Climate Change as Global Security Threat

Author : Shrila Pokhariyal

Source : OpinioJuris

Introduction

Climate change has made it more difficult for both humankind and wildlife to survive. Increased and more destructive droughts, storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, melting ice caps, and increase in global temperatures are directly injuring animals, ruining their habitats, and having a disastrous impact on people's lives and societies. It's worth noting that there are interrelated effects of climate change on both traditional and global security. Climate change is not only a concern to human security since it puts human lives in peril, but it has also emerged as a major driver of migration and ongoing conflicts, both of which are serious security risks. Concerns about the implications of climate change have grown as fresh scientific evidence becomes available and global actors see its immediate consequences in environmental catastrophes.

 

The world is on course for 2022 to be between the fourth and eighth warmest year since records began in the middle of the 1850s, following a marginally colder 2021 on the surface of the Earth. The first quarter of 2022 has seen unprecedented warming in a variety of places, including record-breaking heatwaves in both poles, despite the fact that it is just the fifth warmest year in history. In March 2022, temperatures in parts of southern Asia, including much of China and India, reached record highs.

Read more at :https://oijpcr.org/archive/Climate-Change-as-Global-Security-Threat/6374dd6b9e61032c9e5d4fce
*Shrila Pokhariyal is a Post Graduate Student from AIIS, Amity University, Noida.

ONE YEAR OF TALIBAN: AFGHANISTAN BACK ON A HELTER-SKELTER TRACK

Author : Shahbaaz Manzoor

Source : Reaction

Even after America`s lock, stock, and barrel intervention for the past two decades in Afghanistan, it was never seen as an issue “all settled up”. But a lot had been achieved on the fronts like democracy, women's rights, girl education and infrastructure development. After Kabul`s fall to the Taliban on August 15th 2021, Afghanistan has entered a new phase of chaos and despotism. The impertinence of women rights, crackdown on media and a massive economic collapse has marked Taliban 2.0`s first year in office. The international community must continue to put pressure on the Taliban regime to correct its ways so that its credibility is reinstated in the war-marred Afghan community. If failed to do so, the world, especially the regional countries must stay equipped to deal with a wobbly and dangerous Afghanistan. This article attempts to evaluate the perils that can emerge from an unstable Afghanistan.

Background                                                        

In 2011, when President Obama declared that The United States would withdraw its forces from Afghanistan it was imminent that the war hit country would be overrun by the Taliban. They represent the predominant Pashtun tribe which comprises of more than 40% of the Afghan population, and has always enjoyed massive popularity in the country. Ever since its inception in early 1990`s, Taliban has been adhering to an unrecorded tribal code called the Pashtunwali-defining the lifestyle and ethos of the Pashtuns. It is in fact a pronouncement in this tribal code called “Dob-pasbani” which advocates the protecting of the Pashtun culture and standing by the side of Pashtun tribes (irrespective of all past enmities) if it is attacked by foreign forces or invaders. 

 

Women Rights- The Biggest Concern 

Women have borne the maximum brunt by the Taliban rule, though they have been continuously portraying that they are willing to provide equal educational opportunities to the women but is this actually happening on ground? After taking over Kabul, it was announced that education beyond 6th standard would be suspended for both boys and girls, citing that more time was needed to revise the curriculum. The schools reopened as announced but only for boys. The Minister for Education, Nurulla Munir said that only after creating a safe environment for the girls in educational institutions, they can return to the schools. Interior Minister of Afghanistan Sirajuddin Haqqani, in a recent interview to CNN, when asked when girls can get back to schools, said, that there are few shortcomings, and the government is working on a mechanism to overcome the same. All these seem to be mere excuses manifesting Taliban`s nonseriousness in providing education to girls.  

It is not only education but also the issue of job opportunities for women. Till now, Taliban hasn`t included any women in their cabinet or in their administrational set up. So, what is the future of women in Afghanistan, even when they receive education? On the streets of Kabul women activists have been protesting Taliban`s ill rule, calling it draconian. Mounting anger would eventually lead to more protests and the unwrapping of another human rights crisis in the country.   

Read more at : https://oijpcr.org/archive/ONE-YEAR-OF-TALIBAN:-AFGHANISTAN-BACK-ON-A-HELTER-SKELTER-TRACK/635d73c29e61032c9e5d4dc3

*Shahbaaz Manzoor is a Post Graduate Student from AIIS, Amity University, Noida.