Alliances under austerity: what does America want?

This paper examines how financial constraints in the United States are affecting its effort to \u27rebalance\u27 towards Asia and the implication for Australia.Executive summaryWestern military spending has stabilised and in some cases declined after a period of rapid growth over the past decade, but this is not only a function of austerity.An expanding and diffuse set of security challenges are facing the United States (US) and its allies in Asia.The US will seek to build on its security framework to more effectively integrate economic, diplomatic, and cultural engagement.The US will ask its allies to take more responsibility for security, especially in their immediate neighbourhoods, but to do so while avoiding provocations.The US will want help from its allies to both assure and deter China.The current period of austerity will end and US fundamental economic strength remains.Policy recommendationsWork with US partners to define and build a more expansive and comprehensive mutual security framework at both political and working levels, to encompass greater engagement across the spectrum of the relationship: on trade and investment; greener energy solutions; diplomatic initiatives; people-to-people exchanges; education, innovation and science programs; and defence and security cooperation.Continue to engage and encourage active US participation in and commitment to effective, problem-oriented multilateral mechanisms in the region, both formal and informal, including multilateral collaborations, consultations, and joint activities amongst Australia, the US, and other allies and security partners.Give particular attention to collaboration and consultation with the US in and related to Southeast Asia.Generate new opportunities for bilateral security engagement in Australia and in Australia’s nearby region, including facilities sharing and access, prepositioning of US equipment, weapons and other defence technology trade and development, and joint deployments and training.Explore and where possible expand possibilities to strengthen Australian deployments to bilateral and multilateral operations alongside American forces.Take initiative to strengthen Australian bilateral security relationships with other non-US allies and partners.Deepen military-to-military and other security-related engagement with China and encourage greater trilateral security cooperation amongst Australia, China and the United States

Alliances Under Austerity: What Does America Want?

What does America want from its allies during austere times? Or, to put it another way, what do reduced defence budgets mean for the US's alliance relationships and for the alliance partners themselves? This COG paper by the United States Studies Centre CEO, Bates Gill examines how the US financial constraints are affecting its effort to 'rebalance' towards Asia and the implication for Australia

Les effets des exportations d'armements chinois sur la violence régionale

La Chine est un fournisseur de technologie et de matériel militaires, conventionnels et nucléaires, de plus en plus important. La première partie de l'article examine à travers les exemples de la Thaïlande, du Pakistan, de l'lran, de l'lrak... les caractéristiques de ce commerce depuis la fondation de la RPC. A partir de trois sites géográphiques - Asie du Sud-Ouest, Asie du Sud et Asie du Sud-Est - où les conflits sont nombreux. La deuxième partie de l'article tente de formaliser les liens entré l'exportation d'armes ét lá viólénce régionale. L'auteur conclut en suggérant que les déterminants internes et internationaux provoqueront dans un avenir prévisible une hausse des exportations d'armes : d'une part les armes de la RPC sont attirées vers des régions de tensions et de conflits (en Asie du Sud-Ouest par exemple) et d'autre part la RPC continue d'utiliser les exportations d'armes dans un but stratégique (Asie du Sud et du Sud-Est).Facing the growth of the PRC as a provider of military-related technology and hardware - both conventional and nuclear -, we are compelled to consider the relationship between Chinese arms exports and regional violence. By considering the PRC's arms exports to three regions of tension and conflict - Southwest Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia - we may then gain insight into the relationship between Chinese arms and the prospects for regional violence. The article concludes by suggesting that due to international and domestic determinants, the PRC's arms exports in the foreseeable future are likely to expand as [1] the PRC's arms are drawn into regions of tension and conflict (as in Southwest Asia), and [2] as the PRC continues to use weapon exports to enhance its strategic interests (as in South and Southeast Asia)

Australia matters for America / America matters for Australia

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/This publication covers the close ties that bind the United States and Australia and is a collaboration between the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, the Perth US-Asia Centre at the University of Western Australia, and the East-West Center. Click here to see a full map of all congressional district exports to Australia

Impact of controlled neonicotinoid exposure on bumblebees in a realistic field setting

1. Pesticide exposure has been implicated as a contributor to insect pollinator declines. In social bees, which are crucial pollination service providers, the effect of low-level chronic exposure is typically non-lethal leading researchers to consider whether exposure induces sub-lethal effects on behaviour and whether such impairment can affect colony development. 2. Studies under laboratory conditions can control levels of pesticide exposure and elucidate causative effects, but are often criticised for being unrealistic. In contrast, field studies can monitor bee responses under a more realistic pesticide exposure landscape; yet typically such findings are limited to correlative results, and can lack true controls or sufficient replication. We attempt to bridge this gap by exposing bumblebees to known amounts of pesticides when colonies are placed in the field. 3. Using 20 bumblebee colonies, we assess the consequences of exposure to the neonicotinoid clothianidin, provided in sucrose at a concentration of five parts per billion, over five weeks. We monitored foraging patterns and pollen collecting performance from 3282 bouts using either a non-invasive photographic assessment, or by extracting the pollen from returning foragers. We also conducted a full colony census at the beginning and end of the experiment. 4. In contrast to studies on other neonicotinoids, showing clear impairment to foraging behaviours, we detected only subtle changes to patterns of foraging activity and pollen foraging during the course of the experiment. However, our colony census measures showed a more pronounced effect of exposure, with fewer adult workers and sexuals in treated colonies after five weeks. 5. Synthesis and applications. Pesticide induced impairments on colony development and foraging could impact on the pollination service that bees provide. Therefore our findings, that bees show subtle changes in foraging behaviour and reductions in colony size after exposure to a common pesticide, has important implications and helps to inform the debate over whether the benefits of systemic pesticide application to flowering crops outweigh the costs. We propose that our methodology is an important advance to previous semi-field methods and should be considered when considering improvements to current ecotoxicological guidelines for pesticide risk assessment

Where do Smallholder Farmers get Their Information? An Exploration of the Sources of Agricultural Information in Northwest Cambodia.

A significant emphasis on scaling up food security efforts is needed to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) by 2030. Scaling up sustainable intensification efforts for Cambodian smallholder farmers is key since they face greater exposure to the uncertainties of climate change, globalizing markets, and rural-to-urban migration. One way to increase the effectiveness of efforts and the scaling up of sustainable intensification technologies is through improving access to information about production and marketing technologies. This study aimed to identify sources of information about sustainable technologies available to smallholders and barriers that may be preventing adoption. Information was gathered from a household survey to document the sources of agricultural information for smallholders in Northwest Cambodia. This research suggests Cambodian smallholders are receiving agricultural extension services, however, the overall quality and effectiveness of these messages are unknown, since NGOs with competing foci are the primary provider of extension information. Smallholders face significant barriers that prevent the adoption of sustainable technologies and participation in markets, such as low price for goods, poor product quality, lack of time, and concerns for safety. Future endeavors to strengthen the price of goods and alleviate market-related challenges would likely result in increased smallholder income and food availability

Root production is determined by radiation flux in a temperate grassland community

Accurate knowledge of the response of root turnover to a changing climate is needed to predict growth and produce carbon cycle models. A soil warming system and shading were used to vary soil temperature and received radiation independently in a temperate grassland dominated by Holcus lanatus L. Minirhizotrons allowed root growth and turnover to be examined non-destructively. In two short-term (8 week) experiments, root responses to temperature were seasonally distinct. Root number increased when heating was applied during spring, but root death increased during autumnal heating. An experiment lasting 12 months demonstrated that any positive response to temperature was short-lived and that over a full growing season, soil warming led to a reduction in root number and mass due to increased root death during autumn and winter. Root respiration was also insensitive to soil temperature over much of the year. In contrast, root growth was strongly affected by incident radiation. Root biomass, length, birth rate, number and turnover were all reduced by shading. Photosynthesis in H. lanatus exhibited some acclimation to shading, but assimilation rates at growth irradiance were still lower in shaded plants. The negative effects of shading and soil warming on roots were additive. Comparison of root data with environmental measurements demonstrated a number of positive relationships with photosynthetically active radiation, but not with soil temperature. This was true both across the entire data set and within a shade treatment. These results demonstrate that root growth is unlikely to be directly affected by increased soil temperatures as a result of global warming, at least in temperate areas, and that predictions of net primary productivity should not be based on a positive root growth response to temperature

Coupled evolution of nitrogen cycling and redoxcline dynamics on the Yangtze Block across the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition

The authors acknowledge funding support from the NSF FESD and Earth-Life Transitions programs (T.L.), the NASA Astrobiology Institute under Cooperative Agreement No. NNA15BB03A issued through the Science Mission Directorate (T.L.), the key project of the Natural Science Foundation of China (C.-F.C.) (No. 41730424), and the program of China Scholarships Council (Y.C.) (No. 201504910582). Nitrogen and carbon isotope analyses were funded by startup funds from Virginia Tech to B.C.G.The Ediacaran-Cambrian transition is characterized by the evolution of complex eukaryotes and rapid diversification of metazoans. However, linkages between environmental triggers and evolutionary patterns remain unclear. Here, we present high-resolution records of carbon and nitrogen isotopic data (δ13C, δ15N) for a drill core extending from the early Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation to the early Cambrian Jiumenchong Formation, located on the slope of the Yangtze Block. Our data show that sedimentary bulk nitrogen isotope values (δ15Nbulk) decrease progressively from the early Ediacaran to the early Cambrian, broadly concurrent with nitrogen isotope data from other sections throughout the Yangtze Block. During the early Ediacaran, however, δ15Nbulk values from our study are higher (maximum 11.2‰) compared to those from more restricted coeval sections, suggesting a higher degree of denitrification in our slope section. The early Ediacaran δ15Nbulk data from the Yangtze Block may thus provide indirect evidence for an upwelling system that led to a shallower redoxcline in slope environments of the Upper Yangtze region. Widespread light δ15Nbulk values from the early Cambrian (minimum −7.5‰) paired with excess silicate-bound nitrogen throughout much of the Yangtze Block are most parsimoniously interpreted as non-quantitative assimilation of ammonium (NH4+) with relatively high concentrations of NH4+ accumulating in the deep basin. Overall, the spatial and temporal trends in nitrogen cycling across the Yangtze Block suggest that fixed nitrogen was more bioavailable in the Ediacaran-Cambrian Yangtze Basin compared to previously studied Mesoproterozoic sections, although nitrogen speciation in the photic zone may have varied with time. Environmental factors such as oxygen levels and nitrogen bioavailability may have shaped the evolutionary trajectory of life on the Yangtze Block and potentially elsewhere across the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition.PostprintPeer reviewe