The World Bank, the IMF and the UN recently said that the food crisis created by rising international food prices has had an impact on both political and security issues.
The Taiwanese government should be prepared to face non-traditional security issues such as food, energy and environmental problems that could be triggered by global climate change.
“Non-traditional security issues” differ from “traditional security issues” in that the latter merely refers to issues regarding national military security, while the former refers to security problems brought on by the end of the Cold War and globalization — including economic order, ecological environment, migration and social development.
Not only are non-traditional security issues more diverse than traditional ones, but the threat they pose to security often cannot be solved by a single government, and require the cooperation of all countries within a region and global organizations.
For example, the amount of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide produced by coal-fired power plants in China is becoming a grave acid-rain threat to South Korea and Japan.
Also, with its rapid industrialization and urbanization, China is expected to overtake the US as the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases by 2010. China already has the highest exhaust emissions. Its pollution has led to field erosion and desertification, making other countries, including Taiwan, highly vulnerable to sandstorms.
One challenge in handling non-traditional security issues is striking a balance between the economy and the environment. Many developing countries faced with environmental problems care more about how to maintain stable economic growth, which allows them to ignore the immediate social problems of development, to deter public dissatisfaction and to prevent calls for political reform. In many countries, economic growth produces a variety of environmental problems, but that is often the price they pay.
As a member of the global community, Taiwan should focus on how to address non-traditional security issues within the framework of pursuing economic development and income growth. This could be done by drawing up various energy, food and environmental policies and seeking regional cooperation.
Wang Hung-jen is a doctoral student in the Department of Government at Cornell University.
Translated by Ted Yang
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