• woodrow wilson center
  • ecsp

New Security Beat

Subscribe:
  • rss
  • mail-to
  • Who We Are
  • Topics
    • Population
    • Environment
    • Security
    • Health
    • Development
  • Columns
    • China Environment Forum
    • Choke Point
    • Dot-Mom
    • Friday Podcasts
  • Multimedia
    • Tracking the Energy Titans (Interactive)
  • Films
    • Paving the Way (Ethiopia)
    • Broken Landscape (India)
    • Scaling the Mountain (Nepal)
    • Healthy People, Healthy Environment (Tanzania)
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Contact Us

NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • Reading Radar

    The U.S. Intelligence Community’s Assessment on Food Security, Famine and Migration in the Sahel

    January 26, 2016 By Gracie Cook

    DNIThis fall, the National Intelligence Council released an intelligence community assessment of the extent to which factors such as climate change, severe weather, conflict, resource scarcity, disease, poor governance, and environmental degradation will impact peoples’ purchasing power and food availability over the next decade. They found “the overall risk of food insecurity in many countries of strategic importance to the United States will increase.” Countries in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and South Asia are most vulnerable to food insecurity due to a combination of these factors. They assessed the potential benefits of an amalgam of educational, technological, and modern agricultural approaches to prevent food insecurity. Considering the importance of these high-risk countries and the United States’ position as a “leader in promoting global food security,” the United States should expect more demand for help and may find new strategic opportunities through such leadership.

    GrolleIn order to better understand the patterns of famine and migration seen today in the West African Sahel and predict patterns of the future, John Grolle analyzes three case studies of famines that occurred in rural Nigeria in the late twentieth century in Population and Environment. These famines drove populations out of the Sahel and into the savannah in search of more suitable lands for farming and living, mainly in response to drought. As the effects of climate change pile up, meteorological phenomena are intensifying in both magnitude and frequency. Though traditional understandings of migration patterns out of the Sahel have focused on drought as the main catalyst, it is time for new attention to be paid to the impacts of heavy, untimely rainfall, Grolle says. Ultimately, he determines that in light of changing climate patterns, new research is needed to determine how regional migration will be affected by climate change and its subsequent effects.

    Sources: National Intelligence Council, Population and Environment.

    Topics: Africa, agriculture, development, environment, food security, global health, Latin America, Middle East, migration, population, Reading Radar, Sahel, security, South Asia, U.S.

Join the Conversation

  • RSS
  • subscribe
  • facebook
  • G+
  • twitter
  • iTunes
  • podomatic
  • youtube
Tweets about "from:NewSecurityBeat OR @NewSecurityBeat"

Trending Stories

  • unfccclogo1
  • Pop at COP: Population and Family Planning at the UN Climate Negotiations

FEATURED MEDIA

Backdraft Podcast

play Backdraft
Podcast

More »

What You're Saying

  • DNI Pakistan’s Population Bomb Defused?
    muhammad rehman: High infant mortality , low life span and immigration should also be taken into account. A TFR of...
  • DNI A Tale of Two Coastlines: Desalination in China and California
    RILEY PELFREY: Why can`t they use nuclear ?
  • DNI Managing the Mekong: Conflict or Compromise?
    Big Poppy!: Thank you so much! 😊🎉🎊

What We’re Reading

More »

Featured Media

More »

Related Stories

No related stories.

  • Supporting
    Partner
  • USAID-logo
  • woodrow
  • ecsp
  • RSS Feed
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • Publications
  • Events
  • Wilson Center
  • Contact Us
  • Print Friendly Page

© Copyright 2007-2022. Environmental Change and Security Program.

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. All rights reserved.

Developed by Vico Rock Media

Environmental Change and Security Program

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

  • One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
  • 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
  • Washington, DC 20004-3027

T 202-691-4000