U.N. Considers Climate Change Peacekeepers

What’s the Latest Development?

U.N. peacekeepers are iconic for their blue helmets but a new icon of the climate change era may be set to emerge in green helmets. The Security Council will be addressed on Wednesday by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon as to the prospect of a future U.N. security force charged with de-escalating conflicts caused by resource shortages brought on by climate change. Germany is skeptical, saying the Security Council is not the appropriate place to discuss matters of climate change, let alone a new international force predicated on it.

What’s the Big Idea?

Are we witnessing the beginning of paradigm shift in thinking about global security? The expansion of Security Council concerns to managing conflicts caused by climate change would be significant alteration of its mandate, typically concerned with more traditional geopolitical conflict. “Small island states in the Pacific, which face an existential threat due to climate change, have been pushing the council to act for years.” Among the questions posed by Germany are China are: What would actually distinguish the role of blue helmets from the proposed green helmets?