Center for a New American Security

• Amidst growing water disputes, Pakistan has approached the World Bank in seeking to halt to a 775megawatt hydrological plant in India, according to Yahoo Finance.
• The State Department released the U.S.-China Joint Statement on Energy Security Cooperation.
• The Department of Energy's ARPA-E is spends $40million for "crude-free" fuel projects.
• Bees and other pollinators are critical to world food security, but many of these organisms are rapidly disappearing, according to an article posted on AlertNet.
• USAID Administrator Shah discussed food security initiatives with Bangladesh, reports The Medical News.

The big headline of the national security strategy, to me, is the major role conferred upon natural resources issues, for example reducing oil dependence, addressing climate change and food security. This NSS sets a proper path for ensuring American power in the long term: toward the intersection of natural resources and national security.

It is new to give natural resources challenges such a prominent role in mainstream U.S. strategic planning, as this National Security Strategy does. As such, mapping out new plans and ways of doing business to accommodate issues surrounding energy, climate, food and demographics is likely to be a taller task than for more traditional elements represented in this strategy.

At its heart, this document gets right that addressing energy, climate change, scarcity and environmental concerns can provide useful tools for engagement, for building governance and economic strength in partner nations, and for national security broadly. However, in many cases this will be more complicated than it may seem. Clean energy and climate change-based engagement with Indonesia, for example, must account for that country’s often contradictory goals of both producing and preserving its natural resources. The United States may wish to form cooperative relationships with Afghanistan and Pakistan to address water, energy, food and demographic stresses, but China is swiftly moving to do the same. This strategy’s objectives of managing supply chains and maintaining access to scarce commodities, if not planned carefully, could also lead to minerals policies that run counter to its emphasis on human rights, transparency in trade and rule of law. This, to me, is one of the worrisome phrases within the document:

America – like other nations – is dependent upon overseas markets to sell its exports and maintain access to scarce commodities and resources. Thus, finding overlapping mutual economic interests with other nations and maintaining those economic relationships are key elements of our national security strategy (emphasis mine).

• President Obama has extended a moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic for the remainder of the year, according to the Associated Press.
• The Washington Post talks jet fuel for U.S. military installations in Kyrgyzstan and corruption.
• Congress is taking steps to confront the trade of conflict minerals, such as coltan, tin, gold and wolframite, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, reports theHuffington Post. 
• A nod to our friends at Naval Air Station Fort Worth, Texas who have made strides in boosting their energy and water efficiencies, seen in this Star-Telegram article.
• The United States may extend technical assistance programs in energy to the Ukraine, reports UPI.

• According to the Associated Press, China and Brazil may establish a bond over Chinese assistance exploiting Brazilian Coltan mines.
• USAID's Famine Early Warning System Network released its 2010 April through September outlook for food security in Somalia.
• Check out BBC's audio track discussing the role rare earth metals play in the economy, the environment and technology.
• The New York Times' Green blog discusses the release of the United Nations's Biodiversity Outlook 3, which shows declines across the board.
• The nine Nile states of Africa are likely to come to an agreement over water usage, reports The National.

Friday brings the conclusion of Yemen Week for the blog as well as the long awaited Photo of the Week.

As the coastal waters near Yemen continue to witness acts of Somali piracy, international forces continue their efforts to police the Gulf and surrounding waters, an area roughly four times the size of Texas. The above photo features a member of the U.S. Coast Guard gathering navigational information from Yemini fishermen to assist in U.S. anti-piracy efforts. A cooperative relationship with local populations, especially the fishermen who navigate the waters off Yemen’s coastline, could prove to be an important asset in overall U.S. goals in the region, a fact that other nations patrolling the Gulf of Aden may have recently learned the hard way.

Could aid dependency undermine efforts to bring stability to Yemen? Amid growing instability associated with acute water scarcity, dwindling oil revenue, continued calls for secession from the South, and conflict in the North between al-Houthi-led militias and government soldiers, many Yemenis – at least 175,000 – have been internally displaced and taken refuge in temporary camps where they may find a modicum of relief with access to food, water, and other aid rations. And given the government’s inability to provide, in many cases, the most basic public services, many of the displaced people are not looking to go home – at least any time soon.

In Yemen, unsustainable natural resource management and agricultural practices and a dependence on oil revenue to sustain otherwise expensive water extraction may be precursors to more extensive environmental collapse that could undermine Yemen’s economic development and stability if the government does not improve its environmental stewardship. Already these issues have led, in part, to low-level conflict and left many Yemenis without access to food, water, and other vital resources to sustain their own livelihoods. These dynamics are part of what’s driven many Yemenis from their homes to internally displaced person (IDP) camps.

In honor of Yemen Week here on the blog we wanted to to bring to your attention an oldie but a goodie, a super interesting 5 Questions with Someone Interesting over water issues and Yemen between Natural Security blogger Will Rogers and Gregory Johnsen, former Fulbright Fellow in Yemen and Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton. 

Without any further introduction, let's get to the questions. . . again.

Yemen is becoming one of the most closely watched countries in the Middle East; ranked 18th in Foreign Policy’s “Failed State Index.” And one of the issues that we have been curious about here in the Natural Security program is how Yemen’s water crisis is combining with existing trends in Yemen to undermine stability and contribute to violence. I recently spoke with Gregory Johnsen, a Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern studies at Princeton University and a former Fulbright Fellow in Yemen, who spoke with me about his experiences and helped me better understand the interplay between Yemen’s water scarcity and the myriad security challenges there. 

Johnsen has written for a variety of publications including Foreign Policy, The American Interest, the Christian Science Monitor, the Boston Globe and West Point's CTC Sentinel. He is also a co-contributor to Waq al-Waq, a blog that offers nuanced analyses of Yemen’s history and political affairs.

Rogers: As a Fulbright Fellow you spent your time in Yemen and were able to see firsthand how severe water scarcity engages existing issues, such as a weak central government and rising population growth, to contribute to instability and violence. Then you returned and co-authored this great piece in Foreign Policy back in February aptly titled “The Wells Run Dry.” I’m curious – how have you seen the situation in Yemen change since you published this article?

• Bhutan could be at risk of a tsunami. . . from the mountains, as glacial melt continues, according to Reuters.
• Check out The Wall Street Journal  to see how Saudi Arabia is using all that oil wealth to boost its food production with desert farms.
• CNET News reports that rare earth mineral recycling may be the key to ensuring a green tech future amidst low supplies and high costs.
• Love nerdy graphs and maps? You'll love the new global resource management visualizer from USAID. Check out an overview on The New Security Beat.
• The U.N. appoints a new climate chief, according to Reuters.

To round out Af-Pak week, we're serving up a picture of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to Washington.We think it's important to note that the president's visit will be about more than meetings with President Obama to build relations and support "frank" discussions on the war. President Karzai's spokesperson, Waheed Omer, stated last Tuesday that "there are a dozen of our cabinet ministers and other important government figures here who will be talking to their U.S. counterparts, taken from agriculture to energy to mines."

Yesterday I swung by CSIS for their fifth installment of their Game Changers and Visionaries series. The topic at hand yesterday had been innovations in the energy sector and what opportunities await us. 

The panel consisted of a wide array of energy innovators, including: Michael Grandoff, Head of Oil Independence Policies at Better Place; Josh Richman, Director of Business Development at BloomEnergy; Craig Hansen, Babcock & Wilcox’s VP of Nuclear Manufacturing (who seemed to be selling his company like he was Vince Offer, of ShamWow fame); and William B. Bonvillian, Director of MIT’s Washington office.

After using the opportunity to pick the panel’s collective brain about supply chain issues and exploring how they could affect the American energy revolution they were predicting (not to mention foreign relations and national security), I was met with a resounding response of “it’s a problem.”

With concerns over critical minerals, the recently introduced Military Energy Security Act and the Natural Security Blog’s Af-Pak week stirring around in my head, I was reminded of my CNAS co-worker (and cubical buddy), Matt Irvine’s guest blog post on minerals in Waziristan. Realizing there’d be no better time to call his piece back to your attention than a week focused on Natural Security concerns in Afghanistan and Pakistan, I’d like to reintroduce Breaking the Safe Haven: Minerals in Waziristan.

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Daniel Saraceno, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Research Intern

PHOTO: Courtesy of Wikimedia

Yesterday’s attack on the U.S. consulate in Peshawar has brought the insurgency in western Pakistan back into the headlines. The consulate serves as the headquarters for ongoing American assistance programs in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and is a symbol of U.S.-Pakistani cooperation.

The FATA, specifically North and South Waziristan provinces, remains “al-Qaeda’s principal sanctuary” and hosts a syndicate of regional insurgent networks. The United States and Pakistan have increased pressure on militants in the lawless region during the last two years but have yet to solidify a permanent presence to counter militant influence. American foreign assistance and Pakistani development efforts offer the potential to deny the Taliban and its al Qaeda affiliated allies control over critical infrastructure and the local economy.

In remarks last week, Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan, the commander of the Pakistani Frontier Corps, lobbied for increased development efforts in the tribal areas, saying that “the world mustn’t neglect the area as it did after the 1989 Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, or it could fall prey again to al Qaeda and its allies.”

Development and maintenance of an extractive mineral industry could revolutionize the Waziristan economy and infrastructure in the long-term. Indeed, ongoing efforts in Afghanistan must be matched “across the border in FATA” according to Barnett Rubin and Abubakar Siddique in a 2006 USIP report. “FATA’s isolation can be broken only by improving its infrastructure…Proper utilization of several known mineral deposits in FATA will result in the growth of labor-intensive mining and manufacturing industries in marbles and precious stones.”