Category: Term

  • Marginalisation of the majority world

    Writing for SustainableSsecurity.org, Elizabeth Wilke argues that a new conceptualization of insecurity and instability is needed in a world with greater and freer movement of goods, services and people – both legal and illicit – greater demands on weakening governments and the internationalization of local conflicts. The new insecurity is fundamentally derived from the responses of people and groups to greater uncertainty in an increasingly volatile world. Governments, and increasingly other actors need to recognize this in order to promote sustained stability in the long-term, locally and internationally.

    Image source: bass_nroll

    Read more »

  • Climate change

    The Asian Development Bank has recently published a report on the effects of climate change on migration in and from the continent. Although migration need not necessarily be a security concern, people can be propelled to move for reasons of personal safety, such as extreme weather events, or livelihood insecurity caused by long-term land degradation or river salination. This report provides a useful perspective on climate change, representing the conclusions drawn by an organisation based the region most likely to suffer the harshest consequences. To read the full report, click here.

    Image Source: Amirjina

    Read more »

  • Competition over resources

    While the public debate about resource conflicts focuses on the risk of supply disruptions for developed countries, the potentially more risky types of resource conflict are usually ignored. As part of a two-year research project on behalf of the German Federal Environment Agency, adelphi and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Energy, and Environment have analyzed the risks of international conflict linked to natural resources in a series of reports titled Beyond Supply Risks – The Conflict Potential of Natural Resources.

    Article source: The New Security Beat

    Image source: Olmovich

    Read more »

  • Climate change

    To browse a list of all of the articles EXCLUSIVELY written for sustainablesecurity.org – follow this link

    Read more »

  • Climate change

    To browse a list of all of the articles EXCLUSIVELY written for sustainablesecurity.org – follow this link

    Read more »

  • Global militarisation

    Image of Losing Control: Global Security in the Twenty-first Century

    • Purchase from Amazon:
    • Losing Control: Global Security in the Twenty-first Century
    • Author: Paul Rogers
    • Publisher: Pluto Press ()
    • Binding: Paperback, pages
    • Price: £15.99

  • Competition over resources

    In a small village along the waters of Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya, two fishermen were murdered last month as they were putting out their nets.

    A cascade of retaliatory violence between the Kenyan Turkana and Ethiopian Daasanach (sometimes called Merille) has led to the deaths of at least four Ethiopians and 20 Kenyans ethnic groups, though some Kenyan government officials place the toll as high as 69, according to the Kenya-based Daily Nation. Though the fighting has been localized, it has put pressure on both nations to deal with strife between nomadic groups who are competing for diminishing resources.

    Image source: Aocrone

    Article source: Circle of Blue

    Read more »

  • Marginalisation of the majority world

    “The climate agenda goes well beyond climate,” said Dan Smith, secretary general of International Alert at a recent Wilson Center event. “In the last 60 years, at least 40 percent of all interstate conflicts have had a link to natural resources” and those that do are also twice as likely to relapse in the five years following a peace agreement, said Neil Levine, director of the Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation at USAID.

    Article source: The New Security Beat

    Image source: DfID

    Read more »

  • Marginalisation of the majority world

    Poor people want to feel safe just like anyone else. Security and access to justice for poor people are development goals in their own right whether in the midst of endemic violence, such as in parts of Somalia or Afghanistan, or in more stable countries where the police and judicial services may still be inadequate, unfair or abusive. Basic security and the rule of law are also necessary for other areas of development to take root and flourish.

    Image source: Demosh

    Read more »

  • Competition over resources

    To browse a list of all of the articles EXCLUSIVELY written for sustainablesecurity.org – follow this link

    Read more »

  • Global militarisation

    In a piece for the International Movement for a Just World, William Rees maps out a vision for what he calls ‘Survival 2100.’ The goal of such a strategy would be “to engineer the creation of a dynamic, more equitable steady-state economy that can satisfy at least the basic needs of the entire human family within the means of nature.” The alternative, Rees argues is to “succumb to more primitive emotions and survival instincts abetted by cognitive dissonance, collective denial, and global political inertia.”

    Image source: hundrednorth.

    Read more »

  • Marginalisation of the majority world

    A gap continues to exist between the international community’s rhetoric about conflict prevention and its responsibility to protect people from severe human rights violations. The record of human misery caused by violent conflict is testimony to the chronic  lack of political will to respond collectively to newand emerging threats to peace. The ineffectiveness of many global efforts at preventive diplomacy is evidence that traditional diplomatic approaches,  including the use of force, simply may not work.

    Article source: East West Institute

    Image source: AfghanistanMatters

    Read more »

  • Competition over resources

    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.

    Image source: Vishnu V

    Article source: CEJISS

    Read more »

  • Global militarisation

    Executive Director of the Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding Initiative at the Center for American Progress, John Norris discusses the need to consider options carefully to avoid militarising the West’s response to the crisis in Libya. He writes that blowing up a runway or imposing a no-fly zone are not silver bullets. And one would hope that after the experience of both Afghanistan and Iraq—and earlier interventions such as Kosovo and Bosnia—we understand that war is a dangerous, uncertain business.

    Image source: Quigibo. 

    Read more »

  • Global militarisation

    In a paper exclusively written for sustainablesecurity.org, Serena Joseph-Harris (former High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago) focuses on competition over natural resources, the role of maritime routes in the Caribbean, and the importance of multilateral approaches to finding sustainable solutions in the Caribbean.

    Image source: Len@Loblolly

    Read more »

  • Global militarisation

    New Wikileaks releases today have shown the Arctic oil rush is not just a threat to the environment and our climate, but also to peace. The documents show how deadly serious the scramble for Arctic resources has become. And the terrible irony of it is that instead of seeing the melting of the Arctic ice cap as a spur to action on climate change, the leaders of the Arctic nations are instead investing in military hardware to fight for the oil beneath it. They’re preparing to fight to extract the very fossil fuels that caused the melting in the first place.

    Article source: Greenpeace UK

    Image source: U.S. Geological Survey

    Read more »

  • Marginalisation of the majority world

    The International Peace & Security Institute (IPSI), in collaboration with The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Conflict Management Program, hosted a high-level panel discussion and networking reception on Wednesday, August 17.  The event, “Why Here, Not There? Investigating emerging nonviolent movements,” examined the dynamics that enable nonviolent movements to occur in some regions and not others at specific moments in time.  The event was broadcast live nationwide and on the internet by C-SPAN.

    Watch the video here: IPSI

    Image source: Al Jazeera English

    Read more »

  • Climate change

    The publication of the Strategic Defence and Security Review and the Coalition’s first National Security Strategy provided ample opportunity for the government to deliberate on the strategic implications of climate change for the UK.  Yet while claims that we continue to live in a post-Cold War ‘age of uncertainty’ lay at the heart of both documents, on  closer reading there is very little to suggest that uncertainty about climate change was a concern for those who conducted the review.  

    Article source: RUSI

    Image source: U.S. Geological Survey

    Read more »

  • Competition over resources

    Writing for the New Security Beat, Schuyler Null discusses a recent event on creating a new national security narrative for the US held at the Woodrow Wilson Center. The event was based on a white paper by two active military officers writing under the pseudonym “Mr. Y” (echoing George Kennan’s famous “X” article). In “A National Strategic Narrative,” Captain Wayne Porter (USN) and Colonel Mark Mykleby (USMC) argue that the United States needs to move away from an outmoded 20th century model of containment, deterrence, and control towards a “strategy of sustainability.”

    Image source: LizaP.

    Read more »

  • Competition over resources

    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

    Read more »

  • Competition over resources

    Over the next few decades, the increasing demand for resources and the pressures of climate change are going to force some rapid and potentially difficult decisions on the role of energy in the global economy. A useful exercise has been undertaken by the Institute for the Future in terms of exploring a number of scenarious that could come to characterise our political, social and economic systems depending on the energy choices we make today.

    Image source: Ulleskelf. 

    Read more »

  • Climate change

    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

    Read more »

  • Competition over resources

    The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) defines food security as “all people at all times having both physical and economic access to the basic food they need”. However, due to a complex range of interconnected issues from climate change to misguided economic policies, political failure and social marginalisation, over 2 billion people across the world live in constant food Insecurity. It is important to take a sustainable security approach to look at the importance of “physical and economic access to basic food” by exploring the links between food insecurity and violence.

    Image source: Bioversity International

    Read more »

  • Climate change

    Many leading military analysts in the United States are increasingly alert to the link between security and climate change. Is international terrorism really the single greatest threat to world security? Read more »

  • Marginalisation of the majority world

    Writing for the New Security Beat, Schuyler Null discusses a recent event on creating a new national security narrative for the US held at the Woodrow Wilson Center. The event was based on a white paper by two active military officers writing under the pseudonym “Mr. Y” (echoing George Kennan’s famous “X” article). In “A National Strategic Narrative,” Captain Wayne Porter (USN) and Colonel Mark Mykleby (USMC) argue that the United States needs to move away from an outmoded 20th century model of containment, deterrence, and control towards a “strategy of sustainability.”

    Image source: LizaP.

    Read more »

  • Climate change

    As reported by Agence France Presse, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has produced a draft summary of a report that warns of a predicted increase in the number and intensity of extreme weather events.  The 800-page report goes some way to addressing a subject largely untouched by their landmark 2007 report on climate change, and adds to the growing body of evidence outlining the potential security implications of a warmer planet.

    Article Source: AFP

    Image Source: Nasa

    Read more »

  • Global militarisation

    A fractious mix of violence and politics is unsettling the relationship between east African neighbours and putting more pressure on Somalis living in Kenya writes Daniel Branch for openDemocracy. The Somali militia group known as al-Shabaab is often viewed as the source of the problem. But the roots of the turmoil go deep in Kenya’s own history.

    Image source: Internews Network.

    Read more »

  • Marginalisation of the majority world

    To browse a list of all of the articles EXCLUSIVELY written for sustainablesecurity.org – follow this link

    Read more »

  • Global militarisation

    To browse a list of all of the articles EXCLUSIVELY written for sustainablesecurity.org – follow this link

    Read more »

  • Climate change

    Accelerating climate change and competition for limited supplies of water, food and energy are poised to ignite long-simmering conflicts in fragile states, monopolising the world’s military resources and hampering development efforts, security experts say. Defusing these new 21st century conflicts – or at least preparing governments and citizens to cope with them – will require a broad range of innovative interventions, a gathering at Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) heard earlier this month.

    Image source: Images.Defence.Gov.au

    Read more »

  • Competition over resources

    For some years, the Oxford Research Group (ORG) has been analysing the likely underlying drivers of global insecurity over the coming years, and ways to develop sustainable responses to these threats. This analysis has focused on four trends that are expected to foster substantial global and regional instability, and large-scale loss of life, of a magnitude unmatched by other potential threats. These are climate change, competition over resources, marginalisation of the ‘majority world’ and global militarisation.

    Read the full article here.

    Author: Hannah Brock

    Image source: WorldIslandInfo.com

    Read more »

  • Global militarisation

    Mineral resources have played a crucial role in fuelling protracted armed conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This Policy Paper examines the the prospects for and interactions between various trade- and security-related initiatives that are aimed at demilitarizing the supply chains of key minerals. It also describes the changing context in which such initiatives operate. Finally, it offers policy recommendations for how the Congolese Government and international actors can coordinate and strengthen their responses in order to break resource–conflict links in eastern DRC.

    Article source: SIPRI

    Image source: Tim Pearce, Los Gatos

    Read more »

  • Climate change

    Avoiding the coming catastrophic nexus of climate change, food, water and energy shortages, along with worsening poverty, requires a global technological overhaul involving investments of 1.9 trillion dollars each year for the next 40 years, said experts from the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) in Geneva Tuesday.

    “The need for a technological revolution is both a development and existential imperative for civilisation,” said Rob Vos, lead author of a new report, “The Great Green Technological Transformation”. 

    Article source: Terraviva

    Image source: Paul Keller

    Read more »

  • Global militarisation

    Long-time and widely respected arms control watcher, Michael Krepon has written an interesting post on the Arms Control Wonk website about the perils of assuming that a negotiated outcome is always a good one. As the phrase goes, “the devil is in the detail” and looking very carefully at the relationship between militarisation and the provisions that get contained in treaties is all important.

    Image source: UN.

    Read more »

  • Global militarisation

    As the long running tensions over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea appear to be coming to a head, the time for thinking through the alternatives to the militarisation of this conflict seems to be well and truly upon us. The conflict raises interesting issues about sovereignty claims based on offshore territories, particularly as we face a climate-constrained future as well as the increasing importance of competition over scarce resources. The latter is fast becoming one of the most important global trends if one thinks about the potential ‘drivers’ of conflict and even war.

    Image source: Al Jazeera English. 

    Read more »

  • Marginalisation of the majority world

    The global distribution of intrastate conflicts is not what it used to be. During the latter half of the 20th century, the states with the most youthful populations – a median age of 25.0 years or less – were consistently the most at risk of being engaged in a civil war or in an internal conflict, where either ethnic or religious factors, or both, came into play (an ethnoreligious conflict). However, the tight relationship between demography and intrastate conflict has loosened over the past decade. Ethnoreligious conflicts have gradually, though noticeably, increased among a group of states with a median age greater than 25.0 years, including Thailand, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Russia.  The salient feature of these intrastate conflicts has been an armed struggle featuring a minority group that is age-structurally more youthful than the majority populace. The difference in age-structural maturity reflects a gap in fertility between the minority and majority, either in the present or in the recent past. 

    Article Source: The Stimson Center

    Image Source: CharlesFred

    Read more »

  • Marginalisation of the majority world

    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. Read more »

  • Climate change

    International Alert’s Janani Vivekananda discusses how climate change will will interact with other social, economic and political stressors to drive instability.

    “Rather than climate change being this single, direct causal factor which will spark conflict at the national level,” Vivekananda said, these stressors “will shift the tipping point at which conflict might ignite.” In places that are already weakened by instability and conflict, climate change will simply be an additional challenge.

    Source: youtube 

    Read more »

  • Competition over resources

    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 »