New Missions, New Challenges: 2005–2008

2019 ◽  
pp. 133-156
Author(s):  
Thomas Fingar

Thomas Fingar’s chairmanship began with two overriding challenges: to implement the intelligence reforms of 2004–5 and to repair the damage to the National Intelligence Council’s credibility in the aftermath of the Iraqi WMD debacle. The reforms had created the position of director of national intelligence (DNI), with a large mandate but no staff, and much of the day-to-day analytic support that formerly would have been done by CIA now fell to the NIC—a major shift from its traditional role in strategic analysis. Ironically, in seeking to restore the NIC’s credibility, Fingar found himself in another controversy—this time over an NIE on Iranian WMD that seemed to downplay the threat. Fingar offers a detailed rebuttal of those charges and examines the larger question of the often-fraught relationship between the intelligence community and the Congress. Finally, the NIC produced both a path-breaking analysis of the security implications of climate change, and Global Trends 2025, which took the series to a higher level.

2009 ◽  
Vol 160 (7) ◽  
pp. 195-200
Author(s):  
Reto Hefti

In the mountainous canton Grisons, much visited by tourists, the forest has always had an important role to play. New challenges are now presenting themselves. The article goes more closely into two themes on the Grisons forestry agenda dominating in the next few years: the increased use of timber and climate change. With the increased demand for logs and the new sawmill in Domat/Ems new opportunities are offered to the canton for more intensive use of the raw material, wood. This depends on a reduction in production costs and a positive attitude of the population towards the greater use of wood. A series of measures from the Grisons Forestry Department should be of help here. The risk of damage to infrastructure is particularly high in a mountainous canton. The cantonal government of the Grisons has commissioned the Forestry Department to define the situation concerning the possible consequences of global warming on natural hazards and to propose measures which may be taken. The setting up of extensive measurement and information systems, the elaboration of intervention maps, the estimation of the danger potential in exposed areas outside the building zone and the maintenance of existing protective constructions through the creation of a protective constructions register, all form part of the government programme for 2009 to 2012. In the Grisons, forest owners and visitors will have to become accustomed to the fact that their forests must again produce more wood and that, on account of global warming, protective forests will become even more important than they already are today.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-458
Author(s):  
Charmagne E. Campbell-Patton ◽  
Michael Quinn Patton

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew E. Kahn

Climate change could significantly reduce the quality of life for poor people in Asia. Extreme heat and drought, and the increased incidence of natural disasters will pose new challenges for the urban poor and rural farmers. If farming profits decline, urbanization rates will accelerate and the social costs of rapid urbanization could increase due to rising infectious disease rates, pollution, and congestion. This paper studies strategies for reducing the increased social costs imposed on cities by climate change.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conor D. Mallory ◽  
Mark S. Boyce

The ability of many species to adapt to the shifting environmental conditions associated with climate change will be a key determinant of their persistence in the coming decades. This is a challenge already faced by species in the Arctic, where rapid environmental change is well underway. Caribou and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) play a key role in Arctic ecosystems and provide irreplaceable socioeconomic value to many northern peoples. Recent decades have seen declines in many Rangifer populations, and there is strong concern that climate change is threatening the viability of this iconic Arctic species. We examine the literature to provide a thorough and full consideration of the many environmental factors that limit caribou and reindeer populations, and how these might be affected by a warming climate. Our review suggests that the response of Rangifer populations to climate change is, and will continue to be, varied in large part to their broad circumpolar distribution. While caribou and reindeer could have some resilience to climate change, current global trends in abundance undermine all but the most precautionary outlooks. Ultimately, the conservation of Rangifer populations will require careful management that considers the local and regional manifestations of climate change.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14(63) (1) ◽  
pp. 129-136
Author(s):  
Kateryna VASYLKOVSKA ◽  
Oleksii VASYLKOVSKYI ◽  
Svitlana POPOVA ◽  
Valentyna Malakhovska

"The production and yield of grain crops in Ukraine from 2000 to 2019 was analysed in the article. The comparative analysis of gross harvest and export of grain during these years was carried out and the dependence of exports on gross harvest and its share was determined. The results point out that the export of grain crops has increased over the years under research, which indicates Ukraine’s significant export potential. Thus, leaving for the needs of the country from 16.0 to 36.6 million tons of grain (on average, 25.9 million tons), Ukrainian farmers export an average of 40.7% of the crop. During the period from 2000 to 2019, the gross harvest of grains in the country averaged 48.4 million tons resulting in the annual potential share of exports of at least 22.4 million tons. It was also found that the increase in the share of exports was made possible by a qualitative change in yield, which was due to the changes in crop growing technology. However, with global warming and climate change, new challenges for agricultural producers are emerging. The recommendations were given in order to improve the crop growing technology that will allow to overcome these challenges, further increase yields and Ukraine's export potential. "


Author(s):  
Irene Antoni-Komar ◽  
Marina Beermann ◽  
Hedda Schattke

The aim of this paper is to evaluate how CEMIS could be enhanced to cope with impacts caused by climate change. In our time, firms have to deal with the resulting challenges such as increasing complexity and dynamics of the environment. By developing cultural competences, firms will be empowered to handle these new challenges appropriately. CEMIS itself as a managerial tool has an excellent potential to increase organizational resilience against vulnerabilities due to impacts caused by climate change. CEMIS could provide climate change scenarios for different impacts in global and regional dimensions. Scenarios as alternative images of how the future might unfold are an appropriate tool to analyze how driving forces may influence future emission outcomes and to assess the associated uncertainties and risks. They assist in climate change analysis, including climate modeling and the assessment of impacts, adaptation and mitigation. Theoretical enlargements of the CEMIS concept will be discussed by resilience thinking, which is promising for CEMIS because of its turning away from the equilibrium assumption, its widespread comprehension of the environment and its influences, its assumption of flexibility and adaptiveness through the adaptive capacity. The discussion will be exemplified by firms from the food industry, which are highly vulnerable towards direct and also indirect impacts caused by climate change along certain supply chains. Changing qualities and quantities of resources, temporary shortage of resources or conflicts between energy and food can all have drastic effects on firms in the food industry. Supported by CEMIS as a critical information system, emerging conflicts due to changing societal and cultural processes can be recognized sensitively, reflected critically, and reconfigured creatively to the aim of sustainable strategic management. Based on the theory of social practice and the competence theory of the firm, the development of cultural competences, as an integral part of the practical intelligibility of firms and as a learning concept for adaptive capacity, enables firms to handle these new challenges in times of expanding uncertainty and risk appropriately.


2019 ◽  
pp. 198-208
Author(s):  
Gregory Treverton

The story of the National Intelligence Council is also the story of strategic analysis, and so a number of themes recur. One is relevance. Especially before the NIC acquired the current intelligence support mission, NIC chairs sought to make national intelligence estimates and other products more readable and timely, and looked for other ways to reach out to policy officials. Credibility has been relevance’s twin, and NIC chairs have not been strangers to criticism—not least over the 2002 Iraq and 2007 Iran nuclear estimates. Over time, the NIC’s focus and method evolved to include more concentration on terrorism and China, and reaching out to expertise outside the government for work on climate, values, food, water, and more, and in preparing Global Trends. As this story concludes, the need for strategic intelligence to tell truth to power is at least as great as in Truman’s time.


Author(s):  
Christian W. McMillen

There will be more pandemics. A pandemic might come from an old, familiar foe such as influenza or might emerge from a new source—a zoonosis that makes its way into humans, perhaps. The epilogue asks how the world will confront pandemics in the future. It is likely that patterns established long ago will re-emerge. But how will new challenges, like climate change, affect future pandemics and our ability to respond? Will lessons learned from the past help with plans for the future? One thing is clear: in the face of a serious pandemic much of the developing world’s public health infrastructure will be woefully overburdened. This must be addressed.


Author(s):  
Avi Brisman ◽  
Nigel South

Criminology must maintain relevance in a changing world and engage with new challenges. Perhaps pre-eminent among those facing the planet today are threats to the natural environment and, by extension, to human health and rights and to other species. A green criminology has emerged as a (now well established) criminological perspective that addresses a wide range of harms, offences, and crimes related to the environment and environmental victims. This chapter provides a review of green criminological work on climate change, consumption and waste, state-corporate and organized crimes, animal abuse, and wildlife trafficking. It also considers the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches to regulation and control.


Global Jurist ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Jacometti

Abstract This essay highlights the major global trends and critical issues that emerged so far in climate change litigation, through the analysis of some significant cases in different jurisdictions. Climate cases involve different actors and a wide variety of claims: claims challenging specific projects or activities; lawsuits dealing with damages caused by climate change-related events and seeking compensation and/or injunctions; cases aiming at amending key features of national climate change policy and legislation. Finally, the essay identifies some trends in the very heterogeneous body of arguments that are brought before the courts, including obligations arising from international and human rights law.


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