Search

Begin New Search Topic Environment

921. From Rio To Johannesburg:The Earth Summit And Rio + 10

Author:
Duncan Brack, Fanny Calder, and Muge Dolun
Publication Date:
03-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) – the 'Earth Summit' – took place in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992. Unprecedented in size and scope, Rio resulted in a number of important agreements including Agenda 21, two new conventions and the foundation of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. Among these Agenda 21 has a particularly important role in defining sustainable development and providing a blueprint for change. Within the next two years the world will be preparing for the tenth-year review of the Rio Conference, which will lead to the World Summit on Sustainable Development – 'Rio+10'.
Topic:
Environment, International Law, and Science and Technology

922. Environmental Security In Central Asia

Author:
Stuart Horsman
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Chatham House
Abstract:
The summer of 2000 witnessed a drought that decimated crops throughout Central Asia. Previously, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev raised the spectre of water-inspired insecurity in Central Asia, and in March an OSCE delegation visited the Central Asian republics to discuss water management issues.
Topic:
Security, Environment, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Kazakhstan and Asia

923. The Problems of Preparedness: Challenges Facing the U.S. Domestic Preparedness Program

Author:
Richard A. Falkenrath
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
The U.S. government is now actively engaged in preparing the nation for highly destructive acts of terrorism, especially those involving chemical and biological weapons. This effort involves multiple federal agencies and a wide variety of programs. Collectively known as the “U.S. domestic preparedness program,” these programs are a very recent innovation in American governance. The budget of federal weapons of mass destruction (WMD) preparedness programs has grown from effectively zero in 1995 to approximately $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2000. 1 This made the U.S. domestic preparedness program one of the fastest growing federal programs of the late 1990s.
Topic:
Environment and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States

924. Analytic Models and Policy Prescription: Understanding Recent Innovation in U.S. Counterterrorism

Author:
Richard A. Falkenrath
Publication Date:
10-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
The threat of terrorism has received enormous attention in the last decade. Anxieties ran particularly high at the turn of the millennium, which fortunately passed without a major terrorist incident. Virtually all states expend some resources to combat terrorism. The policies, programs, and operations that governments undertake to meet this challenge are known collectively as counterterrorism. Although this term is only a few decades old, the practice of counterterrorism is as old as terrorism itself. Like terrorism, counterterrorism is easily recognized, even if its boundaries are somewhat imprecise.
Topic:
Environment and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States

925. Responding to the Threat of Agroterrorism: Specific Recommendations for the United States Department of Agriculture

Author:
Anne Kohnen
Publication Date:
10-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
The threat of biological weapons (BW) is usually associated with terrible outbreaks of human illness. Receiving substantially less attention from the media, however, is the fact that BW can also be used against agricultural targets as strategic economic weapons. Agriculture accounts for about 13 percent of the United States' annual gross domestic product. 1996 U.S. cash receipts for livestock, poultry, and crops totaled more than $200 billion. An attack on agriculture could have enormous economic consequences.
Topic:
Environment and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States

926. Moving Beyond Kyoto

Author:
Warwick J. McKibbin
Publication Date:
10-2000
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
In November 2000, just after the presidential elections in the United States, negotiators will meet in The Hague at the sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP6) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). By then, it will have been almost three years since the negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol on global climate change at COP3, which was held in Kyoto in December 1997. Intense negotiations over the intervening period have focused on how to implement the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been signed by 84 countries but not ratified by any of the key countries, and ratification does not appear to be imminent, especially in the United States, where the Senate has registered its strong opposition.
Topic:
Environment and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
United States

927. Green Wars: Making Environmental Degradation a National Security Issue Puts Peace and Security at Risk

Author:
Paul Benjamin
Publication Date:
04-2000
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Since the end of the Cold War, a fundamental shift in national security policy has taken place in the United States. No longer restricting itself to such issues as military alliances, the strategic behavior of other great powers, and nuclear strike capabilities, security policy now tackles environmental degradation, poverty, infectious diseases, drug use, and other problems. Moreover, it increasingly posits them as threats to the national security of the United States.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, and Environment
Political Geography:
United States

928. The Greening of the World Bank: A Lesson in Bureaucratic Survival

Author:
James M. Sheehan
Publication Date:
04-2000
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
The World Bank has a dismal environmental record that environmentalists have long condemned. Its lending policies have financed ecological destruction, human rights violations, and forced resettlement, and its projects have suffered from high failure rates, according to the bank's own criteria.
Topic:
Development, Environment, and International Organization

929. Forum -- Capitalism And Its Spirits?

Author:
George Ross
Publication Date:
09-2000
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Le Nouvel Esprit du capitalism:Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello (Paris: Gallimard, 1999). Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello's Le Nouvel Esprit du capitalisme is 843 pages long. Its considerable heft, however, has not prevented it from being widely read and commented upon. Herein lies a mystery. Why has such a dense and difficult book struck such a chord? Perhaps the first reason has to do with its general approach. "Spirits of capitalism"-borrowing from Max Weber is intentional - refers to the ways by which capitalism, at heart profoundly amoral, is "moralized." French readers worry, and they should, that contemporary capitalism makes less and less moral sense. Le Nouvel Esprit promises new understanding, if not new morality. To Boltanski and Chiapello, individuals and groups need to acquire sufficient personal commitment, in terms of a sense of justice in operation, to allow the system to function successfully. They see three successive ideal-typical "esprits du capitalisme," each with its own particular mixture of methods of moralization. The contemporary moment, they claim, is a major change from the previous spirit to something quite new. The "justifications" that key actors use to create morally acceptable social environments - and which, in turn, help make structures happen - have been shifting.
Topic:
Environment

930. Global Trends 2015: A Dialogue About the Future With Nongovernment Experts

Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Abstract:
Over the past 15 months, the National Intelligence Council (NIC), in close collaboration with US Government specialists and a wide range of experts outside the government, has worked to identify major drivers and trends that will shape the world of 2015. The key drivers identified are: Demographics, Natural resources and environment, Science and technology, The global economy and globalization, National and international governance, Future conflict, The role of the United States. In examining these drivers, several points should be kept in mind: No single driver or trend will dominate the global future in 2015 Each driver will have varying impacts in different regions and countries The drivers are not necessarily mutually reinforcing; in some cases, they will work at cross-purposes. Taken together, these drivers and trends intersect to create an integrated picture of the world of 2015, about which we can make projections with varying degrees of confidence and identify some troubling uncertainties of strategic importance to the United States.
Topic:
Economics, Environment, Government, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States