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  • Sustainable Security

    Category Archives: Competition Over Resources

    In the environmentally constrained but more populous world that can be expected over the course of this century, there will be greater scarcity of three key resources: food, water and energy. Demand for all three resources is already beyond that which can be sustained at current levels. Once population growth and the effects of climate change are factored in, it is clear that greater competition for such resources should be expected, both within and between countries, potentially leading in extreme cases to conflict.

    Recent global food security crises have highlighted the vulnerability of populations in the Global South to resource scarcity and fluctuating prices. Rapidly increasing energy prices as well as periodic geopolitical crises have also highlighted the potential for major conflicts over resources in the 21st century. What has been termed the ‘new population bomb’ is set to exacerbate existing trends. Our articles aim to place particular focus on the perspectives of the Global South – those most vulnerable to resource scarcity – in the largely, Western-dominated debate around energy security, and examine avenues for mitigating conflict arising from resources.

    Carefully Managing Water Resources to Build Sustainable Peace

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    Carefully planned interventions in the water sector can be an integral part to all stages of a successful post-conflict process, from the end of conflict, through recovery and rebuilding, to […]

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    In Deep Water: China tests its neighbours’ patience

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    Control of water, including navigation rights, resource extraction and the exploitation of shared watercourses is at the heart of today’s geopolitical tensions in Asia. China’s recent actions in the South China Sea and Himalayas have given rise to further—and at times violent—conflict over the region’s natural resources. So will water insecurity lead to greater partnership in Asia? Or will it lead to a revival of China’s traditional sense of regional dominance and undercut efforts to build a rules-based approach to growing resource conflicts?

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  • Sustainable Security

    Category Archives: Competition Over Resources

    In the environmentally constrained but more populous world that can be expected over the course of this century, there will be greater scarcity of three key resources: food, water and energy. Demand for all three resources is already beyond that which can be sustained at current levels. Once population growth and the effects of climate change are factored in, it is clear that greater competition for such resources should be expected, both within and between countries, potentially leading in extreme cases to conflict.

    Recent global food security crises have highlighted the vulnerability of populations in the Global South to resource scarcity and fluctuating prices. Rapidly increasing energy prices as well as periodic geopolitical crises have also highlighted the potential for major conflicts over resources in the 21st century. What has been termed the ‘new population bomb’ is set to exacerbate existing trends. Our articles aim to place particular focus on the perspectives of the Global South – those most vulnerable to resource scarcity – in the largely, Western-dominated debate around energy security, and examine avenues for mitigating conflict arising from resources.

    Carefully Managing Water Resources to Build Sustainable Peace

    by

    Carefully planned interventions in the water sector can be an integral part to all stages of a successful post-conflict process, from the end of conflict, through recovery and rebuilding, to […]

    Read Article →

    In Deep Water: China tests its neighbours’ patience

    by Leave a comment

    Control of water, including navigation rights, resource extraction and the exploitation of shared watercourses is at the heart of today’s geopolitical tensions in Asia. China’s recent actions in the South China Sea and Himalayas have given rise to further—and at times violent—conflict over the region’s natural resources. So will water insecurity lead to greater partnership in Asia? Or will it lead to a revival of China’s traditional sense of regional dominance and undercut efforts to build a rules-based approach to growing resource conflicts?

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  • From Within and Without: Sustainable Security in the Middle East and North Africa

    The Middle East and North Africa is a region of great diversity. It encompasses Arab and many other ethnic populations, theocratic and secular states, democracies and authoritarian regimes. A region of immense wealth and crippling poverty; it is blessed (some might say cursed) with vast resources, not least oil, but has not always proved able to manage them for the benefit of ordinary people. While it is often viewed from the outside as a source of terrorism and conflict, the regional perception is one of foreign occupation and other external interference.

    This report is based on the outcomes of a consultation that Oxford Research Group (ORG) and the Institute for Peace Studies (IPS) held in Egypt in October 2008. Bringing together security experts, academics, government officials and civil society leaders from across the Middle East and North Africa, the two-day meeting explored the implications of the sustainable security framework for the region.

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  • Sustainable Security

    Today’s younger generations of Palestinians desperately need to become more engaged in community peacebuilding activities to end the division of Palestinian society.

    The engagement of the younger generation in civil society work to promote peacebuilding concepts and practices at both grassroots and political levels is necessary for restoring order and security in societies divided by conflict and violence. This is particularly true of Gaza in Palestine where the inhabitants live in an environment where there is violence, extreme poverty and a lack of freedom.

    Palestinian youth and civil society face many challenges related to the harsh circumstances imposed by a lack of peace, security and economic development since the failure of the so called ‘Peace Process’ in 2000 between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel. There have, however, been a variety of projects and programmes installed to raise youth awareness and the importance of civil society values and practices to achieve human rights, peacebuilding and good governance that help bring hope to a young generation, despite some of the local cynicism.

    Cynicism towards youth

    I always remember the cynical questions raised by many Palestinian citizens while engaging in civil society activities at different levels: “What kind of civil society under occupation are you talking about?” “How will civil society promote and advocate the values of peacebuilding under a territory experiencing foreign occupation?” There are still some Palestinian intellectuals, leaders and activists who do not believe in education for peacebuilding in a country under occupation, but they believe strongly in community peacebuilding to restore the order and security of their own society, after years of division and the failure of the ‘peace process’.

    They also go beyond just cynicism and move into absolute pessimism and defeatism by asking: “How can empowering youth in peacebuilding be effective, while they still suffer from the violence under Israeli occupation and a lack of freedom?” “How will civil society organisations promote and persuade youth to become engaged in activities while an overwhelming majority are poor, jobless and losing hope in the future?”

    An example is often raised that during the last five years, several young people committed suicide in the Gaza Strip, owing to the harsh economic and social circumstances. This society, however, has little experience of suicide, as it is known for its spirit of religious education and social solidarity, which have always prevailed and are considered to be the highest in the region.

    Cynics believe that talking about the empowerment of youth involvement in peacebuilding activities in Gaza is a matter of ‘idealism’ and ‘luxury’, a waste of resources and time because they see such pursuits as being only achievable through  concurrently obtaining freedom and national independence in a viable Palestinian state. Cynics often point out that there were many peacebuilding activities implemented in the Green Line between 1995 and 2000.

    Many Palestinian citizens from the various health, NGOs and environmental sector participated at capacity building development courses inside the Green Line. They enjoyed education, trips and nice food, but not sustained peace or security, as the main cause of the problems, the need to establish of a Palestinian state, had not yet been solved. These activities passed without any glimpse of hope or peace after the failure of the ‘peace process’ that led to the breakout of various cycles of violence including the latest war in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2014 and changed both the context and style of life, after massive destruction.

    Life Style

    Image credit: UN Photo/Flickr.

    The Palestinian people are used to the daily life style of suffering and the absence of human security; they lost their top priority of securing their own basic human, needs during the failure of the 2000 ‘peace process’ and the collective punishment policies exercised by the occupation. They have lost their own economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, political and human security. In 1994, the UNDP defined human security, which is achieved when people can exercise their choices safely and freely, and when they can be relatively confident that the opportunities they have today will not be entirely lost tomorrow.

    The Gazan people cannot plan their own day without any interruption, owing to the circumstances imposed by a lack of electricity, pollution and a devastated economy. As Mohammed Srour, a field researcher at a human rights organisation in Gaza says

    “The Palestinian people now busy with their own daily affairs, living without electricity and facing the entire closure on the strip and the invasion of pollution of their environment and beaches, owing to the lack of electricity. The citizens have no place to go in Gaza to escape the heat of the summer because of the lack of electricity. The sewage flows into the sea as the pumps and wasting stations do not work without electricity. The beaches are fully polluted and people cannot enjoy swimming in the sea to escape from the extreme heat any more in most coastal areas”.

    Gaza’s economy has actually been virtually stagnant for the past ten years, with an average annual real GDP growth rate over the decade not exceeding 1.44%, while Gaza’s population has grown by 38.4% over the same period.

    Today’s younger generations of Palestinians desperately need to become more engaged in community peacebuilding activities to end the division of Palestinian society. But the dire circumstances have deepened the wounds of Gazan society and made the life of the younger generation almost unbearable and impossible. Consequently, many young Palestinians have decided to leave rather than stay and help build peace.

    The Brain Drain of Palestinian Youth

    Many young minds have already left Palestine to find a new environment and hope. More than 21 young people who attempted to find their way to Europe lost their lives in the Mediterranean in 2014 when one of their boats was wrecked and their fate is still unknown to this day. However, the rest of the youth who could not leave after the full closure of the tunnels between the Gaza Strip and Egypt spend their time navigating social media and the internet.

    They enjoy their chats which help them escape from the harsh politics and economic realities, attempting to watch any developments posted by other fellows or friends online. Facebook, in particular, is considered their own ideal ‘city’ of information and it is a way of ‘killing the time’, as many young people are always informing me when I have a conversation with them. They have lost hope in local politicians, political groups, the international community and civil society organisations in helping them to change their circumstances. There are many who accuse these actors of lying, trading off and using the suffering of the Gazans to increase their power, wealth and business. But not all have abandoned hope.

    Resilience and Hope

    Despite the seemingly dire straits of life, the youths of Palestine are still resilient enough to try change the de facto situation, by engaging in community initiatives. They have, for example, on different occasions, engaged in non-violent and peaceful protests to contribute to the ending of the circumstances in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. For example, the youth march movement in 2012 during ‘the Arab Spring’ to end the Palestinian division. After 2014 war in Gaza, they also participated actively, in non-violent activities to end the siege in the Gaza Strip by protesting close to the ‘buffer zone’ or in front of the ‘security fence’ with Israel in the Gaza Strip.

    Now, in 2017, the Palestinian youth, across their homeland, have seized the initiative again to protest peacefully against the closure of Al Aqsa. They are still seeking a better future and attempting to find any opportunity for hope and change. They attempt to find out about the latest leaks of reconciliation between Hamas and a Fatah wing in the Gaza Strip to end the conflict between the two sides that has divided the Palestinian house. If reconciliation takes place between the two sides, it will contribute to changing the social and political circumstances of the entire society and of youth in particular.

    In addition to these political developments, there have been a number of community activities to help keep youth hopeful for a better future. For example, the Gaza youth UNRWA Football team that won the Norway Cup last year continued preparation and already left the Strip for Denmark and Norway to participate in two different international football tournaments in the last week of July and the First week of August. This kind of participation always gives youth and the whole society hope that there is still a bright future coming soon where they can achieve justice, peace and freedom.

    Dr Ibrahim Natil is a Fellow at the Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction, Dublin City University http://iicrr.ie/people/fellows/dr-ibrahim-natil/. He is an international human rights campaigner, nominee for the Tällberg Foundation Global Leadership Prize, 2016 and the founder of Society Voice Foundation http://www.mbialumniassociation.org/alumni-news/news-folder/year-of-publication/2016/qa-ibrahim-natil/

  • Sustainable Security

    This major report was the result of an 18-month long research project examining the various threats to global security, and sustainable responses to those threats. Read more »

  • The silent crisis: Global water scarcity reshaping future foreign policy

    Understandably, the world has become increasingly preoccupied with risk and insecurity. The uncertainties produced by global challenges such as financial crises, economic slowdowns, health pandemics, the international narcotics trade, terrorism and conflict and indeed the impact of climate change are just a few pressing examples causing concern. However, the earth’s environmental resources are increasingly under enormous strain and nowhere is this stress more apparent than in the case of the earth’s finite supplies of freshwater.

    WHY WATER? WHY NOW?

    Less than three per cent of the earth’s water is potable and 2.5 per cent of this freshwater is inaccessible, locked up in Antarctic and Arctic ice sheets and glaciers. In addition, fewer than 10 countries hold 60 per cent of the world’s available freshwater supplies: Brazil, Russia, China, Canada, Indonesia, U.S, India, Columbia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The uncertainties, insecurities and scarcity produced by insufficient access to water and its poor management extends beyond national borders, generations and population groups, albeit in different ways. Without decisive collective action, access to freshwater will become increasingly limited and the growing risk of water scarcity more widespread.

    Water, which is such an integral part of the planet’s social, economic, political and environmental wellbeing, has for too long been overlooked as a major cause of global uncertainty and insecurity. This is despite the fact that its increasing scarcity has led to a silent crisis, which although many argue is preventable, continues to be ignored.

    THE CHALLENGES

    How can access to freshwater be secured when and where it is needed, and how can the competing demands for freshwater from the environment, agriculture, industry and households be more effectively managed? More importantly, in an increasingly interconnected world where co-operation is not just an option but an absolute imperative, how can future foreign policy tackle the challenges thrown up by the world water crisis?

    In a collection of essays recently published by the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) in partnership with WWF-UK, a diverse range of authors endeavoured to explore the most significant foreign policy impacts created by water scarcity under the aegis of three overarching themes.

    1. TACKLING 21st CENTURY CHALLENGES

    WATER, PEACE AND SECURITY

    The potential disputes over shared water resources may not have produced outright conflict, but tension is often masked by cooperation between unequal powers which can fuel social and political instability and violence within and between states. All of this will be compounded by increasingly acute climate constraints. There are particular high risk regions such as Darfur, Yemen, Nepal and Bangladesh where the effects of too much (floods) or too little (droughts) water are testing peoples’ resilience and ability to adapt. In such cases good water management is an important part of peacebuilding and can only be delivered through insightful political leadership.

    WATER SCARCITY AND ENERGY SECURITY

    There is an inextricable link between energy and water. Water cannot be secured without employing energy and energy cannot be produced, transported or distributed without water. The interdependence of energy and water exists in a world confronted by an age where natural resources have become increasingly scarce due to pressures from the explosive growth in the earth’s population, as the world becomes rapidly industrialised and urbanised. The implications for securing affordable, reliable and sustainable access to water is momumental but not beyond reach with the help of new investment strategies to improve water use.

    FARMERS AND LIVELIHOODS

    About 70-80 per cent of freshwater taken from rivers or aquifers in the developed world is used for irrigation. In other words, the amount of water required for one hectare of irrigation in hot climates is about one litre per second every second of the day. Farmers are the main managers of water world-wide, employing 80 per cent of the water used by society. How can irrigation knowledge and affordable investment strategies be developed to produce more food with much less water? In addition, in regions such as West Africa where nine countries depend on the Niger River, the availability of water is not necessarily scarce, but effective governance is. Therefore an urgent priority is to identify how the most optimal water management investment choices can be made.

    2. GOVERNANCE AND INVESTMENT IN WATER MANAGEMENT

    WATER SECURITY AND TRADE

    In examining the economic imperative for managing water wisely there are a number of critical issues. Can international trade in food commodities deliver food and water security for the rural and urban poor in the developing world and does this process improve access to international markets and ultimately providing an exit out of poverty for poor people? Current evidence suggests this is not the case but the question is could it?

    WATER SCARCITY AND BIG BUSINESS

    Water scarcity has particular relevance for big business. The uniqueness of water as a natural and irreplaceable resource that is impossible to substitute, underlines a shared risk to business and other water users and a collective business case for better water managementpPrivate sector investment in a new approach to water stewardship needs to look beyond volumes of water used to consider the impact of water use on natural and economic systems. Such an approach supports the development of an locally-appropriate, equitable and transparent regulatory framework to help allocate water to different users. Above all however, such a stewardship ethic demands strong and autonomous political water management institutions that not only have the technical capacity to secure greater outputs for every litre of water used, but can also rigorously enforce fair and sustainable water allocation for all.

    3. WATER AND HABITATS FOR PEOPLE AND NATURE

    SHIT MATTERS!

    Every US$1 spent on water and sanitation yields a return of US$8- US$10 in economic development in poor countries. The impact of improving the provision of safe drinking water and appropriate sanitation facilities in poor countries is a cornerstone for economic development transformation. Yet, while the controversy surrounding the public and private sector provision of water and sanitation is complex, such issues need not be allowed to hijack the debate when improving provision for those most in need is an urgent challenge.

    WOMEN AND WATER

    The central role women play in tackling the crisis in global water management cannot be underestimated. Yet, women’s rights are often conspicuously absent from water management decision-making, be it on a local, national, regional or global level. The challenge is, how can women be supported to have a greater voice, commensurate with their knowledge and expertise as primary users of water resources in many communities around the world?

    GLOBAL MEGACITIES

    By 2030 water supplies will only satify 60 per cent of global demand. This will be compunded by the fact that by this year over 60 per cent of the world’s population will live in urban areas. The realities of water scarcity in the sprawling megacities that have sprung up across the developing world accelerate the need for better sustainable water management in emerging urban areas.

    THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

    Nature is being squeezed by humankind’s increasing demand for freshwater. In essence, the impact of water scarcity on species and on natural river, lake and aquifer systems is a phenomenally neglected priority requiring urgent action. After all, these rivers, lakes and aquifers are the very sources of our water. If they dry up, we do too.

    As Hilary Clinton has said, the challenge of tackling management of freshwater supplies in an age of growing scarcity will increasingly be a front-burner issue. The question is, can future foreign policy be reshaped and recasted to tackle this challenge?

    Dr David Tickner, is Head of Freshwater Programmes, WWF-UK.

    Josephine Osikena is Director of The Foreign Policy Centre.

    Article Source: The Foreign Policy Centre

    Image Source: darkpatator

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  • Sustainable Security

    Tag Archives: Humanitarian Initiative

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    Momentum towards a nuclear weapons ban treaty: what does it mean for the UK?

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    International momentum towards a treaty to ban nuclear weapons reached a milestone in the December 2014 Vienna conference. Even assuming that the UK does not initially sign up to such a treaty, it is subject to the pressures of a changing legal and political environment and could find its present position increasingly untenable – not least on the issue of Trident renewal.

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  • Sustainable Security

    Tag Archives: Chronic Poverty

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    Human Security and Marginalisation: A case of Pastoralists in the Mandera triangle

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    This paper seeks to bring out the relevance of human security in pastoral areas of Mandera triangle and the relationships and contradictions that exist between it and national security. The “Mandera Triangle” encompasses a tri-border region of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya that exemplifies, in a microcosm, both a complex and a chronic humanitarian crisis that transcends national boundaries.

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  • Sustainable Security

  • Sustainable Security

    Category Archives: Militarised Public Security in Latin America

    This series of articles explores the increasing trend towards militarisation of citizen security across Central and South America, highlighting the domestic, regional and international implications of this approach. The articles seek to understand the thinking behind this approach to tackling insecurity, to highlight its ineffectiveness and learn lessons from alternative approaches.

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    Belize: challenges and contradictions in gang policy

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    Like its neighbours in the northern triangle (El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala), Belize has a high murder rate that is closely connected to the strong presence of gangs. But the character of gang activity in Belize is quite different from its Central American neighbours. Belize has pioneered some innovative solutions to the problem it is facing. But it will need to overcome the challenges of internal resistance and an acute lack of resources in order to address the political, economic and social issues that marginalise Belize’s large youth population.

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    UH-60 Black Hawk fotografiádo después del desfile militar del 15 de septiembre de 2009 en la ciudad de méxico

    Colombia and Mexico: The Wrong Lessons from the War on Drugs

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    As activists around the world participate in a Global Day of Action against criminalisation of drug use, evidence from the multi-billion dollar War on Drugs in Colombia suggests that militarized suppression of production and supply has displaced millions of people as well as the problem, not least to Mexico. The wrong lessons are being exported to Central America and beyond, but a groundswell of expert and popular opinion internationally is calling for alternative approaches to regulating the use and trade in drugs.

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    Mexico’s Conflicting Migration Policy Goals: National Security and Human Rights

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    Mexico has rapidly become a major site of transmigration from Central America to the United States, as people move in search of employment opportunities or escape from social violence. This rise in migrant flows from Mexico’s southern border overlaps with problems of control of contraband, organised crime, and the trafficking of drugs and arms. However, the government’s militarised approach to the phenomenon means that the use of force and human rights violations go unresolved and military approaches to preserving public order go unchecked. As long as migration remains a security issue, instead of a developmental and human rights matter, it will not be tackled appropriately. Instead, the government must start to view the matter through a citizen, not national, security lens.

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    Exporting (in)Security? Questioning Colombian Military Engagement in West Africa

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    With skills and expertise in fighting insurgencies and drug trafficking networks, Colombia’s armed forces are increasingly being sought for engagement in similar security challenges in West Africa. But increasing Colombian engagement gives rise to a number of important questions – not least of which is the goal and expected outcomes of replicating militarised approaches to the war on drugs that have already failed in Latin America.

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    Homeland Secure Plan already has over 40 000 military personnel deployed to ensure peace Source: Prensa Presidencial

    Militarised Public Security in Latin America in Venezuela

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    Across Latin America, governments are sending their militaries into the streets to act as de facto police forces in the face of disproportionally high crime and violence rates. This trend has been going on for several years, but has accelerated in 2013. With the move to deploy over 40,000 troops for citizen security in Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro joined a growing list of leaders throughout the region that have relied on their militaries to carry out police duties. In the first of our two-part discussion ‘Countering Militarisation of Public Security in Latin America’, Sarah Kinosian discusses the conditions that are causing the trend to thrive.

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    Nicaragua Community Policing

    Countering Militarised Public Security in Latin America: Lessons from Nicaragua

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    Facing a myriad of public security challenges that have provoked some of the highest indices of crime and violence in the world, authorities in Central America have followed a variety of different responses, ranging from repressive and reactive policies to grass roots prevention. Of these approaches, the Nicaraguan National Police’s Proactive Community Policing model stands out due to the results it has achieved. In the second of our two-part discussion, ‘Countering Militarisation of Public Security in Latin America’, Matt Budd explores the lessons that Latin American countries can extract from Nicaragua’s unique approach to public security.

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