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UN Chronicle - Volume 50, Issue 2, 2013
Volume 50, Issue 2, 2013
A must-read for every concerned world citizen, the United Nations Chronicle is a quarterly, easy-to-read report on the work of the United Nations and its agencies. Produced by the United Nations Department of Public Information, every issue covers a wide range of United Nations related activities: from fighting the drug war to fighting racial discrimination, from relief and development to nuclear disarmament, terrorism, and the worldwide environmental crisis.
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At the crossroads of climate change and global security
Authors: Hans Joachim Schellnhuber and Daniel KlingenfeldRecent extreme events witnessed around the world are drastically visible reminders of ongoing environmental perturbations on our planet, many of which are linked to global climate change. The last decade has seen an exceptional number of extreme heatwaves with resulting severe consequences. The 2010 Russian heatwave is estimated to have cost the lives of 55,000 people and destroyed 25 per cent of the country’s annual crop. In the United States, the drought in 2012 has been the most severe since the 1930s, impacting about 80 per cent of agricultural land. Hurricane Sandy was yet another stark showcase of the forces of nature and our vulnerability in the face of destabilized weather and climate patterns.
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Towards cyberpeace: Managing cyberwar through international cooperation
Author: Anna-Maria TalihärmThe ubiquitous use of information and communication technologies (ICT) serves both as an enabler of growth and innovation as well as the source of asymmetrical cyberthreats. Around the globe, about 2 million people are connected to the Internet, and the use of the Internet and ICT-enabled services is becoming more and more an indispensible part of our everyday lives. With the increasing dependence on ICT and the interlinked nature with critical infrastructure, we have become alarmingly vulnerable to possible disruption and exploitation by malicious cyberactivities.
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Fighting the industrialization of cybercrime
Author: Victoria BainesFive years is a very long time in cybercrime. In this period, we have witnessed the maturity of the digital underground economy, the emergence of hacktivism and the rise of botnets.
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Cyberconflicts and national security
Author: Bruce SchneierWhenever national cybersecurity policy is discussed, the same stories come up again and again. Whether the examples are called acts of cyberwar, cyberespionage, hacktivism, or cyberterrorism, they all affect national interest, and there is a corresponding call for some sort of national cyberdefence.
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A state-building approach to the drug trade problem
Author: Vanda Felbab-BrownThe United Nations Security Council has increasingly highlighted organized crime, particularly drug trafficking, as requiring the coordinated focus of various United Nations bodies and the Secretary-General. The escalation of drug trade-related violence in Mexico and Central America where inadequate rule of law institutions have been overwhelmed by intense organized crime; the emergence of drug smuggling in West Africa, which contributes to its cauldron of other illegal economies and poor governance; and the deep penetration of drug trafficking into the political and economic life in Afghanistan and Pakistan have all captured policy attention.
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National security and pandemics
Author: Sara E. DaviesPandemics are for the most part disease outbreaks that become widespread as a result of the spread of human-to-human infection. 1 Beyond the debilitating, sometimes fatal, consequences for those directly affected, pandemics have a range of negative social, economic and political consequences. These tend to be greater where the pandemic is a novel pathogen, has a high mortality and/or hospitalization rate and is easily spread. According to Lee Jong-wook, former Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), pandemics do not respect international borders.2 Therefore, they have the potential to weaken many societies, political systems and economies simultaneously.
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Challenges to biosecurity from advances in the life sciences
Author: Sergio BoninThis article summarizes the results of a qualitative risk assessment project on the biosecurity implications of developments in synthetic biology and nanobiotechnology carried out by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI).
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The evolution and challenges of security within cities
Author: Franz VanderschuerenUrban security, understood as the absence of a serious threat with regards to criminality and the subjective perception of protection, today depends on various structural and local factors.
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Cities and security: Matters of everyday relations
Author: AbdouMaliq SimoneCities throughout the world regardless of location have become fast-lane conduits of money being put into buildings and other infrastructure. Levels of such investments may be inadequate and vastly inappropriate in some cities. They overreach available consumption and markets in others, but generally make cities more proficient in coordinating the sheltering, transporting, powering, marketing, producing, networking and information that make them enhancers of value. This proficiency does not lessen the prolonged and even growing misery of large segments of urban populations. It does not mitigate the dangers of carbon footprints and resource depletion driven by the dependence on fossil fuels and the exorbitant sunk and recurring costs incurred by sprawl and segregation. It does not make employment more secure or improve working conditions. Despite all of this, contemporary urban infrastructure continues to convey a promise of a better and more secure life.
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New security risks and challenges for consuls
Author: Arnold FooteThe rapidly changing global environment affects the nature of the work done by consuls and the conditions under which they work. Among the significant challenges that consuls face globally is the emergence of new security risks that threaten peace, security and development. The events of 11 September 2012 in Benghazi, Libya, have brought into sharp focus the new security environment in many countries. Events like these have led the international community and individual states, as well as groups of countries, to evaluate the security risks in diplomatic and consular missions and to propose sweeping new changes. These policy and strategic changes constitute part of the conceptual redefinition of international and national security.
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