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Climate Change and Intercommunal Conflicts in West Africa: A New Challenge for the UN System of Collective Security or Much Ado About Nothing?
Abstract
Several UN documents have identified climate trends as a security concern in recent years. A remarkable development can be seen in the incorporation by the UN of the climate change issue within its security dimension, through the unanimous adoption of recent UNSC resolutions. But what is the extent of the UNSC commitment to address intercommunal conflicts exacerbated by climate related effects in the Sahel region? What are the legal and practical implications of the UNSC recommendations for the UN and its subsidiary bodies in areas characterized by generalized State weaknesses and weak enforcement of the rule of law? Has the UNSC really succeeded in ensuring an adequate integrated approach to multidimensional threats in the Sahel? The present contribution tries to answer these questions by analyzing selected provisions of UNSC Resolution 2423 (2018), concerning the situation in Mali, and their implementation. In a tentative conclusion, a few reflections will be developed on the possible impact of the UNSC approach to climate security threats in the Sahel on the evolution of the UN system of collective security: new wine in old bottles or a first step towards a change in the overall security architecture of the Organization?
... Adding to the instability in the region, climate change is causing desertification to spread southwards from the Sahara into the Sahel. It is far estimated that temperatures in the Sahel are rising faster than anywhere else in the world (Pineschi, 2022). ...
... The future of Lake Chad is uncertain. However, with the cooperation of the countries in the basin, it is possible to save the lake and ensure its continued availability for the people of the region (Pineschi, 2022). ...
The purpose of this article is to analyse how climate change is a major threat to security in the Sahel and Lake Chad basin. The region is already experiencing the effects of climate change, such as more frequent droughts, floods, and desertification and to expatiate how these effects are leading to food insecurity, water scarcity, and displacement, which are in turn creating conditions that can lead to violent conflict, using the descriptive cum exploratory research design. The paper relied on qualitative data collected from secondary sources. Findings in the paper revealed that, the link between climate change and violent conflict is complex and there are many other factors that contribute to conflict in the region. However, climate change is a major threat that can exacerbate existing tensions and make it more difficult to resolve conflicts peacefully. The paper recommended measures to address the threat of climate change and violent conflict in the Sahel and Lake Chad basin, it is important to take a comprehensive approach that addresses both the root causes of conflict and the effects of climate change: investing in sustainable development and climate adaptation programme, promoting peacebuilding and conflict resolution, providing humanitarian assistance to those affected by climate change and building the resilience of communities to the effects of climate change, by taking a comprehensive approach, which is possible to mitigate the threat of climate change and violent conflict in the Sahel and Lake Chad basin to build a more peaceful and sustainable future for the region.
Environmental peacebuilding is a rapidly growing field of research and practice at the intersection of environment, conflict, peace and security. Focusing on these linkages is crucial in a time when the environment is a core issue of international politics and the number of armed conflicts remains high. This article introduces a special issue with a particular emphasis on environmental opportunities for building and sustaining peace. We first detail the definitions, theoretical assumptions and intellectual background of environmental peacebuilding. The article then provides context for the special issue by briefly reviewing core findings and debates of the first two generations of environmental peacebuilding research. Finally, we identify knowledge gaps that should be addressed in the next generation of research, and to which the articles in this special issue contribute: bottom-up approaches, gender, conflict-sensitive programming, use of big data and frontier technology, and monitoring and evaluation.
Policymakers and researchers have increasingly acknowledged the adverse effects of climate change on human security, and an increasing amount of international organizations are addressing climate-related security risks. The European Union (EU) is one of the most vocal proponents in this regard. This SIPRI Policy Brief analyses EU responses within its foreign and security policy to climate-related security risks, focusing on developments since the release of the 2016 EU Global Strategy. It concludes that the EU already has several instruments at its disposal but the EU and its member states need to raise their ambitions. This SIPRI Policy Brief recommends that: (a) EU climate diplomacy should integrate climate security; (b) knowledge provision and risk assessment should be enhanced; (c) mandates for missions within the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy should be broaden; and (d) EU-United Nations cooperation should be strengthened.
There has been considerable attention on the conventional climate mitigation and adaptation debate in Africa, including the prominent efforts of the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change in global climate forums. However, there is little understanding of how the African Union (AU) is discussing and responding to the security implications of climate change.
This Policy Brief outlines key strengths of the African Unions response, such as a rapidly evolving discourse around climate security and efforts to improve collaboration and coordination among different parts of the institution. But also, key weaknesses in the discourse around AU policy responses, such as the lack of tangible policy operationalization as well as financial unpreparedness and limited member state accountability.
The Policy Brief makes recommendations highlighting entry points for advancing the understanding and response to climate-related security risks within the AU, such as: (a) develop and institutionalize coordinated responses to climate-related security risks, (b) develop strong climate security leadership within the African Union, and (c) change the narrative to focus on shared problems and therefore shared solutions—multilateralism rather than nationalism.
Coherence is a core objective in most multinational interventions and seems of particular relevance to UN peacekeeping missions with their increasing complexity and multidimensionality. Yet, coherence has rarely been studied empirically. We borrow the concept of ‘fit’ from organizational theory and use it to develop a conceptual framework to study coherence in peacekeeping operations. Fit is the degree of match between what is required by the mandate, on the one hand, and an institutional set-up and the implemented practices, on the other. We identify three relevant dimensions of fit to study coherence: strategic and organizational, cultural and human and operational fit. Our empirical material focuses on the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and in particular on the interplay between the intelligence components and the rest of the mission. We draw upon a large empirical dataset containing over 120 semi-structured interviews, field observations and participation in pre-deployment exercises and evaluation sessions. Our empirical analysis suggests that low level of fit across several dimensions leads to inertial and widespread frictions in the practice of peacekeeping and could potentially undermine peacekeeping effectiveness. Building on existing scholarship on micro-level approaches to peacekeeping, we hope to further the debate on organizational dynamics within peace operations.
Modern conflict presents a complicated terrain for the UN’s conflict prevention work, where politically-driven solutions have become more elusive. Driven by the changing nature of armed conflict, the “good offices” function of the UN has evolved significantly in past decades. Based on a comparative assessment of the UN’s political engagement across different settings and eras, key elements for successful use of good offices include: (1) in-depth understanding of the conflict based on sustained contact and relationships on the ground; (2) timing of the intervention; (3) leverage over the key conflict actors; and (4) credibility of the mediator. A light, nimble presence on the ground—rather than multidimensional peace operations—appear best placed to achieve these elements of success.
A partir d'une enquête menée au sein des Départements des opérations de maintien de la paix et de l'appui aux missions de l'ONU cet article met en évidence un processus d'environnementalisation des opérations de maintien de la paix. Il procède d'une dynamique bottom-up s'inscrivant dans les préoccupations environnementales croissantes qui se développent sur le terrain et d'une logique top-down en se matérialisant par la mise en place, au secrétariat, d'une politique environnementale pour l'ensemble des missions. En dépit d'une mise en oeuvre inégale et d'un verdissement limité, l'appropriation de l'environnement par les Casques bleus répond à des objectifs stratégiques de mise à l'agenda de l'environnement auprès des acteurs sécuritaires et de rapprochement entre environnement et sécurité à l'ONU.
Using an investigation into the UN departments of Peacekeeping Operations and of Field Support, this article provides an overview of the environmentalization of peacekeeping operations. Growing environmental concern on the ground has resulted in bottom-up environmentalization, while top-down environmentalization can be seen in the un Secertariat's environmental policy for all UN field missions. Despite uneven implementation and limited greening, the Peacekeepers' appropriation of the environment meets two strategic objectives : putting the environment on the agenda for security actors and bringing security and the environment into closer sync at the UN.
Incl. abstract, bib. This paper argues for a broader emphasis on sustainable security and sustainable development, and for examining both opportunities as well as threats to security. The authors note that many of the significant risks arising from human and natural interactions do not emerge at global or local levels, but at intermediate scales. They look at what different conceptual frameworks have to contribute to our understanding and review lessons from experience, illustrating where possible with work on water. The authors conclude by offering implications for an agenda of action, including interconnected frameworks, coalitions for change, interlocking institutional arrangements and disaggregated goals and indicators.
Environmental stress contributes to food insecurity, poverty, forced migration and violent conflict in the Sahel, with climate change aggravating the situation. The production of gum arabic from the acacia tree increasingly aligns with the community stakeholders’ efforts to promote climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Based on expert interviews and field observations in Niger, and a reading of relevant documents, I found that gum arabic production is valuable for conflict mitigation because it helps tackle the root causes of violent conflicts. The acacia gum tree is a natural soil fixer and multinational companies have coveted the resin from the tree, which is a rising commodity and a promising source of revenue for the local inhabitants. As different communities work together and cooperate with outside actors (government agencies, international partners, NGOs and businesses), the opportunities to build social cohesion around the tree increase. By facilitating ecological improvement, social inclusion and poverty alleviation, the promotion of gum arabic production, despite other issues such as bad natural resource governance, is a critical environmental peacebuilding strategy. Hence, suitable funding of massive afforestation with the acacia tree fits with community-based natural climate solutions to global humanitarian issues by protecting and restoring the local environment.
This article analyses the decision-making process of the UN Security Council when it adopts outcome documents, such as resolutions, Presidential statements and press statements. It is commonly assumed that because of their veto power and permanency China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States have greater influence than their elected counterparts in shaping those outcomes. In recent years, that control has been strengthened by the penholdership system. Under this practice, one or more members, usually France, the United States or the United Kingdom (P3), take leadership over a situation on the agenda of the Council. When ‘holding the pen’ a member often decides what action the Council should take, then drafts an outcome document that it negotiates with other permanent members before sharing the text with elected members. This article explores the development of this practice and its impact on the respect for the rule of law in the Security Council’s decision-making process. It argues that, while concentrating power in the hands of the P3, hence diminishing transparency and the opportunity for all members to participate in the decision-making of the Council, at the same time the penholdership system also provides an avenue to strengthen elected members’ influence in ways that promote respect for the international rule of law.
This article first considers whether there is any general theory of interpretation in international law. After revisiting the way in which Security Council resolutions are drafted, it reviews developments in regard to the interpretation of Security Council resolutions, including controversies, case-law, and writings. Also considered is the relevance to the subject of the Dutch and United Kingdom Iraq inquiries. The conclusions re-examine, and largely confirm, the approach taken in an article published in 1998.
This book offers a prospective analysis of the anticipated security consequences of climate change in relation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Using climate and security literature to complement recent foresight and scenario analysis developed by NATO, the author applies the International Risk Governance Council’s (IRGC) Risk Governance Framework to identify the considerations and actions that could assist NATO in a context where climate and environmental factors more intensively shape security. Tyler Lippert explores how climate change has the potential to increase the need for humanitarian assistance and disaster response, to create tension over shared resources, to renew and enhance geo-political interest in the Arctic, and to deepen concern with respect to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Within this new political and environmental reality, NATO must consider how to adapt to meet new demands, prepare for new security challenges, as well as manage unforeseen consequences.
Offering a corrective, this book identifies near-term actions for NATO to improve its risk governance posture, providing a basis upon which longer-range policy considerations can be developed. This analysis is only the opening salvo of what is likely to be a complicated process that spans many years, if not decades. However, in mapping the risk governance dimensions to the security and climate nexus from the perspective of NATO, Lippert provides a foundation for risk-based policy planning for NATO. The book will be of immense value to policy and decision makers: NATO leadership and its affiliated organizations as well as to academics across a broad span of subject areas, particularly environmental sociology, defense and foreign policy, and the political sciences.
Tyler H. Lippert earned a Ph.D. from the RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, California, USA where he conducted policy research and analysis for RAND Corporation. He also holds a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, USA. Tyler served as the Editor in Chief of the Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business, and served in a variety of roles throughout Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, and on multiple occasions with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Political solutions to armed conflicts are often professed by a plethora of local, regional and international actors. For various reasons, however, peace agreements often remain words on paper, not actions in the field. When can peace agreements make a difference, and help bring a country suffering from war towards a more stable and peaceful existence? This article examines the 2015 peace agreement in Mali and the case of the 2016 peace agreement in Colombia. The 2015 agreement in Mali – despite hopes to end armed violence and provide a framework for peace – has had little impact on the ground and serves to illustrate some of the limitations of peace agreements. Despite significant obstacles and setbacks, the case of Colombia, on the other hand, illustrates some of the potential of peace agreements. These cases, and potential lessons learnt from Colombia to Mali, are discussed in the context of what, with whom and when to negotiate.
In: Conflict Trends 4/2018.
Full-text: https://www.accord.org.za/conflict-trends/the-potential-and-limits-of-peace-agreements/
Climate change is increasingly acknowledged as a threat to states and societies, and several international organizations are now seeking to respond to climate-related security risks. The EU’s comprehensive approach to security suggests that the Union is particularly well-suited to respond to such risks, but the EU has not yet developed a coherent policy. This article addresses the gap between discourse and policy outcomes by exploring how practice shapes EU climate security policy. It provides unique insights based on practitioners’ accounts of the work being done in the European Union External Action Service to align various EU foreign policy tools and instruments in order to address climate-related security risks. A key finding is that a community of practice is emerging on climate security in the EU, but it is characterized by overlapping and conflicting practices relating to climate diplomacy, development, and security and defence.
International Law and New Wars examines how international law fails to address the contemporary experience of what are known as ʼnew wars’ - instances of armed conflict and violence in places such as Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. International law, largely constructed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, rests to a great extent on the outmoded concept of war drawn from European experience - inter-state clashes involving battles between regular and identifiable armed forces. The book shows how different approaches are associated with different interpretations of international law, and, in some cases, this has dangerously weakened the legal restraints on war established after 1945. It puts forward a practical case for what it defines as second generation human security and the implications this carries for international law.
'Human laws must be reformulated to keep human activities in harmony with the unchanging and universal laws of nature.' This 1987 statement by the World Commission on Environment and Development has never been more relevant and urgent than it is today. Despite the many legal responses to various environmental problems, more greenhouse gases than ever before are being released into the atmosphere, biological diversity is rapidly declining and fish stocks in the oceans are dwindling. This book challenges the doctrinal construction of environmental law and presents an innovative legal approach to ecological sustainability: a rule of law for nature which guides and transcends ordinary written laws and extends fundamental principles of respect, integrity and legal security to the non-human world.
The notion of security has changed significantly in international contexts since the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, in Stockholm 1972, so as to include social-ecological concerns even at the global scale. This change is paralleled by the increasing attention to mankind's position, impact and responsibility in a global environmental context, even to suggest that we are entering into a new geological epoch where mankind is 'a major environmental force': The Anthropocene . This chapter explores international law and policy for social-ecological security in light of the notion of the Anthropocene and the planetary boundaries. In addition to planetary boundaries, international law and policy on social-ecological security must take into account the equitable distribution of burdens and benefits related to health, the environment, 'eco-services' and resource uses within any boundary. Keywords: eco-services; international law; obal environmental context; planetary boundaries; social-ecological concerns; Stockholm; The Anthropocene ; United Nations Conference
Over the last decade there has been an evolving debate both within the United Nations and within the scholarly literature as to whether it would be feasible, appropriate and/or advantageous for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to consider climate change to be within its remit. Given that irreversible global warming is under way and that this will inevitably have multiple global security implications—and indeed, that the Council has to some degree already addressed the issue—such a debate has become anachronistic. What is needed at this stage is nuanced analysis of how this complex policy issue may have already impacted, and may in future impact, the function and functioning of the Council. This article first reviews key variables that need to be taken into account in moving beyond a binary discussion of whether or not the Security Council should consider climate change. It then maps four broad categories of possible UNSC response, spanning from rejection of any involvement through to the Council using its Chapter VII powers and functioning as the peak body in respect of global climate change governance. It then places developments to date within those categories and concludes by considering the prospects for an increased UNSC role in the future.
Peacebuilding countries are concentrated in areas of heightened vulnerability to climate change impacts, and almost certainly lack the capacity to manage these impacts. In spite of this overlap, climate change adaptation and mitigation projects are typically excluded from peacebuilding activities. This is particularly alarming given that many analysts believe climate change will trigger, amplify or perpetuate humanitarian crises, population displacement, political extremism and violent conflict in the regions in which most peacebuilding operations take place. This paper investigates opportunities for integrating climate change into peacebuilding. It identifies three obstacles to this integration—the lack of climate change tools and policies that can be easily introduced into typical peacebuilding programming; the skepticism and complacency of the donor community; and tensions between the objectives and timeframes of peacebuilding and those of climate change response. The paper then examines opportunities to integrate climate change into four principal programmatic areas of peacebuilding—socio-economic recovery, politics and governance, security and rule of law, and human rights—and concludes that more attention needs to be given to these opportunities in order to build resilience and reduce the likelihood of more daunting and costly challenges in the future.
Human security is a human- or people-centred and multi-sectoral approach to security, emphasizing the empowerment of people
to enhance their potential through concerted efforts to develop norms, processes and institutions that systematically address
insecurities. Since the UN Development Programme introduced the concept of human security into the policy discourse in 1994,
the UN Security Council has indicated its readiness to embrace human security when it refers to, for example, the impact of
HIV/AIDS on peace and security in Africa, food security, climate change, children in armed conflict, women and peace and security,
and the protection of civilians more generally. Human security has also provided a theoretical foundation for the development
of the responsibility to protect concept as a policy agenda, which was officially endorsed in the 2005 World Summit Outcome.
However, these developments often involved heated debates over the Security Council’s mandate and competence under the UN
collective security system. By reviewing those debates, this article examines how the idea of human security has informed
the operation of the UN collective security system and to what extent jurisdictional, normative and operational challenges
to the Security Council have been addressed in dealing with human security issues within its legal framework.
This article describes the scope of authority of the UN’s Security Council in relation to international environmental decision-making and enforcement. It explains that environmental issues, especially how to allocate scare natural resources, will be an eminent issue on the future international agenda. As such, the Security Council is most apt to address these concerns internationally, despite problems relating to the veto, Council membership, and fiscal constraints.
On 17 April 2007, the United Nations Security Council held a groundbreaking open debate at the ministerial level on the relationship between energy, security, and climate. As such, the meeting emphasised the need to reflect on the linkages between climate change and international security. This article explains how the topic reached the UN Security Council, highlighting the division in the international community between those who believe that climate change is a security challenge and that it is, therefore, a legitimate issue to bring before the UN Security Council, and those who believe that climate change is rather a matter of sustainable development which should be dealt with by other UN bodies.
Gouvernance globale et sécurité collective. Quelques éléments de dissonance
- M Arcari
Conflict mediation and peacebuilding in the Sahel: the role of the Maghreb countries in an African framework
- V Baudas
Le Nazioni Unite, XI edn
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The conceptual breakthrough behind the Paris Climate Treaty
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A role for civil affairs. Community conflict resolution? MINURCATs Intercommunity Dialogue Strategy in Eastern Chad
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ed) Environmental change and international law: new challenges and dimensions
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- PC Szasz
Lake Chad: another protracted crisis or a regional exception
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Recommendations and the traditional sources of international law
- C Schreuer
Restructuring the international organizational framework
- PC Szasz
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The United Nations Security Council’s legislative and enforcement powers and climate change
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- C Ku
The warming war: how climate change is creating threats to international peace and security
- K Davies
- T Riddell
Expanding the mandate of the United Nations Security Council
- L Elliott
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- JF Green
El principio de integración de los aspectos económicos, sociales y medioambientales del desarrollo sostenibile
- Ajr Hernández
Human security and international law: the potential scope for legal development within the analytical framework of security
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Clear and present danger’: a role for the United Nations Security Council in protecting the global environment
- B Reilly