WATER TO EMERGING ECONOMIES: Towing Icebergs to Provide Fresh Water for Parched Regions

Published 10 August 2011

A third of the world's population -- more than two billion people -- lives without access to clean drinking water, and studies show that the situation will only get worse; a French innovator has an idea: towing icebergs from the Greenland and Antarctica to regions most in need of fresh water; a computer simulation shows this solution to be viable and affordable

An idea that first surfaced in the 1970's may be right for today // Source: icetrim.org

A third of the world’s population — more than two billion people — lives without access to clean drinking water, and recent droughts in Africa have left twelve million people without water. To aid them, French eco-entrepreneurGeorges Mougin plans to harvest icebergs across the world to solve the water shortage.

For the last forty years – Mougin, 86, first came up with his iceberg scheme in the early 1970s – he  has tried to figure out a way to tow freshwater icebergs across the Arctic. Experts have argued it would be too expensive and difficult to carry out his plan, but now it appears this his dream is about to come true.  Read more

TERRORISM: Study Finds U.K. at Greatest Risk of Terror Attack

Published 4 August 2011

A recent study found that the United Kingdom was at greater risk from terrorist attacks than any other Western nation; the study, complied by Maplecroft and dubbed the Terrorism Risk Index, ranked the United Kingdom at higher risk than the United States, France, and Spain; overall the United Kingdom ranked thirty-eighth behind nations like Somalia, Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan, which topped the list in that order; the U.K. ranked higher than other nations due to the internal threat from dissident Irish Republican terrorists; "The U.K. continues to face terrorist threats posed by Islamist militants and dissident Irish republicans. The Islamist terrorist threat has both international and domestic elements," the report wrote; it added, "The majority of perpetrated attacks continue to be committed by dissident Irish Republican terrorists"

The Forgotten Girl Soldier

4AUG2011

Demobilized child soldiers
in the DRC

Female child combatants - 40 percent of all child soldiers - often go overlooked. Greater attention is warranted to the gender-specific roles and challenges they face from combat to rehabilitation.

By Cassandra Clifford for ISN Insights

The use of child soldiers in armed conflict plagues our global society, as thousands of children continue to be recruited into armed conflict by both government forces and armed rebel groups. UNICEF estimates that there are some 300,000 child soldiers actively fighting in at least 30 countries, with the majority 200,000 in Africa. Approximately 43 percent of all armed organizations in the world use child soldiers, 90 percent of whom see combat.

While, unfortunately, the use of child soldiers is not a new topic, one prominent element of this tragic story often goes untold: the role played by female child soldiers. According to Save the Children, some 40 percent of children involved in armed conflict, or 120,000 child soldiers, are girls. As with boys, the majority of girl soldiers are abducted or forcibly recruited into armed groups, which include government-backed paramilitaries, militias, self-defense forces, and government opposition or rebel factions that are divided along ideological, partisan, ethnic or religious lines.  Read more

ECONOMIES: U.S. Shale Gas Weakening Russian, Iranian Petro-power

Published 22 July 2011

Rising U.S. natural gas production from shale formations has already played a critical role in weakening Russia’s ability to wield an "energy weapon" over its European customers, and this trend will accelerate in the coming decades

Natural gas drilling rig in Hopewell Township, PA // Source: congdonghoalan.com

Rising U.S. natural gas production from shale formations has already played a critical role in weakening Russia’s ability to wield an “energy weapon” over its European customers, and this trend will accelerate in the coming decades, according to a new Baker Institute study, “Shale Gas and U.S. National Security.” The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, projects that Russia’s natural gas market share in Western Europe will decline to as little as 13 percent by 2040, down from 27 percent in 2009. “The geopolitical repercussions of expanding U.S. shale gas production are going to be enormous,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies and one of the authors of the study. “By increasing alternative supplies to Europe in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) displaced from the U.S. market, the petro-power of Russia, Venezuela, and Iran is faltering on the back of plentiful American natural gas supply.”  For more

Looking for Help: Will Rising Democracies Become International Democracy Supporters?

Thomas Carothers, Richard YoungsCARNEGIE PAPER, JULY 2011

The emergence of a multipolar world gives Western democracy advocates cause for both optimism and anxiety. China’s success sparks fears of the spread of an autocratic development model. Yet democratic states such as Brazil, Indonesia, India, South Africa, and Turkey are also gaining ground. These countries serve as powerful examples of the universal appeal of democracy and possess unique experiences with democratization. The United States and Europe understandably hope that rising democracies will use their growing prominence to defend democratic values abroad, potentially revitalizing international democracy support. 

Rising democracies, however, are often reluctant to publicly embrace a democracy and human rights agenda. Most of them are exponents of the pro-sovereignty, anti-interventionist approach to international politics. They emphasize inclusive cooperation among developing countries and are disinclined to confront autocratic leaders. They are also habitually wary of Western, especially U.S., intentions in the developing world and thus frequently suspicious of Western democracy promotion.  Read more

The Rise and Fall of Iran’s Ahmadinejad

Karim SadjadpourWASHINGTON POST, JULY 13, 2011

While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’sdemagoguery and Holocaust revisionism on the world stage have earned him alarmist comparisons to Adolf Hitler, his recent, ignoble fall from grace reveals the Iranian president for what he really is: the dispensable sword of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

 The marriage of Khamenei and Ahmadinejad should be understood in the context of Iran’s internal rivalries. Since the death in 1989 of the revolution’s father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — whose austere nature and anti-Americanism set the tenor for Iran’s post-monarchic order — Tehran’s political elite has been broadly divided into two schools.

 

Reformists and pragmatists argued that ensuring the Islamic Republic’s survival required easing political and social restrictions and prioritizing economic expediency over ideology. Hard-liners, led by Khamenei, believed that compromising on revolutionary ideals could unravel the system, just as perestroika did the Soviet Union.

 

Given the youthful Iranian public’s desire for change, Khamenei seemed to have lost the war of ideas by the early 2000s.

 

No one anticipated that his saving grace would arrive in the person of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hitherto unknown mayor of Tehran.  Read more

Southeast Asia: Crouching Tiger or Hidden Dragon? [a must read]

Vikram Nehru, Thursday, July 7, 2011

Mention Asia and many people immediately think of China and India—giants that are powering the world economy. But Southeast Asia, a sub-region of ten countries that lives in the shadow of its two large neighbors, is also a thriving trade and economic hub.

At first glance, the countries of Southeast Asia—bound by many regional trade and political agreements—seem to make no sense together. After all, the region includes a small, rich, oil kingdom (Brunei); a post-conflict society (Cambodia); and a wealthy entrepôt economy (Singapore). In addition, there is an autarkic country that has been under military rule since 1962 (Myanmar); a poor, landlocked economy blessed with hydropower and minerals (Laos); and a populous nation whose growth rates rival China’s (Vietnam), not to mention four diverse middle-income economies that aspire to join the ranks of advanced countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand).¹

Nevertheless, the countries share a strategic location and access to plentiful natural resources. Furthermore, their diversity and increasing integration lie at the heart of the region’s rapid and resilient economic growth. Politically, the region provides stability in a part of the world that is rapidly reshaping the global balance of power. As a result, its continued development—which depends on investments in infrastructure and education, as well as improvements in business climate—is important for the rest of the world.  Read more

DHS USCG > Drug smugglers in minisubs hunted by Seattle Coast Guard crews

Seattle-based Lauren Milici, assisted by fellow

Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Tenley Barna, peers into a

cocaine-packed minisub off Costa Rica.

Smugglers in a "narco sub" tried to sneak 6.6 tons of cocaine up the Central American coast in January, but a Seattle-based Coast Guard crew boarded the vessel, arrested the four-man crew and sank the sub and its cargo. It's an ongoing, multibillion-dollar game of cat-and-mouse that shows the Coast Guard is more than a search-and-rescue outfit. 

Read more

U.S. Sends Humanitarian Envoy to North Korea

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The United States on Tuesday dispatched an official envoy to North Korea in a rare trip aimed at assessing food scarcity in the impoverished state against the backdrop of a building push to resume the paralyzed aid-for-denuclearization talks, Reuters reported (see GSN, May 23).

photo courtesy:  dailyworldtrends.com

Special envoy for North Korean human rights Robert King and a small delegation of U.S. officials arrived "to consult humanitarian issues" between Washington and Pyongyang, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch.

The last formal trip by a U.S. official to the Stalinist state took place in December 2009.

"Since North Korea sees U.S. decisions on humanitarian aid through a political lens, the food aid assessment might be treated in Pyongyang as a political signal that the Obama administration might finally be open to a broader political dialogue with North Korea," North Korea specialist Scott Snyder stated on the Council of Foreign Relations website.

King's visit occurs while North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il is in China -- his third such trip in little more than a year. Experts and envoys believe Kim will use the trip to seek more financial and food assistance from its longtime ally. In exchange for providing badly needed aid, analysts anticipate Beijing will pressure Pyongyang to agree to South Korea's proposal for bilateral talks on North Korea's nuclear activities.

Washington shut off food aid to Pyongyang in 2008 and is waiting for the OK from Seoul to open up the pipeline, according to Reuters.

Opponents of providing further food to Pyongyang argue the regime has previously used the assistance to feed its large army and not its citizenry. Seoul says the North has the same food supplies as in 2010. South Korean officials are also suspicious that Pyongyang wants to build up its food supplies prior to a third nuclear test that would presumably result in further restrictions on foreign assistance (Jeremy Laurence, Reuters/Yahoo!News, May 24) Full article
.

Pakistan’s Nuclear Surge

Photos obtained by NEWSWEEK reveal a more aggressive buildup than previously known. So why does Washington still stay mum?

Exclusive satellite imagery taken in April 2011 exposes a new nuclear facility (circled) in Khushab, Pakistan—which now has the fastest-growing nuclear program in the world. The facility was undetectable in satellite images take as recently as December 2009. Pictured directly above the circled area are two white boxes which are also nuclear reactors.

Even in the best of times, Pakistan’s nuclear-weapons program warrants alarm. But these are perilous days. At a moment of unprecedented misgiving between Washington and Islamabad, new evidence suggests that Pakistan’s nuclear program is barreling ahead at a furious clip.  Full article

Libya > US Govt blocks Libyan enterprises

Uncle Sam blocks property of another 30 Libyan enterprises

Fri, 2011-05-06 08:51 AM

By: Jacob Goodwin

Even as it is participating in the NATO-led military campaign against the Qadaffi regime in Libya, the Obama administration is tightening the financial screws against Qadaffi’s supporters in the Libyan banking, investment, oil and gas, and airline industries.

Between March 15 and March 22, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) blocked the property of 30 different enterprises in these sectors. Fifteen of the organizations are involved in the oil and gas industry, ranging from the National Oil Corp. to the Waha Oil Company, according to a notice published in the Federal Register on May 5.

OFAC has also blocked the property of eight banking organizations, six investment firms and one airline, called Afriqiyah Airways.

The U.S. order blocks any property in the United States, that comes into the United States, that comes into the possession of any U.S. person, or in the possession of any branch of the Libyan government.

Technology > Portable technology provides drinking water, power to villages, military

...this technology promises to enable a global-scale potable water and power technology, especially for off-grid and remote locations.”

MIT portable desalination unit // Source: buildaroo.com

Researchers have developed an aluminum alloy that could be used in a new type of mobile technology to convert non-potable water into drinking water while also extracting hydrogen to generate electricity; such a technology might be used to provide power and drinking water to villages and also for military operations -for more