Food security

Here is a good article from the LA Times on how the conflict in Iraq has exacerbated desertification and hinders stability through decreased ability to grow food.

A couple of weeks ago NATO held an open conference on what should be included in its new strategic concept. A wide range of experts were there, underlining both the troubling trend of securitization, in which is seems just about everything has become a threat to the Alliance and its members, and the need to take many factors into consideration to ensure both hard and soft security for NATO. These include food security, energy security, economic development and many others.

Speakers included former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, LSE prof and conflict/human security scholar Mary Kaldor, and World Food Program Executive Director Josette Sheeran, among many others.

Its good to see NATO taking advice from so many sides.

Exxon and renewables?

While BP for some reason has lost its political will to go 'beyond petroleum' since the change in leadership, ExxonMobil, once the staunchest of climate change deniers, appears to be moving forward on renewables with unexpected vigor.

While BP has now chosen to invest in ethanol, which when you factor in all the carbon dioxide released in its growth, transport and production is often worse than straight up hydrocarbon fuels, Exxon is now diving full force into R&D on producing fuel from gentically engineered algae.

Read more here.

Geoffery Styles at the Energy Tribune has aome interesting and in my view encouraging thoughts on Exxon's announcement here.

Natural Security

If you're interested in the subject the Center for a New American Security, which is providing the current US administration with plenty of advice these days, has a blog called Natural Security. It's a bit dry, but a good source of information on why climate change, pollution, etc are important considerations for domestic and international security and stability.

Why has Russia been so absent from the climate change debate?

A not often discussed topic: Russia and renewable energy sources.

I'd like some more specific information on the development of renewables in Russia, but this is a good general article on the issue from the NYtimes.

Despite its massive pollution, the collapse of the Russian economy in 1992 drastically reduced its carbon emissions. However the country remains woefully inefficient in energy use and still relies heavily on manufacturing rather than services.

I suppose world leaders have other major issues on their minds such as security of energy supply rather than getting Russia to lower carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency. However more renewables in Russia would mean savings for them, more hydrocarbons to sell and more for Europe to buy.

However any major change would require political will that Russia likley just does not have at the moment.

On Western misperceptions of civil unrest in Iran and elsewhere

This is just such a good post I have to put up the link.

Friend, pollster and caustic commentator Christine Quirk wrote this excellent post on failed revolutions on her company blog, Asking Tough Questions in Tough Places. This is one of the best pieces I've seen on political struggles and the laregly useless euphoria that erupts thanks to international press and the desire of bored Europeans and Americans to become armchair activists, far removed from the realities of state brutality.

Bio-mimicry

Here are some very cool case studies about studying and basing designs of various contraptions on those found in nature to improve function and efficiency.

Thanks to novelist and women's health professional Naseem Assefi for the link.

Electricity supply

Thinking out loud...

Should the EU be more concerned than it currently is about protecting its electrical generating and distribution systems? Some working the civil infrastructure sectors seem to think the home-grown terrorist threat, while by no means enormous, does pose a growing if still small threat of attack on such facilities.

When one speaks of 'energy security', it generally conjurs up sexier issues of gas and oil supply as well as the geopolitics that inevitably accompany these depleting resources.

However electrical supply is absolutely necessary for the normal functioning of commerce as well as security apparatuses in the developed world, and key for development elsewhere.

Successful attacks on electricity supply could have enormous psychological and economic impact. However electricity can be rerouted through alternate distribution networks and damaged lines can be repaired quickly. A Successful and highly disrupted attack would require substantial planning and surveillance.

Serbian New Age Healers and Ethno-Nationalism

Here is a fascinating, if not well-written, story about war-criminal-turned-new-age-healer Radovan Karadzic.

I used to study the 20th Century conflicts in the Balkans but have since shifted focus. I had no idea the community of new age healers in Serbia is largely a community of extreme Serbian ethno-nationalists.

One higlight: The sex therapist who only wears green and was working with Karadzic to develop therapy for lethargic sperm. Apparently Karadzic has somekind of special life force he can channel between his hands.

Alas, as he is being tried as a war criminal in The Hague, Serbs have been deprived of this special service.

Psy-ops vs PR/Communications

As NATO slowly moves to improve its public messaging, who is running the psyops programs in Afghanistan?

Hearts and minds has been the buzz phrase for some time now, but Al Qaeda Franchise and Taliban propaganda efforts are still running circles around the US and NATO. These groups have launched increasingly sophisticated print and virtual media campaigns that directly address local grievances while the Western powers continue to play to their home audiences.

General McChrystal has been very busy, now ordering to troops to stop barrelling across public roads, damaging local infrastructure and scaring the locals, for example. Something certain special forces, private contractors and aid workers have been begging military personnel to stop doing for some time.

However there is still very little info on what is being done about messaging to the local population. Most of them still hate the Taliban and certainly do not trust them, however the Taliban are very successful at undermining NATO/US messaging, as they sabotage development efforts, blowing up schools we build and than fail to protect.

And really, why would Afghans trust coalition forces and aid organizations when we've failed to deliver so much over the last eight years, and every regime and invading power in the last 30 years has failed and left?

If psy-ops is running local messaging, I suspect this would be a very counterproductive approach. However even within NATO there communications are not always clear, transparent, and the Alliance's agenda sometimes even clashes with that of particular member states.

Many poles have been done among Afghans, but the international community, including humanitarian origanizations, still seem intent on ignoring them. This needs to stop. More local involvement and expertise is needed, the international presence needs to be far more coordinated and strive to achieve common goals rather than operating in a patchwork of competing spheres of influence and messaging.

Population protection and pro-active, nuanced and adaptive messaging system are absolutly key to events there taking a turn for the better.

People you never hear about

Here is another interesting article from RFE/RL on African Russians.

I never thought about the fate of all those Africans who went to study or settle in the Soviet Union, although their numbers were relatively small.

Kyrgyzstan is getting popular

It seems now that the US is staying on at its Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan, Russia wants a base there too.