The Foreign Service Journal, November 2021

20 NOVEMBER 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Worse yet, Kashmir is already a flashpoint between two nuclear-armed adversaries, India and Pakistan, who have a history of riparian conflict. An Indian parliamentary panel has spot- lighted climate change as a challenge to distributing scarce Himalayan water among Indian and Pakistani downstream regions. India plans to build new dams on the Chenab River in Kashmir; Paki- stan fears that India will pinch the Chen- ab’s flow into the Indus through Pakistan, perhaps as a lever on Islamabad in times of conflict. Suspicions of riparian mis- chief run high, and memories of conflict linger. Food security, power generation and public safety are all at stake, giving the nuclear-armed adversaries a lot to fight over. Corruption in the region makes matters worse. The Observer Research Foundation notes “widespread and deep-rooted corruption in [Kashmir] has restricted the growth potential of the state” and “pose[s] national security threats.” Corruption linked to shoddy construc- tion of Indian dams adds a public safety and security threat in a region with frequent seismic activ- ity. Were a dam to fail, a flood would descend on Pakistanis downriver—what has been called a “water bomb”—on the Indus. Climate change, water scarcity, regional hostilities, festering strife, ripar- ian competition and nuclear weapons make a dangerous cocktail; crooked The twin fights against climate change and corruption have intertwined to test our American example. deals and shoddy dams risk an added provocation in an already unstable situ- ation. As Senator McCain once wrote, kleptocrats like Putin don’t “believe that human nature at liberty can rise above its weaknesses.” They don’t trust the rule of law or the will of the people; instead, they rule by “corruption, repression and violence.” To prevail against the likes of Putin, we must remember that the world is, as President Bill Clinton said, “more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power,” and that leadership on the biggest challenges before us is the example we must set. The twin fights against climate change and corruption have intertwined to test our American example. American diplomats and domestic poli- cymakers alike must form a plan to meet these challenges in the days and months ahead. Human safety, in the form of a livable planet led by honest democracies, is at stake. In the face of these immense diplomatic chal- lenges, I take comfort that our Foreign Service has proven equal to immense challenges before. I witnessed firsthand the often unglamorous, but exceedingly effective work that my father and fellow Foreign Service members performed under try- ing conditions. Their devotion to country and mission helped set the American example we need so dearly in this moment, a devotion I know you share. n