Al Cook

Hallucinating Climate Security: A Cautionary Tale about Generative AI Recent studies indicate that over 90% of all students – and an increasing number of policy makers – are using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to process large amounts of data and [...]

Short piece by Tobias Ide on how horribly wrong AI bots are when asked to analyze research, in this case around climate security.

I found when dealing with environmental security, it keeps referring back to ideas from the 1990s, most long since discredited
www.newsecuritybeat.org/2025/08/hall...

JUST RELEASED! The July issue of NBR's quarterly journal ASIA POLICY features content on #nontraditionalsecurity, #SoutheastAsia, #UStariffs, #ChinaMiddleEast engagement #NorthKoreaRussia relations, #Taiwan's #DefenseIndustry, the #IndianOcean, and more! www.nbr.org/publication/...

Great catching up with @adbcook.bsky.social over spicy Indonesian food!

Beyond thrilled to have my new article on ‘radical contestion’ published in @risjnl.bsky.social!

Open access: doi.org/10.1017/S026...

Please feel free to share further 😊

@cambup-polsci.cambridge.org

Happy to help where I can

I was treasurer and president for ISA Asia-Pacific Region (term limited) and participate in business meetings. Regions are an important component alongside sections and caucuses that are often overlooked.

I see. I was referring to the ISA regions outside the USA.

So then the Annual Convention is essentially ISA USA during this time. The virtual component is a tough angle tried in the pandemic and for those of us in the Asia-Pacific timing and low participation were significant issues.

On the point of ISA conferences in non-US locations, this is fine if it is led by ISA regions. ISA central organising competing conferences to ISA regions is problematic. ISA regions could use additional resources from membership dues to support these efforts particularly when they can’t attend AC.

Fair. It’s all such a mess and sad that I imagine we’ll all ending up focusing on outside opportunities in our own regions or others. No winners.

Scientific conferences are leaving the US amid border fears Some meetings have been put on hold in response to foreign researchers’ travel concerns.

Does Hilton not have locations in Canada for #ISA2027, #ISA2028, #ISA2029 to pivot to given that the immigration concern overrides the other considerations in exceptional circumstances?

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Hang on, Bartholomew Roberts was Welsh too. You're telling me a Welsh pirate went out on the high seas only to get captured by another Welsh pirate?

Ni ellir dianc rhag Hon etc.

Satellite imagery indicates rare earth mining in southern Mong Hsat only 25 kms from Thai border - Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) Update by the Shan Human Rights Foundation May 15, 2025 Satellite imagery indicates rare earth mining in southern Mong Hsat only 25 kms from Thai border Satellite images indicate that rare earth minin...

Myanmar/Thailand: new Shan Human Rights Foundation report details new signs of rare earth mining in southern Mong Hsat only 25 kms from Thai border per latest sat imagery.

Author-Paid PublicationFees Corrupt Science and Should Be Abandoned Thomas J. H Morgan & Paul E. Smaldino

As grant money starts drying up, it's more important than ever not to waste it on paying publishers' open access "article processing fees" when we can host PDFs for free. Tom Morgan and I wrote a paper on this, forthcoming at Science and Public Policy. Accepted draft here: osf.io/preprints/os...

An image of Bell's amendment. To move the following Clause — “Children born in the UK: British citizenship (1) The British Nationality Act 1981 is amended as follows. (2) After section 1(3A) insert— “(3B) A person (“P”) born in the United Kingdom on or after the relevant day who is not a British citizen by virtue of subsection (1), (1A) or (2) or section 10A shall be entitled to be registered as a British citizen if, when P was born, P’s father or mother— (a) had previously entered the UK whilst holding leave to enter the UK; and (b) was subsequently, and at the time of P’s birth, subject to UK immigration control.” (3) The Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations 2018 are amended as follows. Friday 9 May 2025 REPORT STAGE 31 (4) In Schedule 1, Table 20A, insert— “No fee is payable in respect of an application for registration as a British citizen under the 1981 Act where the application is made under section 1(3B) of that Act.””

The UK child citizenship fee is one of the highest in Europe: £1,214.

Many kids who have British citizenship rights are missing out because their families cannot afford the fee.

I’ve tabled an amendment that would stop children being priced out of citizenship in the country they call home.

Southeast Asian Responses to the 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes Executive Summary This policy report analyses the humanitarian responses of Southeast Asian countries to the 7.8 magnitude earthquakes that hit Türkiye and Syria in February 2023. It traces the emergi...

S. Nanthini and I have published an RSIS Policy Report analysing Southeast Asian humanitarian responses to the earthquakes that hit Türkiye and Syria in February 2023, and the potential for One ASEAN One Response outside the region.
rsis.edu.sg/rsis-publica...

A distinctly Australian approach to civil-military relations Examining a neglected but crucial aspect of Australia’s national security debate.

This article probably won’t excite readers as much as stories about drone warfare, Ukrainian battlefields or Chinese naval task groups. However, civil-military relations are more important than any of these subjects. My latest at @lowyinstitute.bsky.social
www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpre...

Myanmar’s Earthquake Exposes Political Fault Lines The junta has exploited past crises to reinforce its power—and it can do it again.

Here is my piece for @foreignpolicy.com on Myanmar’s earthquake and its political aftershocks

“Myanmar needs more than charity: It needs solidarity and sustained pressure for the freedom that its people have died for.” foreignpolicy.com/2025/04/16/m...

www.caut.ca/latest/2025/...
Imagine more of these. There will be fewer international participants so perhaps there is an online option for those outside USA, but domestic participants are in-person somehow allows for contract and inclusivity as a hybrid mix?

IP25047 | Global Humanitarian Action at the Crossroads SYNOPSIS The new UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has called for a “humanitarian reset” as the UN-led humanitarian system reaches bre...

rsis.edu.sg/rsis-publica...

Wait until they found out how many economist plagiarized "We leverage a novel instrumental variable that is plausibly exogenous."

Obituary: Distinguished Journalist Gwen Robinson, Known for Myanmar Coverage, Passes Away - The Pattaya News The journalism community is mourning the sudden loss of Gwen Robinson, a distinguished editor and reporter, who passed away on March 29, 2025, in Bangkok. Robinson, celebrated for her detailed coverag...

thepattayanews.com/2025/03/29/o...

Touchdown in Chcago for #ISA2025 with S. Nanthini. If you have time to catch up, let us know. Presenting on Southeast Asian (SEA) responses to Turkiye and Syria EQ 2023, SEA Military cooperation in HADR, Military Humanitarianism in SEA: Through a Women Peace and Security lens. @isanet.bsky.social

Regional Consultative Group on Humanitarian Civil-Military Coordination for Asia and the Pacific (10th Session, 3-5 December 2024): Summary report - World Other in English on World and 6 other countries about Coordination and Disaster Management; published on 17 Jan 2025 by OCHA

The RCG report is available here:
reliefweb.int/report/world...

Climate change in the Asia-Pacific security architecture – the case of ASEAN Human-induced climate change will likely cause more intense and frequent cyclones and typhoons, as noted in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report Climate Change 2021: The Phys...

50 free e-copies: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/FBFBI...

How should [the World] Europe respond?

Hard grind: Migrants in Thailand face steep costs to stay legal An amnesty scheme for undocumented migrants in Thailand offers hope for many Myanmar workers operating in the shadows, but the costs are high, and migrants then face burdensome tax demands from the My...

"If you stay in Myanmar, you will be drafted into the military & die. If you flee to Thailand because you fear being conscripted and are arrested by Thai police and deported, you will be sent to the military & die"

Grim choice for many from Myanmar & the thai amnesty scheme is expensive & has risks

Really looking forward to speaking soon as this SSA Sri Lanka event in Colombo on some of the research I've been doing with Prof Lee Jones on China's approach to the global governance of sovereign debt restructuring.

Humanitarian engagement with Myanmar in the wake of the 2021 coup The article investigates humanitarian engagement with Myanmar in the wake of the 2021 coup. It opens by examining humanitarian action in Myanmar before 2010, during the 2010s, and after 2021. Drawi...

Ian Holliday, Aung Kaung Myat and I investigate recent #humanitarian engagement in #Myanmar. We conducted key stakeholder interviews to capture internal and external perspectives on the dynamics of humanitarian action. For free e-copies: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/DXFZJ... #Burma