Asian Rice Futures Market - Expert Working Group Meeting

On 22–23 March 2012, the RSIS Centre for NTS Studies hosted a closed Expert Working Group Meeting to discuss the ongoing call for Singapore to consider hosting an international rice futures market. Key points for discussion were the feasibility of such a market in current international rice market conditions, the suitability of Singapore as potential host, and the potential impact of an international rice futures market on regional food security. » Read more

Climate Change and Migration in Southeast Asia: Responding to a New Security Challenge

Migration and displacement are among the range of pressures on people and their communities likely to arise from the economic, social and environmental consequences of climate change. Despite fragmented data, the climate security literature has focused on the potential for climate change-induced migration to trigger social tensions and conflicts within states and across borders. » Read more

MacArthur Dissemination Meeting on Non-Traditional Security and Regional Security Cooperation

This Dissemination Meeting, held on 28-29 November 2011, aimed to showcase the research outcomes of the MacArthur Foundation's Asia Security Initiative projects and to share the findings to a wider policy community and civil society. Over the course of 3 years (2009–11), both centres have, under the MacArthur Asia Security Initiative, conducted research on non-traditional security (internal and cross-border conflict; climate change, environmental security and natural disasters; as well as energy and human security) and regional security cooperation. » Read more

Forests, Food and Fuel: REDD+ and Indonesia's Land-use Conundrum

Indonesia faces pronounced land-use challenges. The sprawling archipelagic state must deal with the legacies of short-sighted land conversions, the need to pursue foreign investment, capital growth and employment generation through profitable land intensive industries, and the rising food demands of a growing and increasingly urban population. Moreover, Indonesia must pursue these already daunting objectives without overly compromising its endowment of forest resources; which provide a range of valuable services both domestically and internationally. » Read more

Cooperating in the Energy Security Regime Complex

Existing work on energy security tends to overemphasise the prospect of competition and conflict over resources while under-exploring the promise of cooperation among global and regional economies. Viewing energy security through the spectre of armed conflict traps policy planners in a zero-sum analysis, which strongly suggests that the energy security of one country can only be achieved at the expense of another. Yet such a conclusion is fundamentally flawed, since it ignores the increasingly complex interdependence in the energy and product trade chain among countries, globally and regionally. » Read more

(Not) Reconciling International Security (IS) with Non-traditional Security (NTS) Studies: Westphalia, the 'West' and the Long Shadow of 1944

Understandings of what constitutes international security have been largely influenced by the historical experiences of the great powers. The failed attempts to prevent war in Europe from the 17th century onwards, and latterly the more successful (in its own terms) prevention of a third World War in the second half of the 20th century, did much to establish what was to be secured and how this security could best be achieved. » Read more

Climate Insecurities in Indonesia: Implications and Challenges for Defence Transformation

This paper seeks to identify and assess key climate insecurities in Indonesia and further explore how they could potentially influence the process of defence reform that has been ongoing in Indonesia since Suharto's downfall in 1998. Key climate insecurities in Indonesia are related to energy and food security, large-scale disasters, drought, changing climate patterns and rising sea levels. Furthermore, this paper argues that given these security implications, the Indonesian National Defence Forces (TNI) has yet to seriously assess and incorporate climate change into its force development plans. » Read more