Eight of the ten countries hosting the most multilateral peace operations personnel in 2018 are located in areas highly exposed to climate change. As such, climate change is not just an issue of human security—it is transforming the entire security landscape. Nonetheless, international efforts to build and maintain peace are not yet taking these emerging challenges systematically into account.
This SIPRI Policy Brief is the third of three papers devoted to the new external security politics of the Horn of Africa. The paper highlights how the growth of foreign military forces in the Horn is transforming the region as a security space, and identifies priorities to help the countries of the Horn to manage the new external security dynamics.
As a part of the Militarization 2.0 project, this Policy Brief examines the social media content that celebrates militarism as an important aspect of everyday social media usage and the related meaning construction overlooked by policymakers. The research results indicate that while there is an abundance of militaristic content, much of this content reaches targeted audiences.
Climate change is increasingly viewed as the world’s greatest global security risk. However, the UN Security Council (UNSC) has not consistently or systematically addressed climate-related security risks.
Climate change has farreaching implications for human livelihoods and activities, including potential security implications. These security risks are multifaceted in nature and involve human, community, state and international security. Effective policy responses in different policy communities will be required to address these risks. As a way of strengthening their responses, many policy organizations are attempting to develop integrated policy approaches.
While securing a total of 2387 kilometre river-border from the potential trespassing of traffi ckers, extremists and terrorists forms part of the national security agendas of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, for the border communities living along the Amu Darya and Panj rivers, concerns stem not just from these traditional threats but from broader aspects of human insecurity: access to decent livelihoods, quality healthcare and education, and adequate water for irrigation. These every day challenges require a rethink of the question of border security.
In recent years, Central Asia and the South Caucasus have seen a number of gradual trends in the development, transfer and use of law enforcement equipment, increasing the range of devices available to law-enforcement and security personnel.
As the drawdown of foreign forces from Afghanistan has accelerated in the run-up to their withdrawal by the end of 2014, attention has come to focus on the extent to which military equipment will be left behind for the use of the Central Asian states.
Parallel extra-regional integration projects in the South Caucasus culminated in June 2014 with Georgia’s conclusion of an European Union (EU) Association Agreement and in January 2015 with Armenia’s accession to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. Azerbaijan remains outside either project. The implementation of these projects risks an increase in regional fragmentation and a further destabilization of the South Caucasus, notably the protracted conflicts of Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia.