Center for a New American Security

Foreign Policy examines whether recent actions indicate a new proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia in Yemen, including natural security themes of waterway control and energy politics.

Oil exploration is continuing in the disputed waters of the Bay of Bengal. Bangladesh awarded contracts to U.S. and Irish companies, according to the BBC.

For this week’s Reading Old Magazines I decided to focus on minerals, given the news pieces yesterday on rare earth materials. I chose one with a great title from the journal Economic Geography, “The Changing Relation of Natural Resources to National Security,” by Harold J. Barnett, a senior economist at RAND, Washington University economics professor, author of many books and articles on economics and natural resources, and a director at Resources for the Future when he wrote this article.

Environmental journalist and author Michael Grunwald, writing in Foreign Policy’s special report Oil: the Long Goodbye, takes on the “Seven Myths About Alternative Energy.” Grunwald is less sanguine on the prospects for using alternative energy sources such as biofuels, solar, and nuclear power than using energy efficiency and conservation to reduce fossil fuel reliance and greenhouse gas emissions. Regardless of the efficacy of the seven now-common alternative energy narratives that the author identifies, the Department of Defense, the largest U.S. energy consumer, is moving along with many relevant plans and purchases. Let’s take a look at how DOD activities align with Grunwald’s piece.

Natural security issues are gaining major traction in the media lately, most notably a cover feature on oil in Foreign Policy magazine and climate change taking the spotlight on the cover of the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs. To celebrate, over the next few weeks the Natural Security Blog will review and expand upon the issues raised by these publications, with the goal of identifying the U.S. national security implications of the ideas presented. Please feel free to comment on our posts or email us as we do so, as we sincerely hope that this new spotlight on topics of natural security sparks a new and vigorous debate about them. As today's title indicates, the first installment adds a security angle to an FP piece on national oil companies.

Flying jet-skis, melted icecaps, a mutant sailor, and a cartographic tattoo can mean only one thing: it’s time to review Waterworld, the Oscar-nominated cinematic marvel out of 1995. Following a seafaring Kevin Costner with a penchant for underwater respiration, the film envisages a future Earth beset by catastrophic climate change, where dirt is the world’s most valuable commodity and terra firma exists only in myth. But before moving to assess the natural security lessons in the film, qualifications of the scientific and artistic merit are in order.

Humvees burn through fuel quickly and leave more than tire tracks in their wake. Acknowledging the impact that high energy demand can have on operational effectiveness and broader strategic aims, the United States Marine Corps has recently taken steps to address the service’s challenges with operation fuel use. At the first ever USMC Energy Summit on 13 August, Commandant of the Marine Corps General James T. Conway called for greater battlefield efficiency and continued progress in creating “net-zero” installations, which when finished will produce as much energy as they consume. Following up on initiatives announced at the summit, Marines in Afghanistan began a battlefield energy audit this week to determine areas of improvement in energy efficiency.

Photo: Humvees stand parked at Patrol Base Jaker in the Nawa district of Afghanistan's Helmand province. Courtesy of Staff Sergeant William Greeson and the Department of Defense.

For the past several months the American media has grown increasingly fascinated with Mexico, with widespread coverage of the swine flu outbreak in April and May as a top news item. However, American media and the policy community – including CNAS’ own Col. Robert Killebrew – have been increasingly focused on Mexico’s struggle to contain drug-related violence and the growing power of cartels. Earlier this year, the violence reached such extreme levels that there was increasing talk of Mexico reaching failed state status. While this conversation has abated, a recent resurgence in cartel-related violence may reignite that debate and offer an opportunity to broaden the discussion to include other issues engaging recent events in Mexico.

Last week, Secretary of State Clinton’s remarks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) shed fresh light on the exploitation of the country’s vast mineral resources which has helped fuel civil conflict and aggravate international tensions for the last decade. Urging reform, Secretary Clinton emphasized the need for all Congolese people to benefit from its vast resource wealth rather than just a few, and called for an end to exploitation from “outside corporations or countries that extract the riches and leave with them without really putting back the commensurate investment in the country.” And for the Department of Defense (DoD), understanding the illegal minerals trade and ensuing conflict will help the military prepare for strategic challenges that lie ahead in this volatile region of Africa.

Turkey has long reaped the benefits as an energy-transit country, connecting Caspian and Central Asian producers of oil and natural gas with European consumers, raising its geopolitical profile as a global energy hub. But Turkey has started to expand its geopolitical role by leveraging other natural resources to its advantage. And as an upstream state with access to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Turkey is starting to see the benefits of using water as a tool to influence Middle East politics, especially in Iraq.

I had an opportunity to speak with David Axe, a military correspondent with Wired Magazine’s Danger Room and a regular contributor to warisboring.com, to discuss a variety of natural security issues and the evolving role of the U.S. military in responding to climate-related disasters and relief. Axe is a contributing editor at World Politics Review, Warships International Fleet Review and Eurasia Critic, and a regular contributor to The Washington Times and C-SPAN. He has traveled extensively throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East, reporting from a number of war zones, including Afghanistan, Chad, East Timor, Gabon, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Nicaragua and Somalia, where his experiences have informed his understanding of how violent conflicts are linked to poor environmental stewardship and natural resource scarcity.

The Sunday New York Times reported – front-page, above the fold – that climate change is a threat to U.S. national security. John Broder, writing for the Times, reported that “the changing global climate will pose profound challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics.” The story elicited numerous responses this week from both proponents and skeptics of the notion that climate change is a threat to U.S. security.