Home » United Nations
Category Archives: United Nations
A Marshall Plan to Combat Climate Change in the Asia-Pacific: The Missing Piece of the New U.S. Security Strategy
This article is cross-posted from e-International Relations
For the first time since the days of William Howard Taft, the United States is officially reorienting its security and defense strategy to the Asia-Pacific region, closing down military bases in Europe, redeploying soldiers to bases in Australia, and placing the region front and center in its strategic documents. As stated in the U.S. Department of Defense’s 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance note, “while the U.S. military will continue to contribute to security globally, we will of necessity re-balance toward the Asia-Pacific region.” But if this shift is to translate into leadership, the United States needs a complementary investment agenda for building the region’s resilience to key emerging threats – including climate change. (more…)
World Economic Forum: The Rise of Regional Institutions and Climate Change
The World Economic Forum’s recent report, “Global Agenda Council on Geopolitical Risk” highlights one of the major developments in global governance – the rise of regional institutions – and calls for a better integration of these regional groupings into our current system of global governance. This is an important objective for a whole host of issues, but is especially critical for addressing the threat of climate change. (more…)
Egypt’s Political Transition and the Rising Sea: An Opportunity for Reform
Last January, on the heels of a successful popular revolution in Tunisia, Egyptians decided that they wanted to govern themselves as well. This led to the eventual overthrow of the 30-year Mubarak regime. Since then, the Egyptian path to democracy has been challenged, with the country’s military elite largely filling the empty spaces of power.
But while this political transition stumbles forward uncertainly, with the forces of reaction threatening to nip progress towards democracy in the bud, another less political threat looms. The health of the Nile Delta. (more…)
Word of the Day: Oropolitics
In exploring the India-Pakistan dispute over the Siachen Glacier (called the “highest battleground on Earth”), we came across the word “oropolitics.” According to Joydeep Sircar, who coined the term in the early 1980s, it refers to the “political aspect and use of mountains and mountaineering.” This word, a paragon of the English language, merits the creation of a “word of the day” post to accommodate it. (more…)