New Global Commons Working Group
With the generous support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s “Bridging the Gap” initiative, ISD launched a working group in October 2016 entitled “The New Global Commons: Emerging Global Diplomatic Challenges.”
Bringing together senior practitioners, policymakers, and leading academics, the series harnesses the experience and collective knowledge of this broad range of experts to discuss and find workable policy solutions and guiding principles to some of the world’s most pressing issues through the end of the decade and beyond.
The New Arctic: Navigating the Realities, Possibilities, and Problems
A July 2018 ISD report on “The New Arctic: Navigating the Realities, Possibilities, and Problems” explores the implications of the New Arctic, and the broader geopolitical repercussions of these changes. The Arctic region has become a New Global Common. Increasingly navigable seaways and new access to natural resources create both opportunities for greater collaboration between Arctic and non-Arctic nations, as well as potential flashpoints, environmental disasters, and threats to indigenous communities. The challenge is to mitigate all of these potential threats, and develop the policies, partnerships, and infrastructure to help guide Arctic diplomacy in the decades to come.
Religious Intolerance and America’s Image and Policies Abroad
The Oct. 27, 2018 attack on worshipers in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue was a stark reminder that hate crimes and religious persecution threaten not just individuals and communities, but undermine fundamental human freedoms. A new ISD report on “Religious Intolerance and America’s Image and Policies Abroad” examines the rise in domestic hate crimes against Jews, Muslims, and other faith communities in America – and how the impact of domestic religious intolerance and bigotry extends far beyond the U.S. border. The report, based on a March 2018 working group and public forum with experts from the diplomatic corps, academia, nongovernment organizations, and U.S.-based faith communities, explores these dynamics and ways in which governments and civil society can mitigate the dangerous consequences.
New Challenges to Human Security: Environmental Change and Human Mobility
From bustling megacities to remote Pacific islands, climate change has profound implications for how people live and work — and whether conflicts over water, land, and other resources become local or global security challenges. To analyze how environmental shifts shape both internal and external patterns of migration, the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy’s New Global Commons working group met in late 2016 to explore the nexus between climate change and human security.
The working group’s report, “New Challenges to Human Security: Environmental Change and Human Mobility,” summarizes these discussions and provides a set of guiding principles for policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and international institutions. More than wacky weather and swamped islands, climate change has the potential to put millions of people on the move worldwide. This report looks at what experts in human mobility, climate change, and resource management understand about the environmental drivers of migration, as well as what local and national governments are already doing to mitigate the impact of climate change on communities, as well as prepare for planned migration events.