ECSP Blog Explores Today's New Security Threats

Security is much more than fighting terrorism or weapons of mass destruction. For the past 13 years, the Woodrow Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) has worked to redefine security to include environmental, ecological, and demographic issues. From population growth to water scarcity and degraded ecosystems, these crucial and timely issues are today's new security threats. But the connections among population, environment, and security are complex, and despite their importance, these new security issues are often misunderstood or misinterpreted.

Offering insight into these crucial connections is The New Security Beat, ECSP's blog, which provides frequent updates and commentary on the latest news, reports, and resources on population, environment, and security. Recent posts have covered the awarding of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate and Change and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore; the House Committee on Science and Technology's recent hearing on the security impacts of climate change; and the security implications of the unprecedented melting of the Arctic ice sheet. The New Security Beat's contributors include ECSP staff members, as well as guest commentators such as Major Shannon Beebe (USA) and Department of Defense Policy Planning Consultant Jennifer Dabbs Sciubba.

The New Security Beat also features an original podcast series with Wilson Center speakers. Recent podcasts include: UNAIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot on the future of the global response to HIV/AIDS; retired colonel and professor of geography Kent Hughes Butts on the environmental security field; and lead author of UNFPA's State of World Population 2007 report George Martine on the implications of urbanization.