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USAID Provides Critical Benefits to US National Security
The Trump Administration’s effort to try to shut down USAID and pause all foreign aid directly harms US national security, including by interrupting critical investments into resilience, adaptation, conflict prevention, and peacebuilding. In 2021, 79 senior national security leaders, including 8 retired 4-star generals and admirals, a former Director of National Intelligence, and a former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, signed the Challenge Accepted report, which argued that USAID investments in resilience and adaptation were critical to preventing instability and conflict and maintaining the US competitive edge with China.
(more…)Roots of Resilience: Building Peace in an Era of Food and Climate Shocks
By Siena Cicarelli, Luca Cinciripini, Lukas Eichelter, Philip Novakovic-Wilke, and Lena von Zabern
Resource: US Government Climate Security Analysis, Strategies, and Policies Across Republican and Democratic Administrations
Over the past few decades, a bipartisan acknowledgment of the climate threat has emerged within the United States, driving successive administrations to develop strategies and policies related to climate security. Since 2011, the Center for Climate and Security (CCS) has collected and saved these documents and hosted them on its website for use and reference. These have been organized into CCS’s Resource Hub. Our latest update includes US government documents from the past four years, though our comprehensive list includes resources going back to 1990.
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Establishing an Ecological Security Framework for Southeast Asia
By John Lichtefeld, Ecological Security Fellow
Edited by Andrea Rezzonico and Francesco Femia
Introduction
The concept of “ecological security” references the threats to human, national, and global security that arise from the interconnected effects of climate change, environmental degradation, and ecosystem collapse. Though ecological security is a relatively novel concept, its constituent elements—including aspects of traditional and non-traditional (e.g., human, environmental, climate, and bio) security concepts—are generally understood globally, even as their use and application vary by region.
In Southeast Asia, non-traditional security concepts are recognized but tend to have specialized contexts and are applied uniquely among different stakeholders in different countries. Ecological security is not well recognized at this point, and its framework for holistic assessment of complex and interconnected threat groupings has not yet gained wide traction.
This briefing note assesses the relevance of ecological security and related concepts in Southeast Asia and provides a preliminary cataloging and analysis of some of the most pressing complex ecological security threats facing the region, including recommendations for establishing a framework for future analysis, policy, and practice. It has been informed primarily by three roundtable sessions with participants, including regional academics and practitioners and US and European experts on regional and ecological security concepts. Three major ecological security trends emerged from the discussions: the Mekong ecosystem polycrisis, the unanticipated externalities of an accelerated green transition, and the impact of environmental crimes on regional security. The brief offers three preliminary recommendations to interested practitioners for establishing an ecological security framework for Southeast Asia, including; increasing dialogue between experts, security services, and civil society; developing working groups among experts to break silos and bridge practical divides; and drawing clear connections between ecological security risks and political-security outcomes.