ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

By Erik Klemetti Could rising sea levels mean more eruptions at Rainier? Possibly, but not for thousands of years (if at all). Image: J. Brew / Flickr . People love to associate climate and volcanoes — and they want volcanoes to do all sorts of stuff to climate and vice versa. Just check out these recent headlines: Alaska Dispatch: How to Reverse Global Warming? Mimic Volcanic Eruptions . Atlantic Wire: Earth’s Forecast Looks Warm and Full of Volcanic Eruptions . I mean, honestly, what can’t volcanoes do? I find it amusing how easily the complex interaction between climate and volcanism is boiled down to something sensational when the DOOOM isn’t even there. I have already tackled why manmade volcanic eruptions aren’t our solution to a warming climate. However, I haven’t touched the idea that as the climate warms, we should expect more volcanic eruptions. Could this be possible? I have to admit, when I first saw these headlines regarding a new paper in Geology by Steffen Kutter

Russia has confirmed that tests of future soldier systems will commence in April 2013 as Moscow continues discussions with European defence companies concerning the supply of infantry soldier and battlefield technologies. Russian defence ministry ground forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Donyushkin confirmed the time scale for the tests on 6 January. He added that preliminary tests carried out in September 2012 involving Russia's indigenous Ratnik package were satisfactory. Ratnik is made up of more than 40 components, including firearms, body armour, optic, communication and navigation devices, life support, and power supply systems, according to the defence ministry. The equipment can be used by regular infantry, rocket launcher operators, machine gunners, drivers, and scouts. Significantly, discussions between Russian and European suppliers concerning the acquisition of foreign systems - or technologies for licensed productions - relating to future soldi

You’d think the Pentagon would be chewing its nails down to the nub over China’s military buildup. After all, in the past few months, China unveiled its first stealth jet, reached the early operating phase of a “carrier-killer” missile and took its first-ever aircraft carrier out for a stroll. But the Defense Department’s Asia hands don’t seem more worried by the Chinese military than they were last year. In fact, the Pentagon’s annual report on its Chinese counterpart reads a lot like the previous edition. Yes, Beijing is rapidly modernizing its forces, as it has for years, upping its military spending by 12.7 percent last year while the Pentagon prepares for deep cuts. Yes, China’s pursuing an “expanded regional maritime strategy and presence.” And yes, in the eyes of the Pentagon’s top Asia wonk, that modernization is “potentially destabilizing.” But while China’s new mega-missile , aircraft carrier and stealth fighter have made for pants-pooping media panic , the Pentagon is affec

More than 700 migrants, fleeing persecution in Myanmar, to be deported by authorities after rescue from traffickers.     Thai authorities say that they have rescued nearly 700 people from Myanmar's beleaguered Rohingya minority who were being held by alleged human traffickers in the country's south. Police Major-Colonel Thanusin Duangkaewngam said police and government officials raided a warehouse in Sadao district in Songkhla province on Friday and rescued 307 Rohingya boat people. The migrants told police that they had voluntarily come to Thailand as part of a journey to a third country. Police arrested eight suspects believed to be traffickers. The authorities also raided makeshift shelters in the same district on Thursday and discovered 397 Rohingya, including 11 women and 12 children. Officials say the migrants will be repatriated to Myanmar. The migrants had languished in the warehouses for three months, waiting to be trafficked to a "third

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim extremist group, has claimed responsibility for an attack targeting Shia Muslims in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta. More than 100 people were killed and scores of others wounded in a series of multiple attacks across Pakistan, including at least 81 in the bombing in Quetta. Bomb explosions and violent deaths rocked Quetta, the Swat Valley in the northwest, and the port city of Karachi on Thursday. At least 92 people were killed and scores of others wounded in four separate explosions in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province. Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, spoke of the main attack on Alamdar Road, a predominantly Hazara Shia Muslim neighbourhood of Quetta. "In that particular attack, the suicide bomber seemed to have penetrated into a snooker club situated close to a police station and a Shia mosque," he said. "After the blast the entire building came down. As the rescue teams and journalists rush