Home » Posts tagged 'Asia-Pacific' (Page 2)
Tag Archives: Asia-Pacific
Climate Change Remains a Consistent Theme at Shangri-La Security Dialogue
U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis meets with Australian Minister of Defense, Senator Marise Payne and Japanese Minister of Defense, Itsunori Onodera, at Shangri-La Dialogue, June 2, 2018. (DoD Photo by Tech Sgt. Vernon Young Jr.)
By Steve Tebbe, Policy Associate
When Florence Parly, the French Minister of the Armed Forces, called to “disarm the climate” at this year’s IISS Shangri-La Dialogue (17th Asia Security Summit), it helped exemplify how seriously the summit’s panelists were taking the security risks of climate change. The Dialogue continued the pattern of recent Shangri-La Dialogues and other security conferences, with a range of leading defense ministers and practitioners speaking on how the changing climate has impacted their security.
Asia-Pacific defense ministers, military and civilian staff gather in Shangri-La every year to discuss the trends and threats in Indo-Pacific regional security. News outlets have covered the emphasis on ASEAN terrorism, the Korean Peninsula, and emphasized the Indo-Pacific space across the Dialogue. However, climate security was included in a number of speaker’s talks this year, including Minister Parly, Ron Mark, the Minister of Defence of New Zealand, and Philip Barton, the Director-General for Consular and Security at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK. In the Sixth Special Session focusing on regional security cooperation, Vice Admiral Hervé de Bonnaventure, the Acting Director-General of International Relations and Strategy at the French Ministry of the Armed Forces noted that he believes climate directly changes military operations: (more…)
Pacific Partnership Works to Strengthen Climate Security Preparedness and Cooperation
The Seabees are working in with crewmembers from the hospital ship USNS Mercy in Cambodia supporting Pacific Partnership. Photo by J. Husman
By Lieutenant General Tariq Waseem Ghazi (Ret), Pakistan’s Secretary of Defense from 2005-2007 & Rachel Fleishman, Senior Fellow for Asia Pacific, the Center for Climate and Security
This month a major multinational military exercise, the Pacific Partnership, launches in South and Southeast Asia. At its center is the hospital ship USNS Mercy, with an international team of civilian and military specialists in humanitarian assistance and disaster response. Its mission is to build response capacity in one of the most disaster-prone regions of the world. South Asian nations should initiate a similar joint exercise.
Why? Because climate change is a litmus test. With today’s divisive politics, nations struggle to predict, prevent and prepare for disasters. Collaboration increases the likelihood of success – and strengthens the foundation for peace in the region. (more…)
Takeaways from Sri Lanka Event: Climate Security in South Asia
Colombo Daily News, December 2
By Rachel Fleishman, Senior Fellow for Asia-Pacific, The Center for Climate and Security
On November 30 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, I participated in an event titled “Climate Change and Resources Security: Challenges for Security and the Security Sector in South Asia” – convened just as Cyclone Ockhi hit Sri Lanka’s southeastern coast.* The storm provided a somber backdrop for the discussions. In his opening remarks, Sri Lanka’s Secretary to the Ministry of Defense Kapila Waidyaratne reported 7 killed and hundreds displaced. By the end of the session the confirmed death toll was 11, with more than 3000 having been evacuated. (more…)
Event: Security & Climate Change in the Pacific
What: “Security & Climate Change in the Pacific: From Asia to the United States,” panel discussion followed by audience Q&A
Who: IISS-Americas and the Center for Climate and Security
When: November 28, 10:00-11:30am ET
Where: 2121 K Street NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC
RSVP: Click here.
Summary: Since the George H.W. Bush administration, the US security community has recognized the national security threats of climate change. These high-probability, high-impact threats have remained a priority area for action within Congress and the Department of Defense. The Asia-Pacific region is acutely vulnerable to the security impacts of climate change. A range of underlying security fragilities and geostrategic tensions will be shaped by increasingly frequent and severe disasters, impacts to coastal infrastructure and populations, sea level rise altering maritime boundary delimitations, greater food insecurity, and irregular migration flows. This discussion, featuring high-level experts from the Center for Climate and Security, will explore these risks, how US military installations, operations, and strategies in the region may be shaped by them, and their influence on US bilateral and multilateral relationships.