Exploring Resource Security Policy and Green Science and Technology in Asia
Abstract
Contemporary scientific and technological developments in Asia provide an important context with which to understand the ongoing intellectual and policy debates defining the global security environment and the institutional and structural future of global politics. One primary node of the discourse revolves around the modern state and its ability to provide security and prosperity for its citizens in a hyper connected world burdened with growing transsovereign concerns. There is growing consensus in the literature that the state is undergoing transformation as it responds to challenges that are specifically global in scope. One such concern is resource scarcity. The combined pressures of globalization, economic growth, population increase, urbanization and climate change are driving the enormous demand for water, energy and food, but supplies of these resources are rapidly dwindling. Three conditions underpin resource scarcity as a national strategic priority. First, most of these resources are existential in nature water, energy and food are essential to life and therefore directly impact human security. State provision of these resources to its citizenry is a core national interest. Second, resource scarcity is interwoven with environmental concerns derived from climate change, itself an emerging global security issue because of its potentially catastrophic impact on the planet. And third, existing solutions to resource scarcity (political, economic, environmental, technoscientific) do not preclude local and/or global conflicts from happening in the future.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- AD1032418
Entities
People
- Virginia B. Watson
Organizations
- Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies