05 Mar 2016 Based on the recent Group of Eight (G8) Summit held in Italy, this issue of the Alert will examine international deliberations on food security with a focus on the efforts and challenges facing the G8...
On 05 Mar 2016 Much attention has been given to the phenomenon of piracy off the Horn of Africa since 2008. The overwhelming response thus far has been the deployment of naval forces by some of the world’s major mar...
On 05 Mar 2016 While piracy in Southeast Asia has been addressed better over time, maritime predations continue to occur in the region. These predations, on small traders and maritime communities, afflict these grou...
On 05 Mar 2016 Human rights issues within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations pose a significant challenge as it seeks to remain relevant in an increasingly interconnected global system. On 20 July 2009, ASEA...
On 05 Mar 2016 With less than 11 weeks to the UNFCCC meeting in Copenhagen, the United Nations Climate Summit was held on 22 September 2009, in a bid to rally international support and action against climate change....
On 05 Mar 2016 The recent cyber attacks on South Korea and the United States, as well as those on Georgia in 2008 and Estonia in 2007 have awakened a certain consciousness in the minds of the international community...
On 05 Mar 2016 The discourse on Cyber Security, a relatively new field in non-traditional security studies, has been dominated by the need to protect information infrastructure from both state and non-state actors....
On 05 Mar 2016 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 5,000 lives have been claimed by the novel influenza virus (H1N1). The US has now declared H1N1 as a national emergency. With the start of the...
On 05 Mar 2016 In the final quarter of 2009, Southeast Asia witnessed a number of disaster that affected sevevral countries in the region, attesting to the levels of national preparedness in dealing with disasters....
On 05 Mar 2016 The upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup scheduled to take place in South Africa between 11 June and 11 July 2010 has once again raised concerns over the possibility of human trafficking. A study by the Human...
On 05 Mar 2016 Southeast Asia is potentially one of the more vulnerable regions to climate change impacts, as many of the countries in the region have relatively low levels of development, weak infrastructure, long...
On 05 Mar 2016 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...
On 05 Mar 2016 By the end of the last decade, the total area of farmland globally that was acquired by government-backed foreign investors amounted to nearly half the size of Europe. In addition to Latin America, Af...
On 05 Mar 2016 In the last two years, there has been a proliferation of acquisitions of farmland in resource-rich but capital-starved countries in the Global South. International reports attribute this trend to gove...
On 05 Mar 2016 On 20 April 2010, an explosion and a fire took place at the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico, 65 kilometres from the Louisiana coast in the United States. The inc...
On 05 Mar 2016 Recent anti-corruption efforts by Indonesia have once again brought attention to the longstanding issue of corruption. Indonesia established the Corruption Eradication Commission or the KomisiPemberan...
On 05 Mar 2016 This Alert is the second in a series investigating the situation of women’s and children’s protection concerns in ASEAN. It aims to examine the domestic efforts that Indonesia and the Philippines have...
On 05 Mar 2016 The second half of June 2010 witnessed several weather-related disasters in various parts of the world. Heavy rains in several Asian countries inundated both rural regions such as China’s Yunnan provi...
On 05 Mar 2016 Transnational organised crime is considered one of the major threats to human security, impeding the social, economic, political and cultural development of societies. Much attention has been given...
On 04 Mar 2016 The United Nations, in its new report The Globalization of Crime, underscored the urgency of combating organised crime. The report examines major trafficking flows of drugs, firearms, counterfeit pro...
On 04 Mar 2016 Human trafficking and illicit drug trafficking are arguably the most intractable of all transnational crimes. They are an issue of both domestic and foreign policy concern and a subject of longstandin...
On 04 Mar 2016 The International AIDS Conference 2010 was held in Vienna, Austria from 18 to 23 July to gather those working in the field of HIV such as policymakers, scientists and researchers, those living with HI...
On 04 Mar 2016 According to the 2009 HSBC ‘The Future of Retirement’ report, the world’s ageing population will increase from 550 million today to 1.4 billion by 2050. Such a big number directly conjures up images o...
On 04 Mar 2016 On 26 July 2010, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) delivered its first verdict against a former official of the Khmer Rouge regime, KaingGuekEav (also known as ‘Duch’). The E...
On 04 Mar 2016 The past month has witnessed several major environmental disasters in Asia. Of particular significance are the Pakistan floods, which have engulfed a fifth of Pakistan’s total land area and affected 2...
On 04 Mar 2016 This issue of the NTS Alert offers an overview of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) as a means of improving long-term preparedness against the projected increase in frequency and intensity of natural haza...
On 04 Mar 2016 Since the end of January 2011, the state of food security in North Korea has been in question. External factors, particularly the recent spike in global food prices and the suspension of food aid supp...
On 04 Mar 2016 What started off as a peaceful protest has descended into a full-scale armed insurrection, pitching opposition forces in the east against loyalist forces (estimated at 8,000 and 40,000 respectively)....
On 04 Mar 2016 The 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index reveals that nearly three quarters of the 178 countries in the index have a score of below five, on a scale of 10 (highly clean) to 0 (highly corrupt). Denmark, N...
On 03 Mar 2016 In the first issue of this month’s NTS Alert, the importance of a robust human rights framework to complement international humanitarian law, and address its shortcomings in protecting civilians caugh...
On 03 Mar 2016 The recent UN Climate Change Conference (COP16) in Cancun, Mexico concluded on a generally positive note as growing optimism replaced the disappointment that defined the 2009 talks in Copenhagen.While...
On 03 Mar 2016 There were expectations that the Ivory Coast presidential election in November 2010 would put an end to the North¬South divide that had emerged in the country since the 2002 civil war. Instead, the...
On 03 Mar 2016 The beginning of 2011 was marked by a series of rain-related disasters in various parts of the globe. Australia experienced one of the most severe (and most probably the costliest) wave of floods in i...
On 03 Mar 2016 Fighting resumed along the disputed Thai-Cambodian border, covering Thailand’s Si SaKet province and Cambodia’s PreahVihear province, following the start of gunfire and artillery duels on 4 February 2...
On 03 Mar 2016 The Fourth Bali Regional Ministerial Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crimes – otherwise known as the Bali Process – was held in Nusa Dua, Bali, on 29-3...
On 03 Mar 2016 The problems caused by Japan’s recent nuclear power plant crisis have revived the debate on the future of nuclear energy. Discussions appear to be centred around the dilemma of whether or not to rely...
On 03 Mar 2016 The Thai-Cambodian border once again became the site of violent clashes between the countries’ militaries in April. Following bloody clashes at the disputed site adjacent to the PreahVihear temple on...
On 03 Mar 2016 The Jakarta Post recently reported experts as saying that ‘[e]xtreme weather caused by climate change has given people another reason to migrate’. The comment was made in reference to a soon-to-be rel...
On 03 Mar 2016 A recent report by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) noted that Indonesia faces the highest risk from tsunamis worldwide. The evaluation was based on the number...
On 02 Mar 2016 The controversy surrounding the Australia¬Malaysia refugee swap agreement that would have seen 800 asylum seekers sent to Malaysia in exchange for 4,000 processed refugees took a decisive turn on 31...
On 02 Mar 2016 Several Asian countries have experienced flooding in recent weeks. While the monsoon rains – amplified by the La Nina effect -have been taking place as expected from the second to the third quarter o...
On 02 Mar 2016 Thailand’s worst floods in decades have caused over 350 deaths, and are inflicting extensive damage to much of the country’s land, crops, livestock, infrastructure, housing and industrial areas. An es...
On 02 Mar 2016 Bribery by companies when doing business abroad is a significant form of corruption, and is particularly serious when vital sectors of a nation’s economy and public services are involved. In a recent...
On 02 Mar 2016 In recent weeks, Indonesia experienced a series of demonstrations over land rights in various parts of the country. While land rights controversies are not uncommon in Indonesia, the new wave of dis...
On 02 Mar 2016 Since taking office in March 2011, Myanmar’s new government has implemented a host of reforms. These include the release of some political prisoners,a lifting of restrictions on media freedoms, the...
On 02 Mar 2016 The past decade has seen economic links between the Gulf Arab region and Southeast Asia increase considerably – from just USD20 billion in 2002 to about USD100 billion in 2010. Notable factors driving...
On 01 Mar 2016 In light of the recent violence that shook Zamboanga city in Mindanao in the southern Philippines, Indonesia’s offer to act as a peace broker between Manila and the Misuari¬led Moro National Liberat...
On 27 Feb 2016 Higher investment in the agricultural and food sectors, food price stability and regulatory barriers are among the key issues for Asia, according to experts at a recent meeting to discuss the region...
On 27 Feb 2016 Southeast Asia is a region highly vulnerable to near and long-term climatic changes. In order to jointly address emerging climate risks and to complement multilateral negotiations through enhanced reg...
On 27 Feb 2016 The latter part of the 21st century witnessed a shift in the understanding of international security. As tensions between countries eased with the end of the Cold War, new and significant security c...
On 27 Feb 2016 This year is the 20th anniversary of the release of the 1994 United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report, which defined the concept of human security and brought it to int...
On 27 Feb 2016 This year is the 20th anniversary of the release of the 1994 United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report, which defined the concept of human security and brought it to int...
On 27 Feb 2016 This year is the 20th anniversary of the release of the 1994 United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report, which defined the concept of human security and brought it to int...
On 27 Feb 2016 This year is the 20th anniversary of the release of the 1994 United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report, which defined the concept of human security and brought it to int...
On 27 Feb 2016 Security used to be defined in military terms with the state as the referent of security. From this state-centric lens, political security means the stability of the state’s political regime and socia...
On 27 Feb 2016 Today, millions of people experience insecurity as a result of new and complex issues threatening human welfare and dignity, such as climate change and the contested or inefficient use of energy and w...
On 27 Feb 2016 Energy security is no longer just about the security of supply; it is multifaceted and inextricably linked to public health and environmental issues. Amidst political instability in oil-producing regi...
On 27 Feb 2016 Armed conflicts always have disproportionate consequences on civilian populations. Civilians accounted for 74 per cent of the fatalities in Israel’s bombing of Gaza in the summer of 2014. The high civ...
On 27 Feb 2016 2015 is a critical year for global and regional institutions, and for the international community as a whole, as it represents a milestone in the big push for achieving global goals of peace, human se...
On 27 Feb 2016 2015 marks the end of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) 10-year Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), an international disaster risk reduction plan that aimed to en...
On 27 Feb 2016 Major disasters that typically hit Southeast Asia illustrate the immensity of the tasks involved in undertaking disaster relief operations. With the establishment of the ASEAN Community by the end of...
On 27 Feb 2016 2015 marks the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September 1995. While the world takes stock of how far we have come in terms of acknowledging women’s righ...
On 27 Feb 2016 With the recent rise of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Ebola, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, it is important to further reinforce ASEAN’s pr...
On 27 Feb 2016 The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) defines food security as a “situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to suf...
On 27 Feb 2016 Water security is a cross-cutting and multidimensional developmental issue which was nestled within Goal 7 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on environmental sustainability. Target 7c of Goal...
On 27 Feb 2016 The year 2015 has been notable for bringing to the public eye, situations involving the movements of people. In April and May of this year, news emerged of thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshis stran...
On 27 Feb 2016 The most recent UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons identifies East Asia and the Pacific is an origin area for victims of trafficking where most of the victims consist of both adult and unde...
On 27 Feb 2016 Labour migration is a growing trend in the ASEAN region as workers seek better-paid jobs and employers endeavor to meet employment gaps. Migrant labour forms an increasing source of construction, serv...
On 27 Feb 2016 In Southeast Asia, primary energy demand is projected to increase from 554.8 Mtoe in 2010 to 1,110.2 Mtoe in 2035. Oil will continue to dominate the energy mix with coal share growing at the fastest a...
On 27 Feb 2016 From the ‘migrant crisis’ to transboundary haze pollution and the Avian Influenza virus, Asian countries continue to face multiple new security threats which require international cooperation. These n...
On 27 Feb 2016 Year 2015 ended with scenes of congratulatory jubilation in Paris. The world had for once come together to deliver what is now referred to as the Paris Agreement at the end of the 21st United Nations...
On 27 Feb 2016 The Copenhagen Summit in December 2009 failed to yield a concrete, politically-binding agreement among states to reduce carbon emissions in order to mitigate climate change. This is so despite the wid...
On 24 Feb 2016 Five years have passed since the signing of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, when United Nations (UN) member states agreed to the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP). Contained in paragraph 138 of...
On 24 Feb 2016 Much literature on East Asia’s energy security has focused on the dynamics of competition over resources and how potential conflicts could arise from this. While this analytical perspective identifies...
On 23 Feb 2016 Regardless of how strong a country’s national health system is, it is only as good as its neighbours’. National borders are not able to withstand the threat posed by pandemics and infectious diseases....
On 23 Feb 2016 The Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), organised a study-group meeting to address the topic of ‘Climate Change, Migration an...
On 22 Feb 2016 Water conflicts are a subject of intense debate and discussion in Southern Asia, which comprises India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and China. Factors such as the history of partiti...
On 22 Feb 2016 This report presents the proceedings of a Policy Roundtable on Asian Non-Traditional Security held in Beijing on 30-31 July 2012. Attended by academics and policymakers from across the region, the Rou...
On 19 Feb 2016 The implications of the estimated 30-50 per cent global food wastage for energy, soil, water and human resources are substantial. Recognising the need to pay greater attention to this issue, the RSIS...
On 19 Feb 2016 This issues brief outlines key points brought up at an Energy Security Seminar on ‘Risk and Resilience: Securing Energy in Insecure Spaces’ held on 29-30 October 2012 in Singapore. Energy vulnerabilit...
On 19 Feb 2016 This NTS Issues Brief outlines themes highlighted at the roundtable workshop on Managing Cross-Border Movements of People in Southeast Asia: Promoting Capacity and Response for Irregular Migration hel...
On 19 Feb 2016 The ASEAN-Canada Research Partnership was launched in 2012 by the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological U...
On 17 Feb 2016 |