how climate change is a global and national security issue

Climate change presents a clear threat to global security, potentially prompting waves of forced migration that destabilize regions and undermine national sovereignty. Moreover, climate change has a direct and immediate impact on global food supplies, leading to dramatic humanitarian outcomes. The consequences of climate change extend beyond food security concerns and extend into the broader realms of public health, including but not limited to, the spread of communicable diseases. Although most climate change research is based on modeling systems, the lessons learned from current trends in population migration and public health issues can provide some insight into causes and solutions to the problems that climate change presents to both domestic and global security.
Gemenne, Barnett, Adger & Dabelko (2014) find that climate change presents “risks of conflict, national security concerns, critical national infrastructure, geo-political rivalries and threats to human security,” (p. 1). Risks of conflict related to climate change include those linked to water or food shortages. Likewise, Wheeler & von Braun (2013) suggest “it is likely that climate variability and change will exacerbate food insecurity in areas currently vulnerable to hunger and undernutrition,” (p. 508). Water security can also become a source of contention between neighboring nations, leading to regional political instability as water-rich nations vie to protect their borders from an influx of migrants or alternatively, from threats to domestic security. Therefore, both food and water shortages can exacerbate existing geo-political rivalries, such as those between India and China currently evident in their mutual border regions with Bhutan (Gemenne, Barnett, Adger & Dabelko, 2014). As the critical national infrastructures of nations include consideration for basic human needs like food and water, climate change is easily one of the most pressing global security issues.
Far beyond the environmental ethics perspective that usually clouds issues related to climate change, the implications of climate change include ramifications for military strategies and foreign policy. “A changing climate will affect how and where military forces operate,” with one prime example relevant to North America being the opening of Arctic waters (Goldstein, 2016, p. 95). The opening of previously impassible Arctic maritime passages bodes particularly well for Russia, according to Goldstein (2016), because Russia currently possesses the largest fleet of heavy icebreakers. Canada, Finland, and Sweden likewise play a major role as primary stakeholders in military action in the Arctic (Goldstein, 2016). Proliferation is a distinct possibility as nations respond to perceived threats. Moreover, melting Arctic ice leading to rises in sea level impacts naval bases around the world. The consequences could be astounding not just for civilian populations in coastal areas but also for strategic military operations.
Climate change will also change the ways military resources are used and distributed, as the implications of climate change may be more related to humanitarian and peacekeeping responses, as well as disaster relief. For example, the American Security Project (2017) suggests that climate change will lead invariably to “an increase in frequency of disaster relief responses by the U.S. military,” (p. 1). Nations that are already planning and preparing for the mobilization of military resources to accommodate for shifting geographic and climactic realities will have the upper hand in future global as well as domestic security outcomes. Similarly, nations with well-endowed national security budgets will be able to mobilize resources but will focus their strategies on self-interested policies rather than on methods of promoting global peace and stability.
Of course, climate change presents tremendous economic impacts that affect global security. Forced migration is already presenting major challenges to the global economy and to regional and domestic economic strategies, and climate change will only enhance the patterns of forced migration motivated by economic need (Bouzov, n.d.). Linked with humanitarian concerns and the real effects of social unrest, forced migration due to climate change will not be limited to any one geographic region but will be dispersed around the globe. There may be hotspots of social unrest based on geographic and environmental factors, as well as the presence of political and economic infrastructure in place to prevent further conflict. Hot spots or “hot zones” are currently identified as being Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, the East Asia-Pacific, and the Arctic (American Security Project, 2017).
Climate change reveals the interface between global and domestic security. Because the effects of climate change will vary considerably, so too will the responses to climate change and related global security impacts including forced population migration. The ethics of climate change extend into humanitarian concerns, as wealthy nations like the United States will be called upon to handle waves of new immigrants or to provide sustenance and support for impoverished and hard-hit areas. Unfortunately, it will be difficult to create international coalitions to guard against all the impacts of climate change due to differential needs, unbalanced distribution of resources, and different national security concerns. Recommendations for handling the issue center on resiliency building and ensuring the proliferation of strategic domestic and international partnerships. Creating “a more sustainable and resilient society” is the key to minimizing nand mitigating climate change-related political, economic, and social instability (Heymann, Chen, Takemi, et al., 2015, p. 1884). Each region and each nation needs to come up with contingency plans and focus on local concerns, partnering with both neighboring nations and the private sector to reduce risk and solve problems.




References

American Security Project (2017). Climate change and global security. Retrieved online: https://www.americansecurityproject.org/climate-energy-and-security/new-climate-change-website-3-climate-change-and-global-security/
Bouzov, V. (n.d.). Forced migration as a global security challenge. Retrieved online: http://www.academia.edu/11510076/Forced_Migration_as_a_Global_Security_Challenge
Gemenne, F., Barnett, J., Adger, W.N. & Dabelko, G.D. (2014). Climate and security. Climate Change 123(1): 1-9.
Goldstein, J.S. (2016). Climate change as a global security issue. Journal of Global Security Studies 1(1): 95-98.
Heymann, D.L., Chen, L., Takemi, K., et al. (2015). Global health security. The Lancet 385(9980): 1884-1901.
Wheeler, T. & von Braun, J. (2013). Climate change impacts on global food security. Science 341(6145): 508-513.