North Asia security a 'wicked' problem

as posted here

BY PHILIP DORLING, NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT
22/09/2009 9:06:00 AM
A leading Australian strategic analyst says the Rudd Labor Government's push to advance nuclear disarmament could actually worsen nuclear dangers in some regions, notably North Asia.

In a new Lowy Institute report, former diplomat and intelligence analyst Rory Medcalf highlights this week's United Nations Security Council meeting, to be chaired by United States President Barack Obama, as potentially a major step forward in disarmament and non-proliferation efforts.

''Yet in North Asia, the region where the interests of the world's great powers most deeply intersect and clash, these are times of risky strategic change and gathering nuclear danger,'' Mr Medcalf writes.

Mr Medcalf, who before joining the Lowy Institute was a senior analyst at the Office of National Assessments, held discussions with officials and security experts in China, Japan and South Korea in April and May this year, and encountered views that were a ''reality check for optimists on nuclear disarmament''.

as posted here