Photo via Pat Dollard
On subject of ‘pirates’…
From MIT Press:
The Enemy of All: Piracy and the Law of Nations
by Daniel Heller-Roazen
“The pirate is the original enemy of humankind. As Cicero famously remarked, there are certain enemies with whom one may negotiate and with whom, circumstances permitting, one may establish a truce. But there is also an enemy with whom treaties are in vain and war remains incessant. This is the pirate, considered by ancient jurists to be “the enemy of all.”
In this book, Daniel Heller-Roazen reconstructs the shifting place of the pirate in legal and political thought from the ancient to the medieval, modern, and contemporary periods, presenting the philosophical genealogy of a remarkable antagonist. Today, Heller-Roazen argues, the pirate furnishes the key to the contemporary paradigm of the universal foe. This is a legal and political person of exception, neither criminal nor enemy, who inhabits an extra-territorial region. Against such a foe, states may wage extraordinary battles, policing politics and justifying military measures in the name of welfare and security.
Heller-Roazen defines piracy by the conjunction of four conditions: a region beyond territorial jurisdiction; agents who may not be identified with an established state; the collapse of the distinction between criminal and political categories; and the transformation of the concept of war. The paradigm of piracy remains in force today. Whenever we hear of regions outside the rule of law in which acts of “indiscriminate aggression” have been committed “against humanity,” we must begin to recognize that these are acts of piracy. Often considered part of the distant past, the enemy of all is closer to us today than we may think. Indeed, he may never have been closer.”
from treehugger
Global Warming Could Create a Legion of ‘Climate Terrorists’
by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 10.28.09
Business & Politics
Scientists predict that climate change will exacerbate many of the world’s continuing troubles–food shortages, poverty, lack of water, spread of infectious diseases, and so on. And many have already suggested that strained resources and migration caused by global warming could eventually lead to wars; maybe even a world war. But few have considered this national security concern: climate change could usher in a brand new generation of terrorists.
One man who has made such a consideration is Dr. Greg Austin. The provocative piece he wrote for New Europe called Climate Terrorists: They Will Come is especially foreboding. Austin notes that 40% of the world lives in tropical areas, where even incremental rises in temperatures can have disastrous effects.
Blueprint for Climate Terror
Developing nations comprise the vast majority of these tropical states, many of which have exploding populations, a growing youth bulge, and increasing problems with hunger and health. And while there was once optimism for these nations to develop rapidly, hopes are beginning to fade. From New Europe:
There has been however a hitherto unshakable faith among many in the idea of “progress’, especially the belief that economic growth and technological advance would ultimately reduce poverty and provide jobs for most of the expected population growth.
Climate change is a threat to this basic hope for progress.
The Rise of Climate Terrorism
Austin notes that there are already parts of the world where people live with temperatures as high as 48 Degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit!), such as the Sudan. If climate change causes the temperature to rise even a fraction of a degree, it could make such regions uninhabitable–forcing large groups of people to abandon their homes. This displacement, along with a lack of legal means to relocate, and a need to survive, could help foster piracy and terrorism. Austin explains:
About 40 per cent of the world’s population lives in tropical zones. The eruption of piracy and terrorism in tropical zones, places like Somalia and Indonesia, cannot be separated from emerging climate stress. The warming of concern for these zones is not the distant future but the recent past and immediate future. With more global warming, human communities in marginal areas like these will be forced to migrate, first in small numbers and then en masse.
Then, the strain on such communities, and resulting widespread desperation could spur a rise of ‘climate terrorism’.
It’s certainly a provocative speculation, and not too far-fetched. And it’s further reason that slowing climate change is in the best interest of national security policy–the concept of the ‘climate terrorist’ may be ill-defined, but it highlights the social turmoil that is certain to occur in areas where climate change causes resource scarcity and mass migration.”
