Climate Change, Insecurity, and Migration: A Closer Look at India
By Baisali Mohanty, Thin Lei Win, Siena Cicarelli, and Michael Werz
India presents a key case of the interplay between geopolitics and challenges at the climate-insecurity-migration nexus. As the world’s most populous nation grapples with a complex political environment, its urgent struggle to balance economic development and poverty reduction with climate action has implications for both its 1.4+ billion population and the broader South Asian region.
This new Nexus25 project brief analyzes current challenges in India, identifies critical policy gaps in both domestic and foreign policy, and makes recommendations for improving multilateral governance throughout the South and Southeast Asian region.
These areas of opportunity include:
- Leveraging political willpower to strengthen domestic architecture;
- Developing regional and transnational policy making platforms to effectively address the climate-migration-insecurity nexus;
- Building institutional capacity with adequate coordination mechanisms; and
- Ensuring adequate climate finance.
Nexus 25 Project Launches New Podcast, “Reshaping Multilateralism”
In early March, the Nexus25 project officially launched a new podcast, “Reshaping Multilateralism,” a series at the intersection of food, climate, security, and migration. The first teaser episode provides an overview of today’s top nexus challenges and some initial solutions for multilateral leaders. To discuss, Host Thin Lei Win was joined by the three experts leading Nexus25‘s work:
- Michael Werz, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Senior Adviser for North America and Multilateral Affairs to the Munich Security Conference;
- Erin Sikorsky, the Director of the Center for Climate and Security and the International Military Council on Climate and Security; and
- Nathalie Tocci, the Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali and part-time Professor at the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute.
The Nexus25 project is a joint Istituto Affari Internazionali/Center for Climate and Security initiative funded by Stiftung Mercator. The teaser is available on the Nexus25 website here, or wherever you get your podcasts. The next episode, “The View from MSC,” will be released on March 28th.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing: Need for Stronger US Leadership on Food Security in a Time of Climate Crisis
By Ethan Wong and Siena Cicarelli
On March 6, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) held a hearing on global food security featuring testimony from Dina Esposito, Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Dr. Cary Fowler, Special Envoy for Global Food Security at the US Department of State.
This hearing came at a critical time for development, diplomatic and food security leaders alike. In her testimony, Ms. Esposito noted that over 735 million people are chronically hungry and the state of global food security is only worsening. Ongoing and emerging conflicts continue to drive food insecurity, particularly through the weaponization of food, as seen in Gaza and Ukraine. At the same time, shifting weather patterns and increasing climate extremes have threatened global supply chains and future food production. These recent shocks highlight the urgent nexus between hunger, climate, and conflict – and the need for greater US leadership in building resilient and future-fit food systems.
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Event Summary: Arctic Security – A Tabletop Game for the World House Student Fellows Program
By Ethan Wong
On February 23, The Center for Climate and Security (CCS) facilitated an Arctic security scenario exercise for the World House Student Fellows Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House. The tabletop game was designed to educate future decision makers on the ways in which climate change intersects with existing security risks, and to encourage innovative and rational decision-making given rising uncertainties and time restrictions.
Students engage in tabletop exercise to assess their decision-making skills during high-risk scenarios. (Perry World House / University of Pennsylvania)
The crisis response game was set in 2030 and centered around an environmental crisis in the Arctic amidst brewing geopolitical tensions featuring military exercises, oil spills, gray-zone activities, and ecosystem changes due to rising temperatures. The student fellows took on the role of three different teams, Blue, Red and Green, representing NATO, Russia, and the international community, respectively. Throughout the exercise, teams competed and worked to tackle the ongoing crisis that was exacerbated by “injects,” or wildcard events, such as severe natural disasters and suspicious military incidents. Over the course of several turns, students debated policies, sent and received intelligence, and formulated political and military responses that contributed to the evolving situation in the Arctic.
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