Suchergebnisse

This report presents the GIWA assessment of the Caribbean Islands region, an archipelago comprising drainage basins and coastal areas that contain some of the world's most diverse and productive habitats. A variety of human activities are impacting the region's sensitive and unique ecosystems, upon which the population is so dependent for their social well-being and economic survival. Pollution, originating from both land-based sources and marine traffic, is of particular concern, but despite considerable and widespread environmental and socio-economic impacts, there has been a lack of appropriate measures aimed at mitigating this concern. The past and present status and future prospects are discussed, and the transboundary issues of pollution are traced back to their root causes. Policy options are analyzed that aim to address these driving issues in order to significantly improve environmental quality and secure the region's future prosperity

Growing attention has been devoted in recent years to projected oil and gas pipelines that would link Russian gas fields in eastern Siberia and Sakhalin Island to China, Japan, and the two Koreas. By contrast, there is little awareness of the high economic and political stakes involved in the quiet struggle now unfolding in Northeast Asia over seabed petroleum resources, especially the conflict between China and Japan over the East China Sea.

executive summary: This essay examines Japan's crisis-management system and security-related coordination with the U.S. in the case of an East China Sea or Senkaku Islands gray-zone scenario and offers a recommendation for possible improvement. main argumentProvocative actions involving the Senkaku Islands could generate a quickly evolving and complex crisis that would require close and agile coordination between Japan and the U.S. Numerous and various government entities would become involved and events may occur dynamically, which in turn could challenge the effectiveness of the existing peacetime coordination mechanism between Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military. This essay proposes the establishment of a Standing Bilateral Joint Task Force as a possible way to strengthen U.S.-Japan defense-related coordination and improve both sides' capabilities to respond and contribute to whole-of-government crisis management. policy implications
• Opinions on China's real intentions for the East China Sea and Senkaku Islands range from possible invasion and occupation of the islands to a decades-long stand-off and waiting game. A related and key issue is how an East China Sea crisis might affect or involve Taiwan. • In a Senkaku Islands crisis, it is important to determine whether there would be certain trigger events to cause Japan and the U.S. to initiate crisis-management coordination, and whether such events could be determined in advance. • Given U.S. commitments in its security treaty with Japan, both governments and militaries should clearly define what governmental and political processes might be pursued to activate Article 5 in response to a defense scenario involving Japanese islands in the East China Sea.

In August 2016, the People's Republic of China (PRC) concluded naval exercises, both in the mid-Pacific as part of the biennial Rim of the Pacific exercise, or RIMPAC, jointly with the US Navy and vessels from 25 other countries, including Japan, as well as individually in the Sea of Japan. At the same time, the Japanese Government has protested against the presence of some 230 Chinese (mainly fishing) vessels in or near what Japan claims as its territorial waters around what it calls the Senkaku islands. Japan notionally administers these islands as part of Ishigaki City, in Okinawa Prefecture; but China (including Taiwan/ROC) claims that these islands, which it calls Diaoyu Dao, have been Chinese territory for centuries, first lodging such a claim officially in 1971. ; N/A