[Radix] Fwd: climate and security redux

Tue Jul 15 13:38:26 PDT 2008

No offense meant, George!  Mucho aloha!

I am happy with a division of labor on this one.  As humanity dances toward the abyss, there needs to be all sorts of sections of the orchestra providing the musical accompaniment.  So, sure, some scholarly and activist work should be done at the international level.  

My point, however, depended on premise I didn't articulate: that there is at present TOO LITTLE work and attention given to what people are doing in primary, local organizations both to survive the effects of greed and stupidity at the national and international levels as well as build their political voice in the process.

Maybe that last mentioned is where progress (or some straw one can grasp at) lies.

I do have to echo, for my part, your inability to imagine a life-affirming social order emerging from below.  Of course I can't tell you precisely how that will take place, but I find I have a parallel inability to imagine how the changes necessary will take place from the top down.  All UN agencies I have worked with over the past 30 years are stolid, unimaginative, and risk adverse (politically), and I also must say the few dozen national governments with which I've been involved have been no more than the administrative/ managerial committees of the economic elites (sorry about the instrumentalist view of the state, but I can't help it).  As for regional institutions, the less said about the African Union the better.

So how should we proceed?  How would you see the division of labor -- local and global?

Cheers,

BEN

-----Original Message-----
>From: George Kent <kent at hawaii.edu>
>Sent: Jul 13, 2008 10:47 AM
>To: bwisner at igc.org
>Cc: Patrick Meier <patrick.meier at tufts.edu>, radix at ecie.org
>Subject: Re: [Radix] Fwd: climate and security redux
>
>I tried and tried to just live with Ben's response here, but I can't  
>do it.
>
>Ben suggested that I "assume that the nation states we have inherited  
>are the ones that (a) we are stuck with, and (b) are the ones that  
>(with their elites) are those that will somehow 'solve the problem'."  
>Of course that is not my assumption. My view is that is precisely  
>because things are so problematic at the global level, we should not  
>withdraw from that field of struggle. Indeed, if we focus all our  
>attention on doing what we can do at the local level, we are in as  
>sense taking a "blame the victim" approach.
>
>Not everyone should invest their resources on thinking out how the  
>global level OUGHT to be operating, but surely some of us should.
>
>Maybe it would be possible to build a global community from below, as  
>Ben suggests, but so far I have not seen serious efforts at connecting  
>the local work to the global level. Has anyone imagined how that would  
>look, how that would work?
>
>Aloha, George
>
>
>
>On Jul 12, 2008, at 1:00 AM, bwisner at igc.org wrote:
>
>> Aloha, George and all!
>>
>> Paraphrasing (or appropriating) Gandhi, the "global community" is a  
>> wonderful idea and would be lovely.  But looking at the lies,  
>> deceits, self-serving dominance by national (and transnational) oil  
>> interests, mining interests, and -- judging by the recent veto by  
>> Russia and China of arms embargo against Zimbabwe -- weapons  
>> manufacturers and dealers, would you buy a global climate security  
>> regime from these clowns?
>>
>> I agree with George concerning the implicitly global nature of the  
>> web of interrelated challenges that, using short hand, are called  
>> climate security.  However, it is one thing to try to build a  
>> responsive "global community" from below by community organizing,  
>> local economic and environmental and social initiatives that empower  
>> and also build the knowledge and capacity of local institutions and  
>> people, and quite another to assume that the nation states we have  
>> inherited are the ones that (a) we are stuck with, and (b) are the  
>> ones that (with their elites) are those that will somehow "solve the  
>> problem."
>>
>> In the UK edition of the Guardian yesterday there was a story about  
>> the first "green" super car: a $250,000 Porche.  I'd say as long as  
>> such consumerist dreams tantalize the minds of ordinary people --  
>> abetted if not orchestrated by the behavioral economists in the back  
>> rooms of the mainstream political parties -- we are a long, long way  
>> from having national social formations (political-economic-cultural  
>> elements taken together) that are anything but PART OF THE PROBLEM.
>>
>> On that happy note I'll hang out the laundry in the pissing rain  
>> (here in London).
>>
>> BEN
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: George Kent
>> Sent: Jul 11, 2008 3:32 PM
>> To: bwisner at igc.org
>> Cc: Patrick Meier , radix at ecie.org
>> Subject: Re: [Radix] Fwd: climate and security redux
>>
>> Ben, radixers --
>>
>> Ben said, " I personally don’t think the international level is  
>> where “early warning” and “preparedness” issues are most effectively  
>> tackled in the short and medium run. Rather, I work myself mostly at  
>> local level with sub-national governmental entities (cities,  
>> countries, the district level in, for example, Tanzania), where  
>> there may (or may not) be openings, more accountability, and  
>> concrete opportunities."
>>
>> Certainly it is difficult to work the climate issue at the global  
>> level, but we should be sure not to neglect that level. I say this  
>> out of watching the international agencies concerned with food  
>> issues endlessly dump the issue back to the national level, as if  
>> there were really no challenge to global governance. This is why I  
>> recently edited a book on Global Obligations for the Right to Food.
>>
>> Climate and security is inherently a global issue, demanding  
>> attention from the global community. We need to stay on it. Think  
>> globally, and act globally as well as locally. Where is the serious  
>> planning at the global level for dealing with climate issues?
>>
>> Aloha, George
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jul 11, 2008, at 8:39 AM, bwisner at igc.org wrote:
>>
>>> Hi, Patrick and Josh,
>>>
>>>
>>> Concerning climate and security, I have a couple of remarks.  I  
>>> have just returned from meeting with a grad student in Paris who is  
>>> one of a group just now (re)discovering the critical (aka  
>>> "radical") Anglophone writings on disaster risk from the 1970s and  
>>> 1980s.  I was also struck with the amount of interest there is  
>>> among grad students in France in the events of May 1968.  I really  
>>> had thought that all that had slipped beneath a cozy blanket of  
>>> professionalism and existential concerns with career, family,  
>>> consumption…
>>>
>>>  So the first thing I’d suggest to you, Josh, is that your cast  
>>> your net more widely.  The references in your note what Patrick  
>>> shared are exclusively to US institutions and lines of research.   
>>> The way that some European countries, not to mention India, China,  
>>> Brazil, etc. see the relationship between climate and security are  
>>> likely quite different.
>>>
>>>  Secondly, I am unclear what you mean by “security.”  You may find  
>>> of interest a paper by a group of us circulated a while ago that  
>>> distinguishes human security (and the MDGs) from geopolitical  
>>> security (see http://www.radixonline.org/cchs.html ).
>>>
>>>  Thirdly, I personally don’t think the international level is where  
>>> “early warning” and “preparedness” issues are most effectively  
>>> tackled in the short and medium run. Rather, I work myself mostly  
>>> at local level with sub-national governmental entities (cities,  
>>> countries, the district level in, for example, Tanzania), where  
>>> there may (or may not) be openings, more accountability, and  
>>> concrete opportunities.
>>>
>>>  All the best, BEN
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Patrick Meier
>>> Sent: Jul 11, 2008 8:27 AM
>>> To: radix at ecie.org
>>> Subject: [Radix] Fwd: climate and security redux
>>>
>>> Hello All,
>>>
>>> Would be great to get any guidance on Josh's question.
>>> Feel free to reply directly to him (and maybe cc this list?).
>>>
>>> On Josh:
>>>
>>> http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/faculty/joshua-busby/
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>> Patrick
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: Josh Busby <busbyj at austin.utexas.edu>
>>> Date: Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 3:44 PM
>>> Subject: climate and security redux
>>> To: Patrick P Meier <Patrick.Meier at tufts.edu>
>>>
>>>
>>> Patrick,
>>>
>>> I hope all is well. I'm continuing to work on climate and security.  
>>> My academic piece is finally set to come out in Security Studies  
>>> later this year. I've seen the copy edits and am waiting on the  
>>> proofs.
>>>
>>> I've got a new piece for a Brookings edited volume that I'm working  
>>> on. It will include some pieces from my CFR report, but I'm trying  
>>> to identify more initiatives the international community could or  
>>> should take to address the security consequences of climate change.  
>>> Here, I'm thinking again of early warning systems, disaster  
>>> management, but I'd like to get beyond the boilerplate heading of  
>>> "invest in early warning systems." I'm particularly struck by the  
>>> limitations of what the international community was able to do  
>>> after Nargis in Myanmar. I understand that the Burmese got early  
>>> warning from the Indians but did not take much action to prepare  
>>> their population.
>>>
>>> I'd welcome any thoughts you had as to the latest state of play.  
>>> You may have some ready-made thoughts on this in recent papers or  
>>> on your blog. Happy to read something if it is a better use of  
>>> time! Or, talk on the phone. In any case, I look forward to hearing  
>>> from you. I'm doing a roundtable at APSA on the topic with Idean  
>>> Salehyan and Jay Gulledge of the Pew Center. I think we're Friday  
>>> morning. Hope to catch up over coffee at APSA while I'm in town.
>>>
>>> Congrats on your dual gig at Harvard. How did that come about?
>>>
>>> All the best,
>>>
>>> JB
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Consultant & PhD Candidate
>>> The Fletcher School at Tufts University
>>> http://fletcher.tufts.edu/phd/students/Meier.shtml
>>> http://irevolution.wordpress.com <-blog
>>>
>>> Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI)
>>> Doctoral Research Fellow
>>> www.hhi.harvard.edu
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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>
>
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