The nascent field of environmental security better be ready for prime time, because this front-page NYT story on Sunday is sure to inject the national security/climate change nexus into the public debate. It'll be interesting to see how the leading environmental security advocates respond to John Broder's NYT article. (Keep an eye here and here.) I'll wager that they are overjoyed by the sudden spotlight but also nervous about having to defend climate change as their premier issue. To understand their dilemma, all you need to do is read Broder's opening graph:
The changing global climate will pose profound strategic 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, military and intelligence analysts say.
Guess what: violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics already occur without climate change. (They always have throughout ...
