Causes of Conflict: A Strategic Perspective on US–Sino Relations in the Caribbean
Issues:Global militarisation, Marginalisation
Author and former High Commissioner of Trinidad and Tobago to the Court of St. James, Serena Joseph-Harris writes that China’s increasing regional profile in the Caribbean highlights the challenges now posed to American exceptionalism as Beijing defines its own course in the region. This article focuses on the potential within the Caribbean Basin for the burgeoning proceeds presently derived from increases in the legitimate investment, trade, and commerce emanating from Beijing and Washington to become entwined with illicitly derived funds generated from transnational crime activities, specifically the trafficking of drugs.
Image source: caribbeanfreephoto
Read more »Posted on 8/08/12
The Global Land Rush: Catalyst for Resource-Driven Conflict?
Issue:Competition over resources
Writing exclusively for SustainablseSecurity.ORG, Michael Kugelman of the Woodrow Wilson International Center, argues that the factors that first sparked many of the land acquisitions during the global food crisis of 2007-08 — population growth, high food prices, unpredictable commodities markets, water shortages, and above all a plummeting supply of arable land — remain firmly in place today. He writes that land-lusting nations and investors are driven by immediate needs, and they have neither the incentive nor the obligation to slow down and adjust their investments in response to the wishes of distant international bureaucrats. This, he argues, has serious consequences for global security.
Image source: Planète à vendre
Read more »Posted on 30/07/12
Moving Beyond Crisis: Survival 2100 and Sustainable Security
Issues:Climate change, Competition over resources, Global militarisation, Marginalisation
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 »Posted on 28/06/12
The Costs of Water Insecurity
Issue:Competition over resources
The post-Rio +20 discussion has focused a great deal on trade-offs between the global environment and the global economy. This sort of thinking obscures the extent to which global trends like increasing competition over scarce resources not only threatens both national and human security but actually threatens long-term economic stability as well. In an interview for the Woodrow Wilson Center, explorer and a co-founder of Earth Eco International, Alexandra Cousteau explains how this relates to the global use of water.
Image source: Oxfam International.
Read more »Posted on 28/06/12
Before the Cyberwar
Issue:Global militarisation
Those concerned with the issue of militarisation as a driver of global insecurity are increasingly looking at the issue of cyberwarfare as the weapons of war become ever closely associated with the digital age. Waging war in the cyber domain raises some truly momentous questions about the nature of warfare, the laws of war and even what counts as self-defence. Nuclear expert, Scott Kemp has written an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists arguing that like the missed opportunity of the dawn of the nuclear age (in which possessing nuclear weapons was viewed as more important than the consequences of proliferation), policymakers today have an important opportunity to consider the implications - both intended and unintended - of cyberweapons.
Image source: WFB
Read more »Posted on 11/06/12
Climate Change and Migration: An Asian Perspective
Issue: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 »Posted on 23/04/12
