The Duck of Minerva

Josh Busby

Joshua Busby is a Professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin. From 2021-2023, he served as a Senior Advisor for Climate at the U.S. Department of Defense. His most recent book is States and Nature: The Effects of Climate Change on Security (Cambridge, 2023). He is also the author of Moral Movements and Foreign Policy (Cambridge, 2010) and the co-author, with Ethan Kapstein, of AIDS Drugs for All: Social Movements and Market Transformations (Cambridge, 2013). His main research interests include transnational advocacy and social movements, international security and climate change, global public health and HIV/ AIDS, energy and environmental policy, and U.S. foreign policy.

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Recent Posts

Is Occupy Wall Street a Flash in the Pan?

by | 16 November, 2011 |

Occupy AustinSource: Austin American StatesmanWith New York City police and cities around the country cracking down on Occupy Wall Street encampments, it seems like the nascent movement might dissipate even before winter sets in. While a full assessment is obviously premature, it is fair to ask whether or not OWS possesses characteristics that have made past movements successful. At this point, will OWS' legacy be more significant than getting Bank of America to waive its $5 fee on its debit card?One of the main criticisms of OWS that emerged quickly, perhaps too quickly, is that it was...

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Testing “Go Right” Messaging on Global Warming

by | 23 October, 2011 |

On Friday, I gave some remarks in Dallas, Texas to a group of young leaders from different professions as part of the Next Generation Project organized by the Strauss Center for International Security and Law. For this diverse  audience, I tested what I described in my last post a "Go Right" messaging strategy on global warming, designed to appeal to partisans and nonpartisans alike.  You be the judge if this effort was successful. I've added some hyperlinks of sources I drew upon to write the speech.It’s great to be here with all of you and to have the opportunity to participate in another...

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Get Angry or Go Right: What’s the Best Strategy on Global Warming?

by | 16 October, 2011 |

Supporters of action on climate change are under siege in Washington. House Republicans are attempting to cut appropriations on all things related to climate change. Even Democrats appear to want to downplay talk of the issue. The "green jobs" agenda, in light of Solyndra solar's woes, is now mired in controversy. Despite Al Gore's recent effort to refocus attention on the problem with his new Climate Reality campaign, an economy wide legislative effort like cap-and-trade appears dead in the United States for the foreseeable future (That didn't stop Australia's House of Representatives from...

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The World Is Waiting: U.S. Public Opinion and Climate Change

by | 27 September, 2011 |

So, we're almost in October, and it's still 100 hundred degrees here in Texas.  We have just endured the hottest summer on record for any state in the United States.  Just last month, thousands of acres burned in a series of wildfires just outside Austin.September 2011 Texas FiresOur governor Rick Perry is running for the Republican nomination for president, and though climate change is not high on the agenda, he took time out of his busy schedule to deny that climate change was real and to claim his perspective was akin to being a modern day Galileo. These remarks prompted President Obama...

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Lest we forget about Somalia

by | 25 September, 2011 |

The musician K'naan's haunting elegy for his country Somalia, wracked by famine:So, 20 summers after I left as a child, I found myself on my way back to Somalia with some concerned friends and colleagues. I hoped that my presence would let me shine a light into this darkness. Maybe spare even one life, a life equal to mine, from indifferently wasting away. But I am no statesman, nor a soldier. Just a man made fortunate by the power of the spotlight. And to save someone’s life I am willing to spend some of that capricious currency called celebrity.My pale by comparison five-part series on...

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Resilience and the Future of Pastoralism in the Horn – part V (of the series on the 2011 East African drought)

by | 23 August, 2011 |

Does pastoralism -- the livelihood of semi-nomadic animal herders like the Maasai -- have a future in East Africa? In my concluding post on the famine in the Horn of Africa, it seems like a fair question to ask, no more controversial than whether Somalia should be divided into several countries (see here, here, here, and here for previous posts).I ask this because much of the commentary on the current crisis in the Horn of Africa suggests that "development" is the long-term solution for the region to ward off the potential for recurrent crisis. However, according to FEWS NET, parts of...

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Famine and Conflict Resolution in Somalia – part IV (on the 2011 East African drought)

by | 16 August, 2011 |

So, I mentioned in a previous post on the debt ceiling that my wife and I were expecting the birth of our first child. Our son, Guy William, was born this past week, and I couldn't resist sharing our news. His namesake is my friend Guy Hughes, who died tragically five years ago in a climbing accident.Guy was a tireless advocate for global justice, and I have no doubt that he would have fiercely been defending the needs of those suffering from the famine but with organizational panache, sensitivity to the inherent humanity of the people in the region, and appreciation of the wider currents in...

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Famine, Climate Change, and the Horn of Africa – part III

by | 8 August, 2011 |

In this third post about the Horn of Africa and the ongoing famine, I thought I'd address what should be done, which seems appropriate given the visit today to the region by a team of U.S. officials, including Jill Biden (wife of the vice president), USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, among others. My first two posts assessed (part 1) whether or not climate change could be implicated in the current drought (uncertain) and (part 2) the relative causal weight of the drought itself compared to politics in the overall famine (drought itself more important than some seem to believe). In this post, I...

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Famine, Climate Change, and the Horn of Africa – part II

by | 4 August, 2011 |

Here is part II of my post on the famine in Somalia and East Africa. Since I blogged two days ago, FEWS NET has extended the geographic range at risk of famine (based on nutrition levels and rates of mortality) to more parts of Somalia including the agropastoral areas of Balcad and Cadale districts of Middle Shabelle, the Afgoye corridor IDP settlement, and the Mogadishu IDP community.FEWS NET AUGUST 2011In my last post, I discussed what role if any climate change may be playing in the current crisis. I ultimately concluded that the science isn't settled (for a similar view, see here). I...

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Famine, Climate Change, and the Horn of Africa – part I

by | 1 August, 2011 |

So, I will ultimately come back to climate change and public opinion in this country, but when I haven't been handwringing over the debt ceiling, I’ve been preoccupied by the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Somalia and East Africa more broadly. I'm going to tackle this topic in a couple of parts since this post is already quite long. The United Nations estimates that as many as 11 million people are being affected by the current crisis, seen as the worst drought in the region in 60 years (see the FEWS NET map of the extent of the crisis below).Why is this crisis emerging now, and why are...

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