China’s rise and strategic adjustments in Asia and Europe

Studying the United States’ two flanking regions enhances our understanding of the future US role in Europe’s defence and security affairs. The US is facing similar security challenges in both of its flanking regions. There are linkages between the military modernisation taking place, and the capabilities developed in Europe and East Asia.publishedVersio

Rivalisering i Øst-Asia

Forholdet mellom land i Øst-Asia regionen er blitt mer anspent. Vil stater som hittil har vært positive til Kinas vekst og avvist å se Kina som en trussel, nå be­gynne å gardere seg mot Kinas voksende styrke gjennom tettere bånd til USA, økt militær oppbygning og diplomatisk beredskap

Detection of Aminoglycoside Resistant Bacteria in Sludge Samples From Norwegian Drinking Water Treatment Plants

Through a culture-based approach using sludge from drinking water treatment plants, this study reports on the presence of aminoglycoside resistant bacteria at 23 different geographical locations in Norway. Sludge samples are derived from a large environmental area including drinking water sources and their surrounding catchment areas. Aminoglycoside resistant bacteria were detected at 18 of the sample sites. Only five samples did not show any growth of isolates resistant to the selected aminoglycosides, kanamycin and gentamycin. There was a statistically significant correlation between the numbers of kanamycin and gentamycin resistant bacteria isolated from the 23 samples, perhaps suggesting common determinants of resistance. Based on 16S rRNA sequencing of 223 aminoglycoside resistant isolates, three different genera of Bacteroidetes were found to dominate across samples. These were Flavobacterium, Mucilaginibacter and Pedobacter. Further phenotypic and genotypic analyses showed that efflux pumps, reduced membrane permeability and four assayed genes coding for aminoglycoside modifying enzymes AAC(6′)-Ib, AAC(3′)-II, APH(3′)-II, APH(3′)-III, could only explain the resistance of a few of the isolates selected for testing. aph(3′)-II was detected in 1.6% of total isolates, aac(6′)-Ib and aph(3′)-III in 0.8%, while aac(3′)-II was not detected in any of the isolates. The isolates, for which potential resistance mechanisms were found, represented 13 different genera suggesting that aminoglycoside resistance is widespread in bacterial genera indigenous to sludge. The present study suggests that aminoglycoside resistant bacteria are present in Norwegian environments with limited anthropogenic exposures. However, the resistance mechanisms remain largely unknown, and further analyses, including culture-independent methods, could be performed to investigate other potential resistance mechanisms. This is, to our knowledge, the first large scale nationwide investigation of aminoglycoside resistance in the Norwegian environment

Securitization in Chinese climate and energy politics

This article provides an overview of securitization in Chinese climate and energy debates. Scholars have debated the merits as well as the potentially problematic implications of securitization, or framing issues as ‘security,’ since the early 1990s. Early concern focused on the potential problems with linking environmental issues with ‘security,’ and the debate has since also turned specifically to the climate and energy. However, it is only recently that this debate has begun to pay attention to China. Energy and climate concerns are of increasing importance to China: the sheer scale of its energy consumption and air pollution struggles dwarf the challenges seen by other states, and its policy choices play a key role in shaping global climate and energy dynamics. Thus, while securitization in the Chinese context is rarely studied, how China frames its energy and climate policy matters. Both energy and climate are taken increasingly seriously, and security plays an increasing role in debates. This review surveys the increasing popularity of linking security with climate and energy issues both in the academic debate on China and in official discourse, and some of the potential implications

Moritella viscosa in lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) and Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

Post-print (lokagerð höfundar)Winter ulcer disease, caused by Moritella viscosa, is a significant problem in cold water salmonid farming, although the bacterium can infect and cause disease in a number of other fish species, such as lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus). Lumpfish are used as cleaner fish, to eat sea lice from Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in sea pens. It remains to be established whether M. viscosa can be transmitted between the fish species. In this study, we examined whether a salmon isolate of M. viscosa could infect and cause disease in lumpfish. We further examined whether a lumpfish isolate of M. viscosa could infect and cause disease in salmon. Finally, we examined whether vaccination of salmon with a salmon isolate of M. viscosa conferred protection against a lumpfish isolate. The data indicate that while lumpfish appeared to be resistant to a salmon isolate of M. viscosa, the salmon could be infected with a lumpfish isolate of M. viscosa. Vaccination protected the salmon against the salmon isolate of M. viscosa but did not confer sufficient protection to prevent infection with the lumpfish isolate.This work was supported by the AVS R&D Fund of Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture in Iceland [grant number S 001‐17].Peer Reviewe

Rethinking energy, climate and security: a critical analysis of energy security in the US

Understanding the complicated relationship between energy, climate and security is vital both to the study of international relations and to ensure the continued survival of a world increasingly threatened by environmental change. Climate change is largely caused by burning fossil fuels for energy, but while discussions on the climate consider the role of energy, energy security debates largely overlook climate concerns. This article traces the separation between energy and climate through an analysis of US energy security discourse and policy. It shows that energy security is continually constructed as national security, which enables very particular policy choices and prioritises it above climate concerns. Thus, in many cases, policies undertaken in the name of energy security contribute directly to climate insecurity. The article argues that the failure to consider securing the climate as inherently linked to energy security is not just problematic, but, given global warming, potentially harmful. Consequently, any approach to dealing with climate change has to begin by rethinking energy security and security more broadly, as national (energy) security politics no longer provides security in any meaningful sense

The rise of naval powes in Asia and Europe's decline

For the first time in modern history Asian states are spending more on defence than their European counterparts. The sea power ambitions of leading land powers such as China, Russia and India stand as a challenge to US naval supremacy in the region. The old European great powers are becoming marginalised in an increasingly Asia-centred world. The edited volume The Rise of Naval Powers in Asia and Europe’s Decline examines this new geopolitical landscape of the 21st century, emphasising the role of the great powers and the importance of sea power in shaping international politics

The Suez crisis as a case study of Norwegian foreign policy and its impact on Norwegian-British relations

International history of the Suez crisis in the summer and autumn of 1956 has tended to focus on the great powers. What has rarely been researched, are the avenues of the impact of the Suez crisis on some smaller Western countries. This thesis will use the Suez crisis as a case study in examining Norway s approach toward an important international crisis and at the same time consider Norway s relations with its most important allies the United States and Great Britain. Further Norway s role as a diplomatic actor and its behaviour within the United Nations (UN) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) will be scrutinised. The central question addressed is beguilingly simple: What was the principle source and pattern of foreign policy behaviour of Norway during the Suez crisis? In pursuit of this line of inquiry, I emphasis four issues. To begin with, I offer an analysis based on what I call the coincidence of realpolitik and following the UN path. I understand realpolitik to be the conduct of foreign policy based on calculations of power and the national interest and a focus in the first instance on state s security. By following the UN path I mean that Norway, as a small country, has always emphasised the importance of obeying the UN charter, following international law and to solve conflicts within the framework of the UN. Usually, the two concepts are seen as ambivalent or as a great dilemma in Norwegian foreign policy. This is not my view. Instead, I argue that throughout the Suez crisis Norway could enjoy the fruits of power and realpolitik by ensuring its security by standing shoulder to shoulder with the most important ally within the Western alliance, the United States. At the same time, Norway advanced the principles of the UN, was able to uphold UN integrity and authority, and practice a policy conducive to international law. Secondly, I argue that the Suez crisis facilitated Norway s role as an actor in the Middle East. I show how Norway could play an important diplomatic role in the UN and on the international arena when its interests deemed it necessary. Thirdly, this thesis examines the historically rapid contribution of a Norwegian company to the UNEF. Within eleven days after the resolution to establish the UNEF had been passed through the UN General Assembly on November 4, 1956, the first units of a Norwegian company arrived in Egypt. What were the reasons behind this extraordinary speedy deployment of Norwegian troops? How do we explain why Norway contributed with as many as 600 soldiers to a conflict and a region far from Norway s traditional sphere of influence ? Why did the Middle East become such an important issue in Norwegian foreign policy? How can we account for such a policy? Fourth, I explore the Suez crisis in a broader context and put forward the argument that the Suez crisis marked a watershed in Norwegian British security relations. I argue that within the field of foreign and security policy, the Suez crisis consolidated and fortified a process whereby Norway had found a new and stronger ally as a credible counterweight to Soviet power in the High North. In approaching the analytical task of examining Norway s approach toward the Suez crisis and its relationship with its most important allies, this thesis draws theoretically on the distinction between the system level,the state level and the individual level of analysis. A line of action of foreign policy is not chosen for one single reason or purpose, foreign policy behaviour is simultaneously a reaction to both external and internal stimuli. At the individual level, the perceptions, beliefs and motives among key decision-makers, such as Foreign Minister Halvard Lange, UN representative Hans Engen and Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen, determined policy making and Norway s approach toward the Suez crisis. At the state or domestic level, the important role of the Norwegian Labour Party being in government from 1945 to 1965, with the exception of three weeks in 1963, was significant. Norway s economic developments, the role of pressure groups and public opinion clearly influenced decision-making and Norway s approach to foreign affairs. In 1956, Norway had great maritime interests as one of the worlds leading shipping nations, and the importance of the Suez Canal for Western European economic recovery and development was clearly recognised. Thus, the Norwegian shipowners were an influential pressure group in policy-making, especially up to the outbreak of hostilities on October 29, 1956. One should also take into consideration organisational rivalries and bureaucratic traditions. Clearly, during the Suez crisis, constraints were put on decision making choices, which draws attention to what Graham T. Allison portrays as the outcome of the pulling and hauling of bureaucratic politics that occurs among key participants of the decision process. However, these aspects alone cannot adequately account for Norwegian foreign policy during the Suez crisis. The primary cause in understanding Norwegian foreign policy during the Suez crisis is found at the international level of analysis.The coincidence of Realpolitik and following the UN path shows how the international system constrained and determined policy making. Taken together, these different levels of analysis show that several different causes contribute to our understanding of Norway s position during the Suez crisis. Although the causes are related and one does not rule out the other, as pointed out by the eminent historian E.H. Carr, it is essential to establish some hierarchy of causes and decide which should be regarded as the most appropriate in understanding Norwegian foreign policy throughout the Suez crisis. In the final analysis therefore, this thesis holds that security considerations and the importance of following the UN path was predominant and that domestic and individual levels of analysis played a secondary role. At the core of Norwegian policy making was the efforts not to undermine the authority and integrity of the UN, to secure a credible guarantor against external security threats and to ensure the achievement and preservation of sovereignty, territorial integrity and state security. Under these circumstances the underlying objective of the Norwegian government, to ensure credibility and legitimacy in allied defence assurance for the security and independence of Norwegian territory, coincided with a policy of disassociating itself with the dangerous and morally unacceptable policy of the British government,its traditional ally

Emerging naval powers in Asia: China's and India's quest for sea power

This study offers a historically informed and comprehensive assessment of the contemporary naval policies of China and India, the leading rising powers. It shows how China and India, traditionally and predominantly concerned with their respective continental frontiers, in recent decades have shifted their strategic outlook towards the sea and development of sea power. The study examines the core drivers behind this increasing interest in maritime affairs and naval power and provides an analysis of the main constraints facing China and India in their bid to achieve their naval ambitions. By comparing and contrasting the findings of the respective studies of India and China, the study reveals certain common drivers, though the hierarchy of causes explaining the countries’ growing ambitions to develop their naval power differs