Climate Change and National Security (P-39)

Climate Change and National Security (P-39)

Publication details

  • Wednesday | 15 Aug, 2012
  • Shakeel Ahmed Ramay, Mome Saleem
  • Policy Briefs/Papers
  • 34
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Shakeel Ahmad Ramay and Mome Saleem August 2012

Traditionally, national security has been analyzed through the lens of physical threats from extremist groups, whether within or outside of the country, and social or political unrest which may lead to destabilization. Historical evidences confirm this argument through a chain of events right from the beginning of civilization. A number of examples can be quoted on this front and the most recent are the terrorist attacks on the United States of America (USA), the wave of terrorism in Pakistan and the Naxil movement in India. For traditional threats, traditional mechanisms were and are used to tackle the issue of national security.

Now, in addition to the above mentioned threats, the world is witnessing a new threat to global and national security in the form of climate change. The global community is therefore working on different aspects of climate change. In 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was created to look after the climate change debate and to devise a policy to combat it. Unfortunately, UNFCCC could not produce any substantial results and extremely vulnerable countries and communities are still waiting for the right interventions.