Eddie Walsh

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) was established in 1979 as the international community’s single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum. The CD and its predecessors have negotiated a number of major multilateral arms control and disarmament agreements, including the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. However, in recent years, the CD has been unable to make progress against its own schedule as a great debate over what to prioritize – counter-proliferation or disarmament – has divided its 65 members. This has led to new efforts to revitalize the CD so that it can move forward with its disarmament agenda.

Unfortunately, the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are not CD members and thus not directly represented within these debates. Nevertheless, the PICs retain important national security interests in the outcome of the CD proceedings. Human security in the Pacific Islands is clearly tied to the mitigation of global high-end security threats, including those posed by emerging Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Robotics, and Information and Communications (NBRIC) technologies and more traditional Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) weapons. For this reason, it is important for PICs to possess the diplomatic capacity required to assess whether developments within the CD advance or impede their national security interests and intervene in international discourse on counter-proliferation and disarmament issues when necessary.

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The Pacific Islands Society recognizes that the rich cultural tapestry of the Pacific Islands region is producing talented young Pacific artists. Unfortunately, a lack of awareness for their work is preventing them from realizing their full potential on the world stage.

The Pacific Islands Society is therefore calling on young artists to submit portfolios of their work. Successful applicants will then have selected works from their portfolio featured on the Pacific Islands Society blog alongside a brief profile of the artist and contact information for how the artist can be reached.

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The Pacific Islands Society has launched a new Pacific Security Scholars Program. The program provides post-graduate and research degree students from Pacific Island Countries will an opportunity to make their voice heard on the important issue of “International Security and the Pacific Islands.”

Selected scholars will be asked to contribute to the ongoing debate of international security by producing regular articles and opinion pieces on directed issues for publication on the Pacific Islands Society’s blog. This will provide these scholars with the opportunity to have their perspective presented alongside the region’s senior diplomatic staff, who recently shared their own opinions on the topic.

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In a speech given on Monday to the Pacific Islands Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), the Acting New Zealand High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Mr. Rob Taylor, argued that shared values, not just shared interests, are driving the renewed strategic partnership between the United States and New Zealand.

According to Mr. Taylor, the 2010 Wellington Declaration provided a “key turning point in United States-New Zealand relations” that has enabled both countries “to move beyond policy differences that emerged in the mid-1980s” and instead “focus on the future with emphasis on areas of cooperation.”

More than two years later, Mr. Taylor believes that the U.S.-NZ strategic partnership has moved into high gear with both Wellington and Washington confident that this period of renewed cooperation “will endure.”

So, can the strategic partnership get any stronger? The High Commissioner’s talk certainly gave the impression that it can — especially if the Obama Administration follows through on its much hyped Asia pivot.

Looking ahead, Mr. Taylor stresses that “on-going and future cooperation between the two nations” will place “particular emphasis on the South Pacific.” This includes investing further in joint initiatives in the region, such as renewable energy, disaster response, climate change adaptation, and enhanced dialogue on regional security.

South Pacific fisheries will be an area of particular focus. Mr. Taylor says that his country will be working with the United States “to enhance Pacific capability to catch and process more of their own fisheries resources” and with the United States, Australia, and France to “to provide maritime surveillance of Pacific Island states, in particular their Exclusive Economic Zones. “

These efforts will seek to prevent the collapse of one of the world’s most important natural resources. As an analyst with the Pacific Partnerships Initiative at CSIS recently pointed out, Pacific fisheries now account for more than 50 percent of the global marine catch and represent the “largest economic interest shared by the United States and the Pacific Islands.” So, in this case, shared interests and shared values appear to be driving US-NZ cooperation.

asiapacificreporting:

When Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson headed to the DPRK in early January they certainly turned some heads.

Many viewed their trip as undermining Western efforts to secure stronger sanctions, following North Korea’s ballistic missile…

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Reblogged from asiapacificreporting

asiapacificreporting:

We are currently bearing witness to great changes in international security. Gone are the days of state monopoly over internal and external security agencies. State policing and military agencies are now serving alongside a variety of global, regional, and subnational security providers.The…

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Reblogged from asiapacificreporting

asiapacificreporting:

How should the American and British governments utilise the internet in combating WMD development and proliferation? Will the pursuit of one of these foreign policy objectives inevitably come at the expense of the other? These important questions are considered in this December 2012 OpEd for Al Jazeera English: Instagram Arms Control

Image Credit: Mashable

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Reblogged from asiapacificreporting

pactechproject:

Al Jazeera English article by SOAS research student Eddie Walsh: WWF drones raise serious questions for international security

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Reblogged from pactechproject

pactechproject:

The Pacific Islands Society President, Eddie Walsh, was featured in a new article on ScienceWonk (U.S. think tank blog). The author looks at the role of non-state actors in internal - external security in response to Eddie’s recent Al Jazeera OpEd. (SOAS)

Image Crdit: Sciencewonk

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Reblogged from pactechproject