Category: Issues

In 1985, Oran Young anticipated that the international community was ‘entering the age of the Arctic … in which those concerned with international peace and security will urgently need to know much more about the region and in which policy makers in the Arctic rim states will become increasingly concerned.’ Young’s insights were extremely acute and much international attention is being directed to the geographic ‘North,’ where much resource wealth lies under a rapidly thinning layer of ice.

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Copenhagen failed dismally to set firm targets either for greenhouse gas reductions and the aid offered to poorer countries to counter the impact of climate change was minimal. Scarcely anything was achieved other than most states accepting that the global temperature increase must be kept below 2ºC. In this article, Paul Rogers, looks at at what should have been the result of the climate change negotiations and why it failed, before turning his attention to where we go from here.

Photo: Julie Grath 

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Writing exclusively for SustainableSecurity.org, Joe Thwaites takes an in-depth look at the discussion at the UN Security Council on the security implications of climate change. Joe analyses the debate over whether the Council is an appropriate forum for dealing with climate change discussing the views of both great powers and those who are set to lose most from a warmer global climate in the years ahead. 

Image source: United Nations

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In November 2009, Saferworld, the Conservation Development Centre, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development launched a new report on climate change and conflict in Kenya. “The theoretical case for the connections between climate change and conflict has been well articulated, but we’re still learning how this relationship manifests itself in practice,” said Ivan Campbell, Senior Advisor on Conflict and Security at Saferworld. “This study tests that theory against realities on the ground in Kenya – and then makes practical and targeted recommendations in response to the actual policy context”.

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Exclusively written for sustainablesecurity.org

During a recent field trip to mid-monsoon Nepal, stories of floods affecting vulnerable communities across the country dominated the  daily headlines. At the same time, international donors are pouring in funds in an attempt to help the vulnerable cope with the  impacts of climate change we are already feeling. Last week, the Adaptation Fund, a fund set up by the UN to help poor countries  cope with the impact of climate change, became operational. But are these funds helping – or are they contributing to the problem?

About the author: Janani Vivekananda is a senior advisor on climate change and security at international peacebuilding organisation International Alert.

Image Source: TheDreamSky

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As the global population soars toward nine billion by 2045, this corner of Africa shows what’s at stake in the decades ahead. The Rift is rich in rainfall, deep lakes, volcanic soil, and biodiversity. It is also one of the most densely populated places on Earth. A desperate competition for land and resources—and between people and wildlife—has erupted here with unspeakable violence. How can the conflict be stopped? Will there be any room left for the wild?

Image Source: DFID

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In March 2008, the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation called for NATO to consider “that different views of future worlds will strengthen our endeavor to develop a more rigorous and holistic appreciation for future security challenges and implications for the Alliance.”

The result, a Multiple Futures Project (MFP), acknowledges that in a rapidly changing global security environment, the landscape we know may be very different in 2030. It puts forward four plausible worlds upon which structured dialogue on  risks and vulnerabilities can occur: Dark Side of Exclusivity, Deceptive Stability, Clash of Modernites, and New Power Politics.

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