The rice shortage and climate change have prompted the establishment of a research centre aimed at non- traditional security issues in Asia, organizers said on Thursday, the dpa reported.
The Centre for Non-Traditional Security will open Tuesday in Singapore at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
"Over the last five years, many non-traditional security issues have hit the headlines in Asia," The Straits Times quoted dean Barry Desker as saying.
They include global pandemics, illegal migration and terrorist links to the illegal drug trade.
"There is increasing attention on how such issues have come to be treated as security issues" and whether policymakers are making effective and appropriate responses, Desker said.
The centre will initially focus on pandemics such as the avian flu.
It will be headed by Dr Mely Caballero-Anthony, a Filipino national, who has been studying these issues since 1997.