New Security Beat

Five years ago, in January 2007, we launched New Security Beat. Since then we’ve established a strong editorial focus on a key but neglected niche: where population, environment, and security meet.

Too little attention is given to this complex nexus. To fill that gap, we’ve worked to create a safe space for discussing the connections between these diverse topics. New Security Beat brings members of different disciplines – health, natural sciences, and international relations – together to find common ground at the intersection of their issues.

ECSP’s Sean Peoples, Meaghan Parker, and Schuyler Null accepted the Population Institute’s Global Media Award for Best Online Commentary at a January 12 ceremony in New York City.

Five years ago, in January 2007, we launched New Security Beat. Since then we’ve established a strong editorial focus on a key but neglected niche: where population, environment, and security meet.

Too little attention is given to this complex nexus. To fill that gap, we’ve worked to create a safe space for discussing the connections between these diverse topics. New Security Beat brings members of different disciplines – health, natural sciences, and international relations – together to find common ground at the intersection of their issues.

As the planet becomes more crowded and we become more connected, it is ever more important that we understand:

• How gender and reproductive health are connected to the environment and development;
• How the environment and natural resources are linked to conflict and cooperation; and
• How population and demography impact war and peace.

To that end, in the last few years we’ve ramped up our efforts on two formats: guest contributions and multimedia.

Dozens of experts present their research and expertise at Wilson Center events each month. But capturing their insights and sharing them with those of you outside the room is difficult. Our series of short, embeddable video interviews, posted on YouTube and the blog, brings these experts’ work to a wider audience and serves as an online archive for researchers, students, and teachers. Some recent examples include:

• Elizabeth Leahy Madsen explains the basics of demographic security
• Peter Gleick finds population dynamics key to sustaining water supplies
• Janani Vivekananda on how climate change exacerbates social, economic, and political stresses

Through our guest contributors, we’ve also been lucky to publish some of the top thinkers on emerging issues like the demographic roots of the Arab Spring; the value of integrating population, health, and environment development programs; and the links between conflict and natural resources.

If you’re working on new research, policies, or projects on population, environment, and security, we invite you to join us and contribute your thoughts on these important and often overlooked connections. Email a brief pitch to our web editor, and help us make the next five years as informative as the first.

Photo Credit: Population Institute.