It’s an interesting time to be living as a student in Berlin, though certainly not as interesting as it was 20 years ago today when the Berlin Wall was suddenly opened. The various retrospectives and anniversary events all around the city celebrate not just the end of Communism, but also the beginning of a new era of economic and social interconnectedness. This interconnectedness that has evolved since 1989 does not stop at Berlin’s city limits or at Germany’s borders.
The Berlin Wall was the first of many obstacles to be torn down between peoples of this world. The rise of globalization in the economy, in civil society networks and in ideological groups engendered a host of new transnational issues that reshaped the security landscape. No longer could national leaders focus security efforts only on threats from other nation-states.
A new conceptualization of security began to underscore the importance of human security – the safety and well-being of people within states – as a major shaper of national security. Low standards of safety and well-being in a particular country or region can lead to instability. This instability is today perceived as an international threat to security, because of its capability, even tendency, to cross borders through increased participation in international terrorism and drastically amplified migration flows.
Today, twenty years after the fall of the wall that sparked this paradigm shift, the biggest threat to human security, and thus to national security, is climate change.
Heat-trapping gases from fossil-fuel-driven economies are leading to an unnaturally fast rise in average global temperature. If we don’t change course immediately, it’s not a hotter world alone that we have to worry about (in fact, some regions would see dramatic drops in average temperature), but rather disruptive changes in the flow of water around the globe as a result of warmer ocean currents.
Subsequent increases in frequency and intensity of natural disasters, changes in arable land and potable water distribution, and rising sea-levels swamping coastal cities would create pockets of instability that threaten to erupt into mass migration, armed conflicts, and public health calamities – all potentially grave security concerns.
It is hard to predict the exact timing and placement of such changes, in part because of complex feedback loops. This uncertainty, however, does not detract from the threat to security, but rather amplifies it as it makes specific threats harder to anticipate.
Due to its overarching nature and potential catastrophic effects on international social, political, and economic structures, climate change has been noted as one of the greatest threats to American security by the Pentagon, the State Department and eleven retired three- and four-star admirals and generals.
The risk is real and the time for action is now. World leaders will be meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December to negotiate greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets and funding for adaptation to climate change impacts that are already threatening the well-being of people around the world. In the next year, the agreement reached in Copenhagen will have to be fleshed out into a legally binding treaty to minimize the impacts of climate change in the most just manner.
In the case of the fall of the Berlin Wall, international negotiations and political leadership were major players, but the heavy Iron Curtain could not have been pushed down without the pressure from citizens on all sides. Everyday people like you and me have a responsibility to future generations to hold our leaders accountable by keeping international focus on the most fundamental issue of our time.
