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Madagascar Election Cycles and Cyclones
The polls open today, October 25th, in Madagascar, and some hold hopes that they will close five years of instability. A military-backed coup in 2009 led by Andry Rajoelina ousted then President Marc Ravalomanana. The international community condemned the coup and swiftly instituted sanctions. Ongoing instability and international isolation has since dramatically increased the vulnerability of the island, with some 92% of the population now living below the poverty line. The elections, the first in five years, offer an opportunity to reverse an otherwise downward trend. But there are natural forces to contend with as well. (more…)
Video: The BBC in Northern Syria
The BBC recently posted a brief video highlighting members of the opposition movement in the generally ignored northern Syria, near the border with Turkey. In the video, Ian Pannel discusses interviewing an agriculture student, and “farmers, mechanics and green grocers” who were united in their opposition to the al-Assad regime.
As we mentioned in our recent piece, northern Syria, and parts of the south, were especially hard hit by the last five years of drought, and were experiencing unrest well before the protest movement started, with rural farmers moving en masse to the cities, discontent rising, and the al-Assad regime refusing journalist access to both displaced farmers and the Agriculture Ministry.
The section on Syria begins at 0:52.
New Tool Maps Intersection of Climate Change, Conflict and Aid
UT Austin’s Climate Change and African Political Stability (CCAPS) program, in partnership with AidData, has just released the pilot version of a great new “online data portal to enable researchers and policymakers to visualize data on climate change vulnerability, conflict, and aid, and to analyze how these issues intersect in Africa.”
See more at the CCAPS website.
Climate-Security: A Reality, Not a Narrative
This blog is also featured on the humanitarian news site, AlertNet
AlertNet posted an interesting piece yesterday titled “Climate Conversations – Climate-security as agent provocateur.” The author, Katie Harris of the London-based Overseas Development Institute, rightly calls for “nuance” in making the case for the potential security and conflict implications of climate change. The essence of the article is that though the “frame” or “narrative” of climate-security may have generated increased interest and action from the world’s policy-makers, it can be dangerous if done poorly. We couldn’t agree more. Also, as Harris states, “for those who want to identify the possible connections between a changing climate and the potential for increased violent conflict, nuance is key…” Indeed it is! However, despite these wise words of caution, the article omits a couple key points that may address some of the author’s concerns, including the significant evolution of climate and security scholarship in recent years, and how climate-security is actually defined in this space, specifically in relation to conflict.