Global Responses to Global Threats: Sustainable Security for the 21st Century

This major report was the result of an 18-month long research project examining the various threats to global security, and sustainable responses to those threats.

Current security policies assume international terrorism to be the greatest threat to global security, and attempt to maintain the status quo and control insecurity through the projection of military force. The authors argue that the failure of this approach has been clearly demonstrated during the last five years of the 'war on terror' and it is distracting governments from the real threats that humanity faces.

Unless urgent action is taken within the next five to ten years, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to avoid a highly unstable global system by the middle years of the century.

Contents

1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction: A Clear and Present Danger?
3. Climate Change
   • The Social Impacts of Climate Change
   • Nuclear is not the Answer
   • Renewable Energy
4. Competition Over Resources
   • The Resource Shift
   • Oil and US Security
   • Water Politics
5. Marginalisation of the Majority World
   • The Security Implications of HIV/AIDS
   • Socio-economic Divisions
   • The 'War on Terror'
6. Global Militarisation
   • Forces in Transition
   • The 9/11 Attacks and After
   • Weapons of Mass Destruction
7. Discussion: The Way Forward
8. Glossary

This report was published as part of our Moving towards sustainable security [1] project.

The report has also been published in Thai by Kobfai Publishing Project - if you would like to order a copy, please email [2] the publisher.