foreign imports such as oil from volatile regions, fur-
ther undermining U.S. policy objectives. U.S. national
strategists monitor China’s military buildup fueled by
near double digit economic growth that is highly de-
pendent upon a vast stream of resource imports. They
are also witnessing a growing wave of political unrest
around the globe centered on autocratic nation-states
unable to provide their citizens with a stable food sup-
ply or offer any hope of prosperity. Climate change
is exacerbating food shortages – each Celsius degree
increase in global temperature has been postulated to
reduce global grain yields by approximately ten per-
cent (Brown 2011). The availability and management
of water now appears to be the limiting factor on glob-
al food production. Water tables are falling on every
continent and over the next twenty years the United
Nations (UN) estimates that three billion people could
face water scarcity while in the same time period wa-
ter for agriculture needs to increase 60% to feed an ad-
ditional two billion people (Glenn et al. 2010). The
United States is not immune to resource scarcity and
environmental degradation. Sustainability through
a holistic approach focuses on resource optimization
for long term availability and provides a platform
for multi-state cooperation on transnational resource
issues. As stated recently by Admiral Mike Mullen,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “We must recog-
nize that security means more than defense...until we
restore a sense of hope in challenged regions, we will
see again and again that security without prosperity
is ultimately unsustainable” (2011). Sustained or long-
term economic growth requires that human capital
and natural resources be prudently managed.
sharon
(sharon)
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