Climate and Conflict: Re-evaluating Western Priorities

Why the forgotten conflicts of Central Africa provide a useful insight into the nature of climate related disaster

Why do some crises garner more attention than others? This is a question that has become all the more relevant in recent years, as global conflicts and environmental degradation have increased while diplomatic mediation and third party peace efforts decline.

In Cameroon, terrorist insurgency, mass displacement and conflict among separatist militias have produced a humanitarian crisis in a region that was once a beacon of stability among the turmoil of central Africa. The ongoing crisis has been systematically ignored by the developed world, however. The Norwegian Refugee Council has reported that Cameroon is suffering the world’s most neglected displacement crisis, which has hampered efforts to alleviate the situation — donors provided only 18% of the necessary funds required by the UN to administer adequate humanitarian support.

The Western media, instead, has long been fixated on the crises afflicting the Middle-East, most notably the Israel-Palestine peace process and the Syrian Civil war to which the UN has allotted over $30 billion in humanitarian aid (and which paradoxically, the Assad regime has used to prop up the war effort against its own people).

Alas, it appears that when it comes to attention from the media and foreign governments, both scale and the capacity to which transformative foreign aid can be given to mitigate these crises are irrelevant. Instead, priority is given to those crises which conform to the interests of western governments. Political discourse often drives media coverage, meaning precedence is given to those crises which are of geopolitical importance to the country which is intending to provide aid.

Cameroon (and those of its neighbours who are suffering humanitarian crises of their own) are sadly of no geopolitical interest to the western world. They are not nations considered to be fundamental allies of the powers of the North Atlantic (unlike Israel); nor are their crises media for confrontation between great powers (unlike Syria’s). As a result, these nations must cling on to the modicum of support offered out of the benevolence of a small minority of nations in the developed world, which sadly for the people of central Africa, is not nearly enough to solve the catastrophes which threaten their survival.

But it is a mistake for the western nations to be apathetic towards the struggles of the Central African people — especially because these crises are being exacerbated by environmental degradation. Desertification and soil deterioration are increasing the numbers of displaced peoples, contributing to the already prevalent cycles of inter-communal violence as communities fight for dwindling resources. Poor sanitation and plummeting vaccination rates enable the outbreaks of diseases such as monkey pox and measles, contributing to a public health crisis.

It is exactly these types of crises which should be vitally important to the western world: climate change is becoming an urgent threat to national security, even in the United States — it contributes to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources. In this kind of environment, where the stability of fragile governments is threatened by conflicts over resources, Pentagon officials fear that terrorist groups will flourish (as has been the case in Cameroon), leading the US to provide ever more military and financial aid to the Northern countries, straining its domestic economy.

The Pentagon, in fact, envisaged an “all hell breaking loose” scenario in which key US allies beg for US military support to divert collapse while the homeland suffers major climate related disasters that cripple key military infrastructure.

Crises which are becoming exacerbated by climate change therefore constitute an existential threat not just to the United States, but to the rest of the developed world. Western powers must re-evaluate their priorities. Greater focus on the conflicts in central Africa will help provide an insight for policy makers, who in the near future, will want to avoid catastrophe on their own home fronts.

Climate and Conflict: Re-evaluating Western Priorities

Why the forgotten conflicts of Central Africa provide a useful insight into the nature of climate related disaster

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