Wireless Broadband for the Community

The take-up rate for the NBN in Tasmania was reported to be 38.5% after three years. The previous government was not too worried about the NBN take-up rate, as the copper network was to be switched off, so consumers would not have much of a choice. Does anyone have statistics for the take-up rate for high speed broadband in other countries?

One option I suggest for Australian urban areas is to combine 4G wireless mobile services with wireless broadband. This could complement FTTN and FTTP. The existing mobile service has limited capacity, but could service moderate home use. The service could be exp[anded by installing picocells on the same fibre used for FTTN and FTTP. Roaming could be enabled to allow a subscriber to any mobile company to use these cells. Also a lower tariff, comparable to wired services, could be offered for those using the wireless service "at home".

Using mobile broadband would create a virtual NBN at low cost. Rather than have to build an extensive wired network and home there were customers, the existing mobile network could be used and then cells added as demand increases.

With advances in 4G the mobile broadband service could carry 4K TV. The advanced HEVC codec allows compression of a HD TV at 6 Mbps and 4k TV at 12 Mbps to 30 Mbps. This could be carried on a 4G LTE-A network, using the Multicast-broadcast single-frequency network (MBSFN) option.

However, many of the community services envisaged for home broadband do not need high speeds. Instead they need trained staff and well designed applications. As an example  home health care is mentioned as a use for the NBN. But a person's vital signs (body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate) would only need about 10 bps to transmit.  More sophisticated monitors require more bandwidth, bit still far short of broadband, such as such as electrocardiography at 4 kbps.

But the greatest benefit from home health monitoring is likely to come from checking on the patient's general level of activity and asking them how they are. Advice to doctors, commissioned by the Department of Health recommends a minimum of 640 x 480 Video, with a minimum throughput on the link of 384kbit/s should be available, which far less than high speed broadband.

On-line education is also an application often given for home broadband. But while students like rich multimedia, this does not necessarily improve learning. The report "Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies" from the US Department of Education found that video does not improve online learning.

There can be considerable public benefit from broadband without running it to each home. Community centres provide not only a way to consolidate technical services, but also provide experts in health and education. Australia now has free Internet access in public libraries, which is an underrated achievement.

Internet in libraries builds on the library's traditional role providing access to information and literacy. Universities and TAFEs are turning their libraries into learning centres, with computers in place of books. They are keeping the staff to help the students, not only work the computers but with finding, using and creating information. The Gungahlin Town Centre Library in Canberra is a good example, where the one building accommodates the public library, a school library, a TAFE campus and broadband connected community rooms. This could be extended to provide support for university students as well.

Eco Rating of Mobile Phones

Vodafone have introduced a scheme for Eco Rating of Mobile Phones.The scores are on a scale of 1 to 5, in increments of one tenth, with a higher score indicating more sustainable.The score is calculated based on 162 questions about the
environmental and social impact of a phone, divided into Product (106 questions) and Corporate categories ( 56 questions). A separate scale is used for smartphones (much as different size fridges are rated separately for energy efficiency).

The top ratings for currently sold phones:

Feature phone: Nokia C2 - 01

Overall ECO 3.9:

• Green design: 3.7
• Mobile phone life cycle: 4.3
• Company performance: 3.9

Smart phone: Nokia Lumia 720

Overall ECO 3.3:

• Green design: 2.3
• Mobile phone life cycle: 3.6
• Company performance: 4.1

Sydney Double-Decker Express Commuter Bus

In June, Sydney's private Hillsbus company introduced five Double-Decker buses for the M61 "Metro-bus" express route from the city to Castle Hill, in the North West. The M61 service operates every 10 minutes in peak time, 15 minutes off-peak and 20 minutes on weekends (there is an M61 Castle Hill to City Timetable, but it is 70 pages long). The double deck buses are only used for the morning and afternoon peak services (see times appended). These services take the "MyBus" tickets accepted on Sydney's government buses, as well as cash fares.

As described in the brochure, the buses have 92 seats and look huge from the outside but a little cramped on the inside. The stairway on the right behind the driver takes up a lot of room, making it hard to get past. But the stairs are wide (for a bus) and well lighted (with luminous treads). Upstairs is a little roomier but with a low ceiling (one passenger hit their had on the LCD display screen at the front, which fortunately was padded.

There are two double bench seats upstairs at the front with a very large window in front. The view is excellent, but leg room cramped in the front row. Also it can be a little unnerving watching trees, bridges and traffic lights rushing towards you (some trees in George Street did seem to be scraping on the bus roof). Those without a head for heights, or long legs, might choose the second row of seats.

The bus has a much more compliant ride that the regular single deck Hills buses. The double deck buses seem to float over bumps, rather than crashing. However, high up this can induce a slight feeling of seasickness (some magnetorheological dampers might help).

Next to the bus stop at Castle Hill is the information office for the North West Rail Link. Work on the Castle Hill station is under-way across the road, but given the stop-start nature of previous Sydney metro projects, it is difficult to believe this will be built. In contrast the Metro-buses and transit lanes along the main roads are cost effective and tangible parts of a a transport system.

While at Castle Hill, I visited the excellent Castle Hill Library, which has a cafe where you can browse the magazines and newspapers. The easiest way to get to the library from the bus stop is to walk along Castle Street and under the enormous Castle Towers Shopping Centre (there seems to be no pedestrian exit to the centre on the library side).

M61 Double-Decker Times

The bus operator CDC advised that the Double-Decker buses usually run on these services:

WEEKDAYS: The weekday timetables are run during peak hours only as follows:

CASTLE HILL: AM 06.50, 07.00, 07.50, 08.00, PM 16.01, 16.11, 16.51, 17.01, 17.11

RAILWAY SQUARE: AM 08.18, 08.28, 09.02, 09.17, 09.32 PM 17.15, 17.25, 8.05, 18.15, 18.25

WEEKENDS: The weekend timetable is a little more frequent as follows:

CASTLE HILL: AM 07.30, 07.50, 08.10, 08.30, 08.50, 09.50, 10.10, 10.30, 10.50, 11.10, PM 12.50, 13.01, 13.30, 13.50, 14.30, 16.30

RAILWAY SQUARE: AM 08.40, 09.00, 09.20, 09.40, 10.00, 11.40, PM 12.00, 12.20, 13.20, 14.20, 15.00, 17.40

Mango Trees Hazard on Queensland Railway

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) issued its final report on "Collision of passenger trainT842 with station platform, Cleveland,Queensland, 31 January 2013", 20 December 2013. The ATSB found the train wheels slipped due to contamination from nearby trees. "Slippery rail" is a well known in the railway industry. While the cause is usually due to leaves on the track, it can be remarkably hard to predict or combat. As part of the investigation ATSB found there were trees next to, or overhanging the railway line at the top 10 locations where trains had overrun station platforms. One aspect not covered in the report is if the type of vegetation effects rail slip.

The most instances on the Brisbane rail network of station overrun occurred at Lindum railway station. Figure 19 on page 31 of the report shows an overhead shot of the station, pointing to trees nearby. I attended school nearby and recognise the grove of Mango trees in the photo. These trees have a much more dense foliage than native eucalyptus and drop sticky sap filled leaves and twigs as well as fruit. I have suggested to the ATSB that perhaps this causes more wheel slip that other vegetation.

Finnish Green ICT Sector Action Program

The Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications announced "An action programme for a green ICT sector" 18 December 2013. Unfortunately I could only find the media release in English, not the actual plan. The plan is available in Finnish as "Vihreän ICT:n toimintaohjelma", appended is an excerpt from a machine translation "Green ICT: Programme of Action". The plan targets three areas: data centres, telecommunications networks and audiovisual services.The third area concerns the energy impact of the change from watching broadcast TV to streamed video on computers.

Green ICT: Programme of Action

Summary

The Ministry of Transport and Communications, the aim is to promote the material and energy efficiency and reduce carbon dioxide emissions from information and communication technology based products and services. More and more green ICT initiatives combining traditional communication and environmental policy. At present, green ICT key technologies seen as a greater use of communication tools, electronic services and improving energy efficiency.

Green ICT agenda is based on the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the strategic research, development and innovation policies for the period 2013-2015, as well as traffic environmental strategy for the years 2013-2020. The program seeks to establish a priority ICT infrastructure required for energy needs. In addition, the aim is cross-sectoral and research-based collaboration, which allows ICT's negative effects can be minimized.

The Action Plan includes three priority areas: energy efficiency, sustainable development and timely research. In addition, the program measures are shown in the first stage, data centers, telecommunications networks, and audio-visual services areas.

Green ICT Programme of Action is part of the communication policy älystrategiaa, Quartz program. Crystal-program is an essential part of continuous development principle. According to this principle in this action plan objectives and actions developed to meet the changes in the operating environment and practices. The progress of actions and the impact of monitored annually and the data are collected from the administrative sector, as well as other authorities and the research needs of the parties.

Table of contents

1 INTRODUCTION .. 3
2 PREPARATION OF THE ACTION .. 4
3 SUMMARY OF THE ACTIVITIES OF RECOMMENDATIONS .. 5
3.1 Focus 1 - Energy Efficiency .. 5
3.2 Focus 2 - Sustainable Development .. 5
3.3 Focus 3 - Updated research information .. 6
3.4 Measures to .. 6
4 GENERAL TRENDS AND CHANGES IN GREEN ICT .. 7
4.1 Climate change and other environmental impacts .. 7
4.1.1 Information society development and climate change .. 7
4.1.2 ICT and the environment interrelationship between .. 8
4.2 Information and communication technologies, increasing energy consumption .. 9
4.2.1 ICT ecosystem energy .. 9
4.2.2 ICT's energy consumption growth in the underlying factors 10
4.3 Digital service culture and green growth .. 13
4.3.1 Digital service culture .. 13
4.3.2 Green growth .. . 14
4.3.3 Reliable and fast service infrastructure for sustainable development
prerequisite .. 15
5 ACTION AREAS .. 16
5.1 The server centers .. 16
5.2 Telecommunication networks . .. 17
5.3 Audiovisual services .. 17
6 INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION .. 18
7 FOLLOW-UP AND DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIAL .. 19

From: "Green ICT: Programme of Action" (machine translation) of Publication 34/2013, Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications,  12/13/2013, ISSN (online) 1795-4045, ISBN (online) 978-952-243-369-5, URN http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-243-369-5

Wireless Broadband for Regional Australia

Gabrielle Chan reports in "NBN trounced by regional offering from locals with an eye for enterprise" (The Guardian, 16 December 2013), about wireless broadband being offered in the town of Harden in New South Wales.

South Western Wireless Communications is offering broadband from $19.95 a month. But the customer has to purchase the Customer-premises equipment (CPE) and it is not clear what frequencies (licensed or unlicensed) are being used.

I get a mention in the article with my likening the of ALP and Coalition broadband proposals as being like the choice between a Lexus and a 10-year-old Camry and suggesting what younger customers want is wireless broadband.

The distinction between fixed wireless and mobile broadband is now largely one of business model, rather than technology. Ericsson were contracted by NBN Co. to provide a 4G / LTE TDD for fixed wireless rural broadband. The base stations and protocols used are essentially the same as for mobile broadband. The difference is that the customer receives the service via an antenna fixed to their home or business, rather than via a mobile device.

Both ALP and Collation broadband proposals have aimed at fixed location home and small business users. Also these have assumed a high density of new users served by new fibre into each home or terminated at new equipment cabinets in each street connecting the last few hundred metres of copper cable.

The major cost with FTTP is running the cable from street to the home, with FTTN, is installing new optical cabinets  in the street and reconnecting all the copper cables to it. However, an alternative would be to install the optical fibre in the street and then only connecting customers as they require a service. For FTTN, this would require rugged miniature waterproof optical modems, which could be installed in existing pits and cabinets. When a customer ordered a service, the technician would open the pit in the street outside the house and place an optical modem in it. This would be plugged into a fibre cable and power. Copper cable can be used for up to 1 GBPS, but limited to a distance of about 100 m. So each modem need only be designed to provide service to about eight to sixteen homes.

If the customer wanted FTTH, this would require a cable to be run though the existing conduit, or more likely, a new trench and conduit laid, at the householder's expense.

Universal Startup Pitch Deck

Greetings from the "Optus SydEduTech Pitchfest" at the UTS Business School in Sydney. This is being streamed live.One of the judges suggested use of the Pollenizer Universal Startup Pitch Deck.

Hawkei Australian Protected Vehicle for Prime Minister

This is to suggest the Australian Government order Hawkei Australian made protected vehicles for transporting the Prime Minister and senior officials securely. Media reports indicate that the Australian government will be buying imported vehicles, such as the High Security BMW 7-series, for the Prime Minister, as no Australian car maker can provide a bomb proof car. However, Thales Australia is testing prototypes of its Hawkei Protected Mobility Vehicle for the Australian Army. These are made in Australia and meet military standards for protecting the passengers. A version equipped with a luxury interior could be quickly produced. The Hawkei can carry six people and looks like a uber-SUV. This would project a popular image with the Australian community and send a "don't mess with us" message to those who may wish  Australia harm.

Bulk Energy Storage for Renewable Energy

Greetings from the Australian National University Energy Change Institute, where Peter Rood from General Compression is speaking on Bulk Energy Storage. He discussed two types of bulk storage: Pumped-storage hydroelectricity and Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES). Pumped hydro has a low capital cost where an existing hydro-electric system is used, such as Snowy Hydro's Tumut 3. Natural Gas Fired CAES is added to natural gas turbine power station. At times of surplus power, compressed air is pumped into a reservoir, usually an underground chamber. At times of energy need the compressed air is used to drive the turbine, without the need for natural gas fuel. More advanced systems extract heat from the compressed air and stores it separately in a liquid. The heat is then added back into the air during decompression.

Peter pointed out that as well as supplementing a conventional power station, energy storage can be used to allow a renewable intermittent energy source (such as wind and solar) to be used as a base-load supply.

General Compression uses a electric motor/generator connected to water cooled two stage pistons to compress the air. Interestingly the system uses a hydraulic motor/pump between the electric and air systems. Their pilot system is 2MW, but the system can be expanded.

Peter commented that the engineer technology used is based on that of automotive engines (whereas to me it is reminiscent of steam engines). Perhaps the Australian Government would be interested in a grant to investigate having former automotive workers manufacture this equipment in Australia using surplus capacity at car plants. This would provide Australian jobs as well as lowering Australia's carbon emissions.

Bulk energy storage projects offer unique benefits over smaller distributed storage technologies. Primarily driven by the significantly lower relative costs achieved though economies of scale and the ability to store energy for tens of hours, bulk energy storage projects allow for energy storage to be deployed at the megawatt scale on transmission and distribution networks. Core bulk storage applications include firm renewable energy projects, network level integration of distributed PV generation, and no or low-carbon supply of ancillary services.

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) is one of two primary types of bulk energy storage , the other being pumped hydro, and store energy as compressed air in under or above ground vessels. General Compression is a Boston, USA based technology development company that has developed a near-isothermal compressed air energy storage system. Traditionally CAES projects have used natural gas to add heat to the generation portion of the process, General Compression's technology captures heat generated as electricity is converted to compressed air and reintroduces that heat during the generation process eliminating the need to burn natural gas making the technology fuel & emissions free.

More information, please see http://cecs.anu.edu.au/seminars/more/SID/3429

Random Hacks of Kindness Sydney Judging

Greetings from  Random Hacks of Kindness Global Hackathon in Sydney. Three teams having been working on community computer applications (RHoK Sydney problems) for the last two days. Myself and two other judges will be looking at the team presentations shortly, then scoring using the standard RHoK Judging Criteria: 

1. creativity / innovative / unique
2. utility, can it be used in the field?
3. applicable, does it solve a problem
4. impact, local or global
5. progress (on existing work, or starting from nothing)
6. usability

The first team is developing a system to help with donations for the Bagong Barrio Education Fund. (BBEF). The Bagong Barrio Education Fund is a not-for-profit program for education of children in the village of Bagong Barrio, Manila, in the Philippines.

The second team was Zspaces  who aim to match up people who have empty office, retail or warehouse space with those having a short term need. This is conceptually similar to Renew Newcastle, which makes use of vacant shop-fronts for artists to sell their works.  An example of a use of space in Sydney is the Leichhardt Pop In Space. But Zspaces would allow for much more short term use of just a few days. This could be popular with councils who don't like to see empty shops in their streets.

The third team is adding extra features to Open Development Cambodia (ODC), to help about Cambodia's economic and social development. They interface to a MySQL database, to extract and visualize data about Cambodia.

The range of applications and approaches were very interesting.

Santa-land Under the Archway in Sydney

The play "The Santaland Diaries" by the Archway One Theatre Company in Sydney would be good for a hens night. As the only male in the audience, I felt a little out of place. Andrew Fritz gave an excellent one man performance in tights, as an actor who has to swallow their pride and spend Christmas as one of the elves in Macey's Department store.

Archway 1 Theatre is located in the brick viaduct under the Sydney Light Rail line. The play is set in a New York loft apartment and Santa's house in Macey's store. The solid old brick vault over the stage provides an atmospheric setting (with trams rumbling overhead reminiscent of the NY EL). The layers of white Christmas decoration add whimsy. But some of the play's NY references do not translate well for an Australian audience, particularly the racial issues.

There are a few laughs, but perhaps not enough to sustain the performance. A one man show is always difficult and in this case the material lets the actor down. SantaLand Diaries was an essay by David Sedaris, read on US NPR and later adapted for the stage by by Joe Mantello.

There are three more performances Santaland Diaries, 13, 14 and 15 December. The theater can be very difficult to find: park in Chapman Road and continue down the street on foot, past the bollards, to the archway under the viaduct.

Humanitarian Computing Completion in Sydney

Greetings from  Random Hacks of Kindness Global Hackathon at the offices of Ninefold in Sydney. This is an application development competition, where teams hear about a problem effecting a community group and then develop an application to help. At the moment Inês Almeida is giving a presentation on her work presenting a positive image for girls via social media. I have volunteered to be one of the judges for RHoK, given my past work on free open source disaster management.

Inês suggested that the typical startup process used with for-profit ventures does not suit social enterprises. Small ventures could use crowd funding, but need to keep coming up with new attention getting ("disruptive") ideas. But she cautioned about using some of the less ethical tactics of commercial ventures.

It is a cool sunny day and Ninefold's office has a panoramic view of Darling Harbor and the Blue Mountains.

Salvage Shipping Containers Using Twistlocks

In "Don't abandon ship! How to salvage a mega-vessel" (New Scientist, 26 November 2013), Will Gray describes the problems with salvaging cargo from mega-container ships. As they point out, without the ship upright the containers can be difficult to remove. However, Gray mentions chains having to be placed around the container to lift them, which I don' t think should be necessary. Standard shipping containers have three slots in each corner designed to fit a "T" shaped Twistlock connector. The containers are designed to be lifted, fully loaded, using the four connectors on the top face. The twistlocks can be attached by hand, or with a remote mechanism on a crane. It should be possible for a diver to attach a twistlock by hand to a submerged container, or for this to be done by a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV).

Kamerian Defence Force Threat to Australia

The general public who stumble across the article "Swift and Sure Future Communications" in Asia Pacific Defence Reporter magazine (Geoff Slocombe, November 2013), might be perplexed or alarmed by a description of a powerful invasion force heading for Australia. The article doesn't explain, for non-military readers, that the "Kamerian Defence Force" mentioned is a fictional one, commonly used in Australian Defence Force exercises for an imagined enemy (also known as the "red force"). The article describes how the enemy is detected in in Indonesia's Lombok Strait, by the JORN Radar (which is real), RAAF Triton UAVs (not yet ordered for Australia) , Collins Class submarines (in service, but of uncertain reliability), HQJOC Bungendore (real), HMAS Hobart (due to be launched 2016), F/A-18G Growlers  (ordered), KC-30A Tanker Aircraft (in service except for the tail boom, which tends to fall off), C-27J (ordered) and C-130J (in service).

Australian Designed High Speed Warships for Australian Based US Marines

Jane's Defence Weekly reports that the US Navy is planning to have an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) to support US Marines based in Darwin ("USN contemplates two-ship ARG concept to support Australia-based marines",  Grace Jean, Jane's Defence Weekly, 29 October 201). This may include the Australian designed JHSVs (Joint High Speed Vessels). The JHSVs are a militarized car ferries, designed by Austral in Western Australia, built built in the USA. The potential for such vessels to be sued for military supply first came to the US Navy's attention when HMAS Jervis Bay was used by the Australian Navy to supply the peacekeeping forces in East Timor.  The RAN will have a similar capability to a US ARG, with its two Canberra-class landing helicopter dock ships., but lacking the US Marines fixed wing aviation combat element.

Founding an Analytics Consulting Service Business

Greetings from the Entry 29 co-working space in Canberra, where Gerrie Aldag,– Co-Founder of Innogence is talking about the origins of the business (subsequently sold to NTT Data Business Solutions). Gerrie started as a company accountant. He grew tired of manual calculations and started creating spreadsheets to summarize data. This lead to a new business extracting data from SAP and producing useful analysis.

Another fortnight, another Founders Series fireside chat.

This week's speaker is Gerrie Aldag.
Gerrie Aldag was one of four founders of Innogence. Formed in 2005, Innogence was a certified premier partner in both SAP Services and Business Objects, offering specialised consulting services in both SAP business analytics and HANA. NTT Data Business Solutions APAC acquired the company in December 2012.
At time of acquisition the company employed more than 100 staff across branches in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Gerrie will share his journey from concept to sale ...

Rights and Sustainability in Timor-Leste’s Development

Greetings from the Australian National University where Charles Scheiner, Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis, is speaking on "Rights and Sustainability in Timor-Leste’s Development". He questioned the Timor-Leste's government's policy of economic development based on petroleum extraction and processing. He presented a detailed analysis of the problems. However, these problems could equally apply to many small developing nations and some to Australia.

What was lacking from the analysis was proposals for fixing the problem. At question time Scheiner related an anecdote that junior public servants in the Timor-Leste government who related in private they agreed with the analysis but faced political pressure preventing putting this in official proposals.

Perhaps there is need for more emphasis in higher education courses on how to have policy proposals adopted.In the course "ICT Sustainability" (COMP7310) I have the students spend the first half working out what the problem is and the second what to do about it. Students discover that it is relatively easy to come up with a technical proposal, but much harder to put it in a way their boss will find compelling. This is something which we can teach over the Internet to students anywhere.

 There is a Timor-Leste Conference at ANU tomorrow.

Verifiable e-voting schemes

Greetings from the Australian national University where Vanessa Teague ,University of Melbourne is talking on "End-to-end verifiable cryptographic voting schemes". She reviewed the various electronic voting systems which have been used in Australia, such as "iVote" used in the NSW 2011 state election. The iVote system had obvious flaws, as there is limited evidence trail. A new version is proposed for the 2015 NSW election. The process is described in "iVote Strategy for the NSW State GeneralElection 2015" (NSW Electoral Commission, August 2013). What is remarkable about this is not the process proposed is flawed, but how the NSW Electoral Commission could propose such an obviously flawed system on a second attempt.

I have used the EVACS system, developed by the local company Software Improvements, to vote in Australia is the Australian Capital Territory (ACT)  in the last two local elections. Also I have used a pilot system for one federal election. Dr Teague described EVACS as the only open source system, well thought out and extensive analysis. The audience pointed out that all the software may not be open source (Evoting pioneer plays politics with open source, Steven Deare, LinuxWorld, 11 August, 2004).

Dr Teague pointed out that as good as it is, even eVACS does not provide a way to verify the vote counting is correct. Cryptographic techniques can be used to do this, but it may not be practical. The system has the voter receiving an encrypted receipt of their vote. The voter can check their recipient against a list published by the voting system.

The encrypted system relies on the list of candidates being randomly listed for each voter. The list of what the voter voted for can then be published, without revealing who was voted for. Unfortunately there was not sufficient time in the talk to explain the detail of how this works.

One of the problems with any e-voting polling place system is the cost of the hardware. For the Australian local, state and federal systems a simple change would have it cheaper. The ACT and federal elections have e-voting at the larger polling palces used for pre-polling. Normally the pre-polling is just used for people who are unable to vote on polling day, but if citizens were encouraged to use this system, them most of the votes could be collected with a few electronic systems (and the other votes collected on paper).

There is a paper available "Verifiable Postal Voting", Josh Benaloh, Peter Y. A. Ryan, Vanessa Teague in Security Protocols XXI

Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 8263, 2013, pp 54-65.

Effect of Different Political Systems on Asian Security

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Robert Ayson, Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) is speaking on "Asia’s Security and the Problem of Values". His new book "Asia's Security" is due out in 2014. As Dr Andrew Carr pointed out, this topic is timely with several points of conflict in Asia current.

Dr. Ayson asks if avoidance of conflict requires shared values, or just shared interests. He discussed the idea that strong powers need to come to an accommodation with rising powers. Dr. Ayson is clearly referring to the USA and China. He used the analogy that the USA and USSR avoided a catastrophic war, during the cold war. But I am not sure that China would want to be cast in the role of the USSR, as it ultimately lost the cold war.

Dr. Ayson distinguished interests from values, with the latter being more deep seated. The assumption this analysis is based on is that nations need to have something in common, which I suggest need not be the case. As an example, in international trade, the parties involved need not agree on the intrinsic value of the item traded, just agree on a price. Nations going to war, I suggest, might be similarly seen as a trade, with a price. Two nations may not value human life equally, but could still achieve a balance of destruction to prevent war.

Dr. Ayson suggests that the AUSMIN 2013 Joint Communiqué (USA/Australia, 20 November 2013), emphasizes the shared values of the USA and Australia could make a tripartite agreement with China more difficult. However, I think that he is confusing a public relations statement with genuine beliefs. History has many examples of nations being military allies and presenting a common public image one day and being at war, vilifying each other the next. As the saying goes: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Dr. Ayson cited "Fairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies: New Zealand and the United States" by David Hackett Fischer (Oxford University Press, 2012). In this Hackett asks how different the two nations view of what at first appear well understood values.

Dr. Ayson asks if China and Japan are competing for economic resources in the East China Sea, or if they are concerned with some more abstract concept of honor. He asked if security and economic growth as a value would encourage cooperation and compromise. But in this I suggest Dr. Aysonis still assuming that both parties need to want the same thing. It may be that China and Japan have different priorities for security and economic growth.

Toward the end of his talk, Dr. Ayson completely lost me. He first referred to Tolken's the Lord of the Rings "One Ring to Rule the All" and then to Isaiah Berlin's experience in Europe, before moving to Oxford.
The audience member next to me took Dr. Ayson to task over how genuine USA's democratic values are, given that the nation has carried out international actions which seem to contract such values, including the invasion of Iraq, torture of prisoners and tapping of telecommunications globally. He responded that when a nation talked of values, they set themselves up to criticism. 

In his inaugural address President Kennedy said "Pay any price, bear any burden ... in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." Clearly in practice Kennedy was not prepared to pay any price, confining armed conflict to limited wars. The current US President may need to decide what price his country is willing to pay, if an incident occurs in the East China Sea.

From the talk invitation:

Robert Ayson is on research leave from Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) and is currently Visiting Fellow with the ANU’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC). Formerly Director of Studies for the SDSC, in 2010 he was appointed Professor and Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at VUW. He has also held academic positions with the Massey University and the University of Waikato, and official positions in New Zealand with the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade select committee and what is now the National Assessments Bureau. He is also an Honorary Professor with the New Zealand Defence Force Command and Staff College. Ayson completed his PhD in War Studies at King’s College London as a Commonwealth Scholar and an MA at the ANU as a New Zealand Defence Freyberg Scholar. He is the author of Thomas Schelling and the Nuclear Age (Frank Cass, 2004) and Hedley Bull and the Accommodation of Power (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), and is currently writing a book on Asia’s Security.

Options for E-waste Plastic

The New Zealand Government has issued reports of two studies it commissioned on how to dealing with plastic which contains Brominated flame retardant (BFR) chemicals. These plastics have been commonly used in computers and other electronic devices. The chemicals are banned under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The result is e-waste which is difficult to dispose of. Available are:

1. Managing waste that may contain brominated flame retardants,
2. Brominated flame retardant research: A pilot study of e-waste plastic sorting in New Zealand (AS140193), Geoff Latimer, NVIRON Australia Pty Ltd, for NZ Ministry for the Environment, September 2013. The study found most CRT TVs in NZ were manufactured in Asia after 1990 without POP-BDEs. A small number of older units from Europe may contain the chemical. Photocopiers and printers are likely to be POP-BDE free. There was limited evidence on POP-BDEs in CRT computer monitors, so the authors recommended monitors should be assumed to contain them. But LCD computer monitors are unlikely to contain the chemical.
   
3. Brominated Flame Retardant Research: A cost-benefit analysis of sorting options for e-waste plastics, ACIL Allen Consulting Pty Ltd, for NZ Ministry for the Environment, October 2013. The report compared visual inspection of items versus use of a handheld "XRF scanner" which uses X-rays to detect the chemicals.  The report concludes that the scanners can't sufficient distinguish between POP-BDE and the more benign chemicals used to replace them, resulting in a large number of false positives. The report concludes XRF is more expensive and does not give any better identification result.

Cyber War Will Take Place

Thomas Rid's book "Cyber War Will Not Take Place" (Oxford University Press, 2013), is readable and well researched. It argues that on-line attacks on nation states will be at most an adjunct to the use of conventional military force. The limits to the effectiveness of an on-line attack are discussed, using documented cases. The conclusion is that cyber-war will not happen, because it is unreliable in its effect, cannot be well targeted and can't cause violence directly. Surprisingly, Queensland, Australia, features prominently as one place where a cyber-attack on infrastructure had a significant effect. In 2000 the Maroochy Shire SCADA system was commanded to dump millions of liters of raw sewage into waterways.

Rid soberly counters the hype around "cyber-war", but perhaps goes too far in dismissing it altogether. There are many weapons which have uncertain military value, but are nonetheless made ready for use. An example is Barnes Wallis' bouncing bomb, used to breech the Möhne and Edersee Dams in WW2. The bomb had a mostly indirect effect, by breeching the dam wall, cutting off hydroelectric power and flooding the land below. The bombs has some propaganda value, but were of limited military value.

It is unlikely there will be a pure cyberwar, but very likely that any future major conventional war will involve extensive use of on-line attacks. These will be intended to cause confusion and degrade the enemy infrastructure to make conventional kinetic attack more effective, rather than replace it.

Compared to conventional warfare, cyber-war takes little hardware. Office computers are cheap compared to missiles, submarines and supersonic aircraft. A country with a conscription army also has a ready supply of recruits, who can be screened for computing skills. Reserve personnel, who work in the ICT, can be used, with most of their technical training taken care of by their civilian employers (previously I proposed such a "Australian CyberWarfare Battalion").

Nations with less developed infrastructure may also see this as a useful form of asymmetric warfare. A less developed nation has little to fear in terms of retaliation when  disrupting the water, transport and power infrastructure of a developed nation.

Fund for Humanitirian Software to Support Disaster Response

The Sahana Software Foundation has launched a Philippines Appeal. The foundation provides free open source disaster response software and training.   The software is used by government and non-government organizations around the world to coordinate relief operations after natural disasters. The software is in use by the Philippine Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Philippines Red Cross for Typhoon Haiyan recovery operations.

The Sahana Software Foundation is non-profit organization registered in the State of California, USA. In 2010 it received the PPBI Best Practices Award for its work on Haiti Earthquake and in 2013 was named Computerworld Honors Laureate for information technology to benefit society.

Security Professionals Register

One topic at the Australasian Council of Security Professionals and combined Associations’ Seminar was the Security Professionals Register. which was created to raise the standard of professionalism in the security industry. So far the register appears to have only 15 people on it.

Security challenges in the Indian Ocean littoral and the US pivot to Asia

Greetings from the Australasian Council of Security Professionals and combined Associations’ Seminar at the Australian National University in Canberra, where  Peter Leahy, former Chief of the Australian Army and Director of the National Security Institute, is speaking on "Security challenges in the Indian Ocean littoral and the US pivot to Asia".

Professor Leahy pointed out that the Indian Ocean was surrounded by many unstable states and 50% of the world's shipping cargo crosses the region, with a number of vulnerable choke-points. The Australian warships were sunk in the Indian Ocean in WW2. HMAS Stirling is the main naval base for the west.

Professor Leahy referred to "Gateway to the Indo-Pacific: Australian Defense Strategy and the Future of the Australia-U.S. Alliance" (Jim Thomas, Zack Cooper, and Iskander Rehman, November 2013, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments). He pointed out that despite the title, this publication, like much US strategic thinking is fixated on China. I did a quick check and found "India" occurs 10 times in the document, "China" 13 times. What worried me more was that "Cyber" occurs only twice and "Internet" and "World Wide Web" not at all. The RAAF's E-7A Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft are mentioned as providing early warning of approaching aircraft. An expansion of the JORN Over the Horizon Radar is suggested. While the P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft is mentioned once, but not the pod-mounted, active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar option.

Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre

Greetings from the the Australasian Council of Security Professionals and combined Associations’ Seminar at the Australian National University in Canberra, where someone from Edith Cowan University (ECU) is talking about a bid for a Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). So far the bid has CSIRO, QUT, Deakin University, University of South Australia, University of Adelaide, Hannover University and Groningen University. There is a 2013 CyberCRC Prospectus available. ECU is also running a  Control Systems: Cyber Security Training Course on 9 December 2013.

Protective Security Policy Framework

Greetings from the the Australasian Council of Security Professionals and combined Associations’ Seminar at the Australian National University in Canberra, where someone from Attorney General's Department is talking about the "Protective Security Policy Framework". They made the point that rather than a rigid set of rules on what to do, the framework is designed help agencies identify their needs. Australian personnel vetting practices include a physiological profile of each individual, which can help identify future problems.

Staff of the Australian Cyber Security Center will move into the new ASIO building in Canberra, when it is ready.

Law and New Technologies In Warfare

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Knut Doermann, head of the legal division of the International Committee of the Red Cross, military and legal experts are discussing "Australia: New technologies and warfare". Questions of the legal and ethical questions of technology in warfare are not hypothetical. Previously I worked at the Department of Defence. Now I teach ICT ethics to students, some of whom work on radar, UAV and other military systems. Yesterday I attended a seminar on revolutionary new nano-technology, which has its own ethical issues.

Dr. Doermann in his opening address drew a distinction between "drone" which are remotely controlled by a human operator and autonomous systems. I and no a lawyer, or an ethicist, but in my view there is still no such distinction. The person who launches a smart weapon is accountable for the effect it has. Before they launch the weapon they must be satisfied its effect will be legal. If the weapon fails to perform as the soldier expected, then they may share responsibly with the designer and builder.

Machines already take life and death decisions every day, in motor vehicles, medical devices and air traffic control. I warn my students that when their programming goes wrong, they may be held to account in court for their actions.

Join the ICRC and the Australian Centre for Military and Security Law for a thought-provoking panel discussion on new technologies and warfare, as we launch the latest edition of the International Review of the Red Cross.

Event Info

Where: Australian National University, Canberra, 6pm-7.30pm
When:  19.11.2013

From nanotechnology enhanced weapons to autonomous robots, advancements in technology herald the possibility of a quantum leap in how war is waged. In this timely discussion, we bring together local and international experts to put the spotlight on the potential legal, ethical and humanitarian implications of such a profound change to armed conflict as we know it.

Panelists:

Knut Doermann, head of the legal division of the ICRC
Ian Henderson, Group Captain, RAAF and director of the Military Law Centre
Hitoshi Nasu, senior lecturer, ANU College of Law and acting co-director of Australian Centre for Military and Security Law
Eve Massingham, international humanitarian law officer, the Australian Red Cross
Chaired by Helen Durham, director IHL, strategy, planning & research, the Australian Red Cross

Discontent with the Arab Spring

Greetings from the Australian National University, in Canberra, where Professor Nazif Shahrani of Indiana University is speaking on "Why is the Arab Spring turning to the season of Arab discontent?". Professor
Shahrani suggested that an examination of what went wrong in Afghanistan could be applied to other Islamic nations. He mentioned the role of "professional demonstrators", but I was not sure what is meant by this. Ba'athism was mentioned as a preceding revolution. He pointed to the large numbers of protesters who occupied streets and squares in the Arab Spring. He asked why these protesters then called on the military to take control.

But I was not clear as to how  Professor Shahrani could know what the population of Egypt wanted. The idea of the state security apparatus taking over government in a crisis is not that unusual. Even in Australia there is provision for a state of emergency, with provision of the police and army to issue orders.

Professor Shahrani argued that a tradition of kingship has a tradition in the Islamic world. Under this approach "winner takes all" with a ruler and their family and associates controlling the security forces. However, I can think of other countries with other state religions and secular states with autocratic governments.

Professor Shahrani argues that the regimes dehumanize opponents, to the point where political opponents are considered non-people. But this would seem to be the stock and trade of politics. As an example, the Australian Minister for Immigration has directed his department to refer to asylum seekers with the prefix "illegal", even though this is contrary to Australian law (which says that everyone is innocent until proven guilty by a court). The new Australian Government has continued the practice of the previous ALP government of placing asylum seekers in remote detention centres, to prevent the media having access to detainees, so as to de-humanise them and limit public sympathy.

Professor Shahrani argued that religion doesn't form a basis for behavior in Egypt currently, but is being used used to justify military control. While less extreme, I suggest the same is seen in western democracies. Military ceremonies frequently feature a religious element. Even secular states co-opt the forms of religious ceremony.

Professor Shahrani claimed that the Egyptian army depended on US funds and this is now supplemented by the Gulf states. He argued that the source of the funds did not matter, just the fact of the subsidy. However, I suggest that large aid givers are likely to have an influence on the recipient. Provision of aid is not necessarily a reliable way to control a country, with some changing from block to block, to with their own agenda.

Professor Shahrani argued a destruction of the old political system was needed with the Arab Spring. The Muslim Brotherhood took over the existing political system, with vested interests, particularly the army. However, I suggest Indonesia is an example of a country where the military had a central role written into the constitution and significant business interests, but where there has been a relatively stable transition to democracy. Turkey also has a military which has had significant political power, alongside an elected government.

Guide to Democracy in the UK

Dan Jellinek's book "People Power: A user's guide to democracy" (Bantam Press, 2013) is a useful overview, but concentrates on the UK. As an Australian I found the differences in levels of government and voting systems of limited interest. However, the book got interesting just before the end, when Dan discussed the potential of the Internet to be sued for governance. I would like to see a follow-up book which concentrated on this aspect, with examples from around the world. Before reading this book I didn't know Dan had an interest in government, as I only knew him through his excellent E-Access Bulletin on web accessibility.

Indian Ocean Security Issues

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Clive Williams is speaking on "Security Issues in the Indian Ocean: Maldives Case Study". Professor Williams pointed out that the Maldives is smaller than the ACT and vulnerable to sea level rises. There were 108 people killed in the 2008 tsunami. The RAF had an airbase in the Maldives, but this was moved to Diego Garcia, about 1,000 km south. The Commonwealth suspended the Maldives from its democracy and human rights committee due to suspected violations. The Maldives is a  Sunni Islam state. The defence force has a budget of $45M with some patrol boats, acting essentially as a supplement to the police force, which are essentially water police.

The Chinese Peace Ark hospital ship recently visited the islands. However, the Maldives government is unlikely to permit a permanent PLA Navy presence due to pressure from India. Professor Williams referred to "Indian Ocean : a sea of uncertainty", by Leighton G. Luke (Future Directions International, 2012).

Professor Williams  discussed the idea of an Australian funded police training centre for the Indian Ocean region located in the Maldives. Although I did wonder if Western Australia would be a better location.

The issue of Indian Ocean security is topical with the Australian Prime Minister having just announced that two second hand Bay-class patrol boats would be donated to Sri Lanka. These vessels are used by customs in Australia and so are very lightly armed with one machine gun, but are likely to be up-gunned by Sri Lanka. 

The Centre for Military & Security Law, ANU College of Law invite you to attend a Public Lecture: Security Issues in the Indian Ocean: Maldives Case Study, to be presented by Clive Williams MG, Visiting Professor at the Centre for Military and Security Law, ANU College of Law.

The Maldives is seen by many Australians as a tranquil paradise and ideal holiday destination - but it faces serious security challenges related to growing Islamisation, stymied democracy, political corruption, organised crime, and a subverted judiciary. It also has a constitution that is in breach of human rights law. The Maldives has a range of connections to regional countries and these often affect the Maldives' security situation.

Book About Five Years in Goa

On the new books display at the National Library of Australia today I found "What Westerners Have for Breakfast: Five Years in Goa" by John McBeath (Transit Lounge, 2013). McBeath, partner and dog moved from Melbourne to India in the 1980s with the aim of setting up a guest house. The books recounts the pleasures and frustrations of their time. I  lived in an Indian village in Goa for three weeks, not far from the location of this book and it brought back memories, both good and bad, for me. I have only got as far as chapter three of nineteen, but already I am not sure I like  the author. The story is well told with interesting self-deprecating anecdotes. But it is frustrating to read the problems which the ex-patriots make for themselves, such as in bringing a dog with them.

The book is a little dated, with the description of the scarcity of telephones and difficulty of long distance calls being a thing of the past. Even eight years ago, when I visited, mobile phones were very common, with coverage across Goa (except where screened by the thick walled metal oxide traditional houses).

China E-waste Draft National Standards

The China Electronic Standards Association (CESA), distributed seven draft national standards the handling of e-waste. These cover the dismantling of obsolete equipment, general requirements for premises, equipment procedures, pollution control, health and safety, and documentation. These cover desktop computers, copiers, printers, laptops, plasma, LCD and CRT TVs and computer monitors. It is not clear why seven separate standards are needed, as most of the procedures will be common for all types of equipment. One standard could be issued with appendices, or supplements, for variations in equipment type. These standards are important for Australia, as much of the  e-waste collected through the Australian National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme, goes to China for recycling.

Here are the original Chinese texts of the proposed standards:

1. CRT TVs and Monitors: 20083080-T-339
2. LCD TVs: 20083081-T-339
3. Plasma TVs: 20083082-T-339
4. Notebook computers (laptops): 20083083-T-339
5. Printers: 20083084-T-339
6. Copiers: 20083085-T-339
7. Desktop computers (PCs): 20083086-T-339

Why Was I Banned from LinkedIn?

A few days ago I LinkedIn.com blocked my access, due to complaints from members that I "... sent or posted unsolicited messages via groups that appear to be phishing, spam, or abusive in nature ...". However, in a Kafkaesque twist, the complainants, messages and groups were not identified. Instead I had to agree to "... adhere to the LinkedIn User Agreement and Privacy Policy from this day forward", thus admitting my guilt, without knowing what it was that I was supposed to have done.

As well as blocking access to sending positing to discussion groups and administering the groups I run, my LinkedIn profile was also blocked. As I was blocked, I could not appeal to other LinkedIn members for support, or even to ask what I had done wrong.

So I agreed to LinkedIn terms. I was admonished to "... make sure any links and comments you post are appropriate for the Group ...", still without saying what group or what had been inappropriate. My access and profile were then restored: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomworthington

As I still don't know what it was I said to cause offense, or in which group I said it, this has made me wary of posting anything to any LinkedIn group on any topic. I have resigned from most of the LinkedIn groups I was was a member of, to prevent accidentally posting something which may give offense and might get me banned. Also I found myself avoiding responding to, or even looking at, postings in non-LinkedIn groups, in case there was something I might do wrong there.

Previously I had reported some postings to LinkedIn, usually of the "Have your PHD Thesis Written for $10!" variety. I assumed there was a process where the poster would be told which posting was objected to and why. But this is not the case, instead you just find yourself banned.

It is worrying to think of the power which those administering such social media services have. A corporation, or government, could impose very effective social control by these means.

Political Economy of Governance and Public Policy in Indonesia

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Dr Boediono, Vice-President of Indonesia, is speaking on  "The Political Economy of Governance and Public Policy in Indonesia", after receiving an honorary doctorate. Dr Boediono, focused on three issues: democracy, decentralization and anti-corruption.

Dr Boediono, identified the development of a vibrant and vigorous media as an important development in Indonesia. It happens that my colleague Dr. Idris Sulliman (ANU Adjunct Lecturer) , has just had an opinion piece "‘Trashed’ documentary and meaningful technology solutions" published in the Jakarta Post (13 November 2013). This reports on the screening of the UK documentary film ‘Trashed’", in which Jeremy Irons discusses the global pollution  problem.

Idris suggests that Indonesia can leapfrog to a low-carbon economy, in part by investing in Internet broadband access. He is taking part in Meaningful Broadband Indonesia 2013: Towards the Activation of the Indonesia Broadband Plan, 13 to15 November at the Jakarta Convention Center.

In 2012 Dr. Sulliman and I were guests of an Indonesian university to discuss green computing education in Indonesia. Students in Indonesia, and elsewhere, can learn how to do this in my course "ICT Sustainability" which starts in February 2014.

World Energy Outlook 2013

Mr Ian Cronshaw, of the International Energy Agency, will speak on the "World Energy Outlook 2013 at the ANU Energy Update, 5 December 2013. The event is free and is hosted by the Australian National University in Canberra.

The ANU Energy Change Institute (ECI) is pleased to host Mr Ian Cronshaw from the International Energy Agency (IEA) to present the latest insights from the 2013 World Energy Outlook. This year the IEA published the WEO on November 12th, providing a snapshot of international energy trends.

The Energy Update will provide Australian researchers, policymakers, industry and members of the public with the latest state of play in the world’s energy markets.

The inaugural Energy Update has a particular focus on Asia, where energy demand is growing faster than anywhere in the world. In addition to the rapid growth in China and India, Southeast Asia as a region is rising fast as a global energy player. The region’s booming economy is expected to drive this trend in years to come. Efforts to close the development gaps and sustain economic growth using fossil fuels could result in a significant rise in greenhouse gas emissions, while efforts to secure energy supplies could potentially redraw the global map of energy security and geopolitics.

The full day event features national and international presenters from government, universities and the private sector to discuss a range of issues such as global and regional energy outlook, sustainable energy technologies, energy security and energy poverty. The speakers participating are at the cutting edge of politics, economics and trade, and each session will focus on opportunities and challenges in these fields. ...

The ANU Energy Update is organised in by The ANU Energy Change Institute in conjunction with the ANU College of Asia and The Pacific.

Presenters include (in alphabetical order):

• Dr Marwansyah Lobo Balia, National Energy Council of the Republic of Indonesia, Special Advisor to the Energy Minister of the Republic of Indonesia
• Professor Ken Baldwin, Director of The ANU Energy Change Institute
• Professor Andrew Blakers, Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems, ANU
• Dr Paul Burke, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU
• Mr Allaster Cox, First Assistant Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• Mr Ian Cronshaw, International Energy Agency
• Dr Matthew Dornan, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU
• Professor Peter Drahos, Regulatory Institutions Network, ANU
• Mr Bruce Godfrey, Board member of ARENA
• Professor Quentin Grafton, The Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU
• Professor Chris Greig, UQ Energy Initiative, University of Queensland
• Dr Edward Halawa, Centre for Renewable Energy, Research Institute for the Environment
• Professor Andrew MacIntyre, Dean of the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
• Professor Hugh Outhred, School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications, UNSW
• and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University
• Dr Michael H. Smith, Fenner School of Environment and Society, ANU Mr Bruce Wilson, Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics
• Professor David Stern, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU
• Dr Ivor Frischknecht, Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)

Registration is required at: anuenergyupdate.eventbrite.com
E adhityani.putri@anu.edu.au T 02 6125 6599
This event is free and open to the public

 

Challenges with New Technologies In Warfare

Knut Doermann, head of the legal division of the International Committee of the Red Cross, military and legal experts will discuss "Australia: New technologies and warfare", at the Australian National University in Canberra, 19 November 2013.

Join the ICRC and the Australian Centre for Military and Security Law for a thought-provoking panel discussion on new technologies and warfare, as we launch the latest edition of the International Review of the Red Cross.

Event Info

Where: Australian National University, Canberra, 6pm-7.30pm
When:  19.11.2013

From nanotechnology enhanced weapons to autonomous robots, advancements in technology herald the possibility of a quantum leap in how war is waged. In this timely discussion, we bring together local and international experts to put the spotlight on the potential legal, ethical and humanitarian implications of such a profound change to armed conflict as we know it.

Panelists:

Knut Doermann, head of the legal division of the ICRC
Ian Henderson, Group Captain, RAAF and director of the Military Law Centre
Hitoshi Nasu, senior lecturer, ANU College of Law and acting co-director of Australian Centre for Military and Security Law
Eve Massingham, international humanitarian law officer, the Australian Red Cross
Chaired by Helen Durham, director IHL, strategy, planning & research, the Australian Red Cross