Showing posts from category security.
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Climate Change Will Threaten Global, European Security, Says EU Report
›March 11, 2008 // By Rachel WeisshaarA European Union (EU) report released ahead of a major EU summit on March 13-14 warns that climate change is likely to create or worsen a host of local, regional, and global security challenges. “Climate change is best viewed as a threat multiplier which exacerbates existing trends, tensions and instability,” says the report.
Reiterating conclusions other climate-security reports have drawn, the report argues that shrinking per capita supplies of water, food, energy, and other natural resources could generate political, economic, and social unrest, as well as large-scale migration—much of it from developing countries to European ones.
The report, written by Javier Solana, EU foreign policy chief, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European commissioner for external relations, also warns that as the polar ice cap in the Arctic melts and exposes previously unnavigable shipping routes and large unclaimed oil and natural gas reserves, it could trigger new geopolitical rivalries. -
Kenyan Army Cracks Down on Mount Elgon Militia
›March 11, 2008 // By Rachel WeisshaarThe Kenyan army launched a major assault on the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF) yesterday, said officials. More than 500 people have been killed in land clashes involving the SLDF over the past year and a half, including 13 last week.
According to the International Crisis Group, the SLDF, which is based in the Mount Elgon region of western Kenya, is one of the strongest and best-armed non-state groups in Kenya. It comprises members of a Kalenjin sub-clan who believe the government’s Chebyuk Settlement Scheme, which redistributed land in the area, was unjust and should be nullified.
The crackdown—involving hundreds of soldiers and five helicopters—is unusual because Kenyan governments have largely avoided addressing the incendiary issue of land reform. -
Coca Cultivation Devastating Colombian National Parks
›February 25, 2008 // By Rachel WeisshaarToday’s Los Angeles Times reports that Colombia’s Macarena National Park is being deforested and polluted by illegal coca farms. After being driven from farmland by U.S.-sponsored aerial fumigation, coca growers have invaded Macarena and other national parks, where fumigation is illegal. In August 2006, six workers manually clearing coca in Macarena were killed by a bomb detonated by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Recently, Colombia has begun to shift away from aerial fumigation toward manual eradication, which is more effective but poses significant risks to the workers and the security personnel guarding them.
Coca farming gives rise to a wide range of negative environmental effects, including “chemical dumping, deforestation, soil erosion, water pollution, a shift to mono-agriculture, bio-diversity loss, and a potential loss of cultural eco-knowledge,” according to American University’s Trade and Environment Database.
A New York Times article from 1989 demonstrates that, sadly, coca trafficking has been causing violence and environmental destruction across South America for decades. -
Niger Delta Violence Requires Comprehensive Solution, Says Nigerian Senator
›February 21, 2008 // By Rachel WeisshaarNigerian Senator David Dafinone argued yesterday that the Nigerian government should abandon plans to allocate 444.6 billion Nigerian nairas in the 2008 budget to security in the conflict-ravaged Niger Delta. “Dedicating such huge amount to policing the Niger Delta will be counter productive because resentment of the state and the oil companies by the people will continue to deepen,” said Dafinone, who hails from the Delta. “There is urgent need to reorder the political, social and economic development of the Niger Delta,” he continued. “The root cause of the crisis in the region remains the denial of the peoples’ right to land and its content.”
The University of Bradford’s Kenneth Omeje calls for international efforts to hold the oil industry to standards of social and environmental responsibility and disarm and demobilize all Niger Delta militias and anti-oil combatants. But he emphasizes that “it will require a great deal of international pressure not only to compel the state to participate in a consequential roundtable with oil-bearing communities, but also to secure its commitment to far-reaching, proactive concessions that help meet the aspirations of the Niger Delta’s people.” -
Brazilian Security Forces to Help Curb Amazon Deforestation
›February 20, 2008 // By Sonia SchmanskiLast month, the Brazilian government announced it would step up measures to combat illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest, including deploying Brazilian soldiers and police officers to regions that have recently suffered heavy deforestation. Last week, it made good on that promise, as Brazilian police confiscated 353,000 cubic feet of lumber from eight illegal sawmills in the state of Para—one of the biggest loads ever seized.
The heightened enforcement follows a recent surge in illegal logging in the Amazon. Despite assurances from President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that his administration had implemented successful policies to curb deforestation, 1,250 square miles of rainforest were cleared during the last five months of 2007. (It’s worth noting that this figure, provided by the government, is disputed, and as higher-resolution images become available, some expect it will as much as double.)
This isn’t the first time the Brazilian government has tried to utilize security forces to protect the Amazon. The System for Vigilance of the Amazon (SIVAM) was created more than a decade ago “(a) to monitor human movements and activities and their impact on the Amazon; (b) to increase knowledge about the region’s environment, biodiversity, climate, and geophysicalfeatures; and (c) to protect the Amazon’s environment while promoting local economic development there,” according to Thomaz Guedes da Costa. Several years into the program, he observed that SIVAM’s lack of transparency and failure to involve non-official organizations were seriously hampering its ability to achieve its objectives.
Some environmental experts doubt the new measures will do much to slow the pace of illegal logging in the Amazon. Roberto Smeraldi, head of Friends of the Earth Brazil, told Reuters, “The government raises a red flag with the left hand and chops trees with the right,” referring to the negative impacts of government infrastructure, mining, and landless peasant resettlement projects on the Amazon.
Rainforest destruction has been at the forefront of global discussion lately, with high-profile figures leading the way. In a speech to the European Parliament last week, Prince Charles argued for the creation of a global fund to preserve tropical rainforests, explaining that “in the simplest of terms, we have to find a way to make the forests worth more alive than dead.” International attention has likely put pressure on the da Silva government to undertake heightened measures against illegal forest clearing.
Roberto Mangabeira Unger, a Harvard law professor and Brazil’s new minister for strategic affairs, hopes to use his office to create a plan for Amazonian development that addresses both ecological and economic issues. “The Amazon is not just a set of trees,” he told The New York Times. “It is a set of 25 million people. If we don’t create real economic opportunities for them, the practical result is to encourage disorganized economic activities that results in the further destruction of the rain forest.” A recent Wilson Center event explored the challenges associated with balancing infrastructure development and environmental conservation in the Amazon. -
Reading Radar– A Weekly Roundup
›February 15, 2008 // By Wilson Center StaffA paper commissioned by the Institute for Global Dialogue and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa explores the prospects for sharing and jointly managing the water resources of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). “Water resources availability has been and still is high on the national security agenda of most SADC states,” write Daniel Malzbender and Anton Earle.
A report from the Institute for Policy Studies analyzes the disparities between the U.S. government’s FY 2008 spending on military security and climate security.
The United Nations, European Union, and United States each have important roles to play in mitigating climate change’s security threats, argue John Podesta and Peter Ogden in The Washington Quarterly. The article echoes The Age of Consequences: The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Climate Change, published jointly last year by the Center for a New American Security, which Podesta heads, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
UNAIDS released a statement earlier this week expressing its concern that the recent violence in Kenya is disrupting efforts to combat the country’s HIV/AIDS epidemic.
In the Global Dashboard blog, David Steven remarks on three “hidden drivers” of instability in Pakistan: the government’s failure to capitalize on the “demographic dividend,” the potential socio-economic benefits of a large working-age population; the rising food, water, and energy scarcity faced by working- and middle-class Pakistanis; and what Steven calls “the worrying role being played by the Pakistan army, once a source of national stability and pride.” -
New Report Outlines Impact of Climate Change on Law Enforcement
›January 30, 2008 // By Sonia Schmanski“The risks of climate change demand a rethink of approaches to security,” writes Chris Abbott in An Uncertain Future: Law Enforcement, National Security and Climate Change, a report released recently by Oxford Research Group. Climate change’s impact on security concerns has recently moved to the forefront of global dialogue, a development Abbott links to three trends: widespread acceptance of scientific evidence that climate change is real; increased attention to energy security; and growing awareness of nontraditional threats around the world.
Abbott claims that three likely socio-economic impacts of climate change—damaged infrastructure, resource scarcity, and mass displacement of people—could easily lead to civil strife, intercommunal violence, and international instability. For instance, he warns that major problems should be expected where small, affluent populations live next to large, poor ones—a contention U.S. and Mexican leaders, among others, should take note of.
Law enforcement and police should prepare for four key climate-related developments, says Abbott:- Demands for greater border security;
- Changes in rates and types of crimes, due to large-scale migration;
- The need to enforce newly enacted climate-related laws; and
- The need to respond to increasingly frequent natural disasters.
- Difficulties maintaining the soundness of equipment and weaponry and the health of military personnel in a changed climate;
- Loss of defense assets (for instance, military bases on low-lying islands or coasts that will need to be relocated);
- More frequent peacetime deployments, particularly for disaster relief; and
- Instability in strategically important regions, such as the Horn of Africa or the Persian Gulf.
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Weekly Reading
›This article from the Population Reference Bureau provides an overview of Kenya’s demography—including population growth, HIV/AIDS prevalence, and the country’s youth bulge—in the context of the ongoing ethnic conflict.
“Weather of Mass Destruction? The rise of climate change as the “new” security issue,” by past Wilson Center speaker Oli Brown, examines the risks and opportunities associated with the growing acceptance of climate change as a national and international security issue.
The United States should expand its civilian tools of international power, argued Wilson Center President Lee H. Hamilton in “Wielding our power smartly,” a January 14 editorial in The Indianapolis Star. “America’s crucial role in a complicated world demands that we apply effectively all the tools of U.S. power—public and private, military, economic and political. Our challenge is to cultivate an international system that puts cooperation and engagement at its core,” said Hamilton.
A publication from the U.S. Institute of Peace lays out guidelines for relations between U.S. armed forces and non-governmental humanitarian organizations in conflict zones or potentially hostile areas.President George W. Bush signed an exemption that the U.S. Navy hopes will increase the likelihood that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will vacate a federal judge’s recent injunction that the Navy take additional steps to protect marine mammals from the sonar it uses during anti-submarine warfare training.
