The first decade of the 21st century has offered ample evidence that narrow definitions of national security, focused on hard security and state-level interaction, are no longer adequate tools with which to understand the world. While nation-states remain the central actors on the world stage, many of the most pressing problems facing the global community—from climate change and migration to terrorism, trafficking to disease, and resource conflicts to food security—transcend international borders and resist one-dimensional, military solutions.
Tom Daschle, a former Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate and leading Democratic politician, captured this new environment in an April 2012 speech at the Center for American Progress. Daschle argued that, “We are increasingly not only connected, but integrated. Catastrophic events or the effects of climate change far from home can disrupt farming, cause famine and scarcity, and present consequences—through spikes in food prices, famine, and political unrest—which reverberate through the international system.”
In the coming decades, the nexus of climate change, human migration, and conflict or insecurity will increasingly threaten humanity’s shared interests and collective security in many parts of the world, disproportionately affecting the globe’s least developed countries. Changing environmental conditions will render traditional livelihoods unsustainable in some areas.
These cumulative effects will have serious implications for the stability of nations that lack the resources, good governance, and resilience needed to respond to the many adverse consequences of climate change and human mobility. Given the integration Senator Daschle and many others have identified, it will fall to the United States and other responsible global stakeholders to construct effective multilateral structures with which to avoid conflict, mitigate the worst impacts, and react to disasters.
Unfortunately, the United States’ national security and foreign policy apparatus is not adequately prepared to address these new challenges. The tools used to execute this policy (hard power, military assistance, diplomatic exchange, and development aid, to name a few) are still poorly integrated and separated by long-standing institutional barriers. Additionally, these tools are largely organized based on bilateral relationships, while regional strategies—crucial to solving transnational problems—are lacking. Finally, the United States continues to place far too much emphasis on hard power and military force, driven in large part by deeply entrenched domestic political constituencies which protect Pentagon resources and shortchange other forms of foreign interaction.
To its credit, the Obama administration has begun adapting to this reality by pushing a series of policy reviews and institutional adjustments designed to establish a more progressive definition of security. These processes focus on tearing down outdated institutional divides, targeting assistance to improve human security and protect livelihoods, and strengthening the United States’ ability to compel collective action to address fundamental problems through multilateral systems.
But transforming the structure and emphasis of U.S. foreign interactions is no easy task, and these efforts are still in their infancy. More and broader effort is needed to reckon with the nexus of climate change, human migration, and conflict or insecurity. These intersecting trends will present the United States and its allies with a primary challenge in the coming decades, but also offer an opportunity—a test case—for the United States and responsible partners to fashion a more progressive system of international governance.
Michael Werz is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Max Hoffman is a Research Assistant at the Center. For more on the complex crises outlined above and the U.S. and international response, visit the Center for American Progress’ new website—featuring a framing paper and first regional study, along with interactive maps and expert video interviews.
