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Key Obstacles (key + obstacle)
Selected AbstractsThe Six-Party Talks and North Korea's Denuclearization: Evaluation and ProspectsPACIFIC FOCUS, Issue 2 2010Tae-Hwan Kwak The six-party process for North Korea's denuclearization has long been stalled since the Six-Party Talks (SPT) failed to agree on a verification protocol in early December 2008. The DPRK officially stated on 10 February 2005 that it already possessed nuclear weapons. It now wants to be recognized as a nuclear power. The North Korean nuclear issue, a key obstacle to the Korean peace process, needs to be resolved peacefully through the six-party process. The author has argued over the years that while the six-party process is the best means to resolve the North's nuclear issue, bilateral US,DPRK talks are equally important to a peaceful and diplomatic resolution of the DPRK's issue. The peaceful resolution of the North's nuclear issue is prerequisite to building a peace regime on the Korean peninsula and regional peace in Northeast Asia. The author has two specific goals: (i) to evaluate the stalled SPT for denuclearizing the Korean peninsula since December 2008; and (ii) to make policy recommendations for continued denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in the framework of the SPT. The first part of this article examines DPRK's denuclearization process up to the point when the SPT failed to adopt a written verification protocol in December 2008. Since then, the six-party process has been stalled. The second part discusses the impact of the DPRK's rocket launch in April 2009 and its second nuclear test in May on the SPT. The third part evaluates the DPRK's new proposal for peace treaty talks and its new conditions for returning to the SPT. Finally, this article proposes key issues on agenda to be negotiated at the next SPT and some policy recommendations for achieving denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. [source] In Search of the Korean Peninsula Peace Regime BuildingPACIFIC FOCUS, Issue 2 2005Tae-Hwan Kwak The author proposes a long-term, comprehensive roadmap for the Korean peninsula peace regime initiative for replacing the 1953 Korean armistice agreement with a Korean peninsula peace treaty. The two approaches to a Korean peninsula peace regime building are examined in detail at the inter-Korean and the international levels. The two Koreas at the inter-Korean level, and the six parties involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan, and Russia at the international level may concurrently make efforts to build a peace regime by replacing the 1953 Korean armistice agreement with a peace treaty through confidence-building measures, national reconciliation and international cooperation. A peace regime can be institutionalized by implementing the inter-Korean basic agreement (1991) through inter-Korean cooperation and by concluding a Korean peninsula peace treaty through the four-party peace talks involving the U.S., China, and the two Koreas. However, the current North Korea's nuclear issue has been a key obstacle to the peace regime building process. Three major arguments in this paper are presented: First, the two Koreas and the four major powers need to agree on a comprehensive roadmap for the Korean peace regime. Second, in the short-term, the North Korea's nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully and diplomatically through the six-party process. Third, the two Koreas need to abandon their respective positions: the Seoul's proposal for an inter-Korean peace treaty and the Pyeongyang's proposal for a DPRK-U.S. peace treaty to replace the 1953 Korean armistice agreement. The author proposes that a Korean peninsula peace treaty among the four parties involving the ROK, the DPRK, the U.S. and China should be an alternative, and the proposal needs to be seriously considered. [source] On the Status of Restoration Science: Obstacles and OpportunitiesRESTORATION ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2007Evan Weiher Abstract Terrestrial restoration ecology is not as well developed as aquatic and wetland restoration. There are several key obstacles to progress in restoration ecology, but these obstacles may also be viewed as opportunities to exploit. One obstacle is demonstration science, or an overreliance on simplistic experiments with few treatment factors and few levels of those factors. Complex, multivariate experiments yield greater insights, especially when teamed with sophisticated methods of data analysis. A second key obstacle is myopic scholarship that has led to little synthesis and weak conceptual theory. A greater awareness of and explicit references to ecological principles will help develop the conceptual basis of restoration science. Where should restoration ecology be headed? We should consider forming partnerships with developers, landscape artists, and industry to do complex, large-scale experiments and make restoration a more common part of everyday life. [source] Inadequacy of Patent Regime on Traditional Medicinal Knowledge,A Diagnosis of 13-Year Traditional Medicinal Knowledge Patent Experience in ChinaTHE JOURNAL OF WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, Issue 2 2007Xuan Li This article is intended to reveal the root problems that prevent traditional knowledge from being effectively protected by a patent regime. A close review of the 13-year Chinese patent experience on traditional medicinal knowledge is made for this purpose. Through examination of characteristics of traditional medicinal knowledge in China, the article argues that novelty is not a primary barrier for patent protection; rather, patentability and industrial application are the key obstacles. Given the unique characteristics of traditional medicinal knowledge, it is necessary to establish a sui generis regime to protect traditional medicinal knowledge better. [source] An analytical model for the rapid intensification of tropical cyclonesTHE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 642 2009Chanh Q. Kieu Abstract The nonlinearity and complexity of the primitive equations have been key obstacles to our understanding of tropical cyclones (TCs), particularly in relation to the dynamical processes leading to their rapid intensification. In this study, an axisymmetric model, in which all nonlinear terms in the horizontal momentum equations are retained, is used to examine analytically the effects of organized deep convection on TC rapid intensification. By prescribing a vertical profile of the vertical motion with exponential growth in the core region, a class of exact time-dependent solutions for the primary circulations of TCs are obtained. The analytical solutions are shown to capture well many observed dynamical structures in both the core and outer regions and the rapid growth of TCs in terms of maximum winds and central pressure drops. The analytical solutions reveal that (1) the rotational flows in the inner-core region grow double-exponentially, and the central pressure drops occur at rates much faster than the rotational growth; (2) the amplification rates of the primary circulations differ profoundly from those of the secondary circulations; (3) the rotational flows tend to grow from the bottom upwards with the fastest growth occurring at the lowest levels; and (4) the TC growth rates depend critically on the vertical structure of tangential flows, with a faster rate for a lower-level peak rotation. The nonlinear dynamics are shown to play an important role in the rapid growth of TCs. It is demonstrated that the analytical solutions can also be used to construct dynamically consistent vortices for the initialization of TC models. Limitations and possible improvements of the analytical model are also discussed. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society [source] Embedding a strategic approach to river restoration in operational management processes , experiences in England,AQUATIC CONSERVATION: MARINE AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS, Issue S1 2010Chris P. Mainstone Abstract 1. The restoration of riverine habitats that have been physically modified by man has gained momentum over the past two decades, driven by a number of objectives. Formalizing the planning and implementation of such activity, however, so that it demonstrably meets national and local environmental objectives without compromising essential societal needs such as flood risk management, has proved problematic. 2. This paper addresses the operational realities of river restoration in the UK as experienced in England by the authors, and in doing so attempts to provide a vision for how strategic planning and implementation of restoration measures sensitive to these realities might be introduced. Specifically, the paper explores: the prevailing perspectives on river restoration, shaped by both legislative drivers for ecosystem and biodiversity protection and the multiple uses made of rivers, their floodplains and catchments; how decisions have tended to be made to date and how the government agencies for environmental protection and biodiversity conservation in England are planning to make decisions in the future; the key obstacles to putting in place scientifically and technically robust, large-scale, long-term, economically viable plans for river restoration; the potential for using rivers with special conservation designations for wildlife as a springboard for a strategic approach to river restoration more widely. 3. The issues hindering a strategic operational approach to river restoration in England are common to the rest of the UK and other developed countries grappling with the enormity of the river restoration challenge. To make real progress with river restoration, an operational decision-making framework is needed that promotes progressive and strategic action but at the same time gives everyone confidence that such action is realistic and worthwhile. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||