Weapons Proliferation in Asia
Any reassessment of the changing Asian security environment must allow considerable space for the large, unresolved issues of earlier years. Despite the rush of new issues onto the Asian security agenda, at the core of many regional security problems still lies a continuing worry about an old issue: Weapons proliferation. Indeed, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) now appears more worrying than before, precisely because of the change in the nature of war-making units that the events of September 11 have advertised, and the new determination in Washington to act forcefully, and if necessary pre-emptively, to prevent terrorists from acquiring such weapons. Further, WMD remain a major concern of analysts studying the traditional state-centric balance of power in the region. Such concerns are replicated, albeit at a lower level, in relation to the steady accumulation and qualitative improvement of conventional forces in the region. In short, the Asia-Pacific remains an area where regional institutionalization is under-developed, cross-border tensions are comparatively high, weapons capabilities are increasing, and the complex
PROSPECTS FOR NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, 2006–2016
This article reconsiders the conventional wisdom that the prospects for nuclear proliferation in Southeast Asia are too small to mention. After outlining the assumptions that underpin the conventional wisdom, it identifies recent regional and global trends that tend to weaken those assumptions and develops two proliferation scenarios, one centered on Burma and the other on Indonesia. It finds that the prospects for nuclear proliferation in Southeast Asia before 2016 remain nearly as remote as the conventional wisdom suggests, yet current trends suggest that the foundation for future proliferation may be laid during the coming decade. The scenarios suggest that attention ought to be focused not just on countries that are likely to proliferate, but on ways that Southeast Asian individuals might be drawn into regional and global proliferation networks.
Substation automation based on IEC 61850 with new process-close technologies
New technologies in primary equipment like nonconventional instrument transformers require new interfaces to the substation automation system. The future standard IEC 61850 perfectly supports this requirement. With the introduction of the new technologies and the use of IEC 61850, a more decentralized architecture of the substation automation system will be possible. This provides several benefits but a careful system design is required to maintain the overall reliability of the system.