421. Ecological and Non-traditional Security Challenges in South Asia

Shanghai crowd

By The National Bureau of Asian Research, June 2011

SUMMARY

In this new NBR Special Report, a team of experts assess nontraditional security threats in South Asia and explore how these threats challenge the region's traditional security environment.

Dennis Pirages (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) sets the stage with an explanation of nontraditional security crises, demonstrating that global climate change and resulting demographic shifts represent areas of greater insecurity than do conventional military threats.

Farooq Sobhan (Bangladesh Enterprise Institute) discusses allocations of military spending in South Asia and poses that a major shift toward prioritizing food security, global health, and environmental protection remains challenging in the absence of political will.

Li Li (China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations) points out that both China and South Asia face many of the same human security challenges, including resource access and protracted poverty.

Stacy D. VanDeveer (University of New Hampshire) argues that nontraditional security challenges will catch U.S. attention only when perceived to threaten regional stability or U.S. security interests in South Asia.

Read the full report.

Tracy Timmons-Gray

The National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR)

Seattle, WA