  In this paper, we show a local energy convexity of $W^{1,2}$ maps into
$CAT(K)$ spaces. This energy convexity allows us to extend Colding and
Minicozzi's width-sweepout construction to produce closed geodesics in any
closed Alexandrov space of curvature bounded from above, which also provides a
generalized version of the Birkhoff-Lyusternik theorem on the existence of
non-trivial closed geodesics in the Alexandrov setting.
