The definition of
international securityInternational security consists of the measures taken by nations and international organizations, such as the United Nations, to ensure mutual survival and safety. These measures include military action and diplomatic agreements such as treaties and conventions...
has been debated extensively by political scientists and others, and has varied over time. After
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, definitions typically focused on the subject of
realpolitikRealpolitik refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on practical considerations, rather than ideological notions. In this respect, it shares aspects of its philosophical approach with those of realism and pragmatism...
that developed during the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
between the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
.
As tensions between the superpowers eased after the collapse of the Soviet Union, academic discussions of definitions of security significantly expanded to encompass a far broader range of threats to peace, including, particularly, environmental threats associated with the political implications of resource use or pollution.
The definition of
international securityInternational security consists of the measures taken by nations and international organizations, such as the United Nations, to ensure mutual survival and safety. These measures include military action and diplomatic agreements such as treaties and conventions...
has been debated extensively by political scientists and others, and has varied over time. After
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, definitions typically focused on the subject of
realpolitikRealpolitik refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on practical considerations, rather than ideological notions. In this respect, it shares aspects of its philosophical approach with those of realism and pragmatism...
that developed during the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
between the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
.
As tensions between the superpowers eased after the collapse of the Soviet Union, academic discussions of definitions of security significantly expanded to encompass a far broader range of threats to peace, including, particularly, environmental threats associated with the political implications of resource use or pollution. By the mid-1980s, this field of study was becoming known as "environmental security". Despite a wide range of semantic and academic debates over terms, it is now widely acknowledged that environmental factors play both direct and indirect roles in both political disputes and violent conflicts.
In the academic sphere environmental security is defined as the relationship between security concerns such as armed conflict and the natural environment. A small but rapidly developing field, it has become particularly relevant for those studying resource scarcity and conflict in the developing world. Prominent early researchers in the field include
Felix DoddsFelix Dodds is an author, futurist and activist. He has been instrumental in developing new modes of stakeholder engagement with the United Nations, particularly within the field of sustainable development. Mr. Dodds is the Executive Director of Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future...
,
Norman MyersNorman Myers CMG is a British environmentalist and authority on biodiversity. He is a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences...
, Jessica Tuchman Mathews, Richard Ullman, Arthur Westing, Thomas Homer Dixon,
Geoffrey DabelkoGeoffrey Dabelko is director of the Environmental Change and Security Program , a nonpartisan policy forum on environment, population, and security issues at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C...
,
Peter GleickDr. Peter H. Gleick is a scientist working on issues related to the environment, economic development, and international security, with a focus on global freshwater challenges. He works at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, which he co-founded in 1987. In 2003 he was awarded a MacArthur...
, and Joseph Romm.
Environmental Security Database
http://www.upeace.org/programmes/ESP.cfm
The Millennium Project of the American Council for the United Nations University (and soon to be World Federation of UN Associations) and Environmental Security
http://www.pacinst.org/topics/environment_and_securityPacific InstituteThe Pacific Institute is a non-profit research institute created in 1987 to provide independent research and policy analysis on issues at the intersection of development, environment, and security...
]
The Millennium Project did a global assessment of the definitions of environmental security and created a synthesis definition: Environmental Security is environmental viability for life support, with three sub-elements:
- preventing or repairing military damage to the environment,
- preventing or responding to environmentally caused conflicts, and
- protecting the environment due to its inherent moral value.
Selected early literature on the field of environmental security
- Brown, L. 1977. "Redefining Security,” WorldWatch Paper 14 (Washington, D.C.: WorldWatch Institute)
- Ullman, R.H. 1983. “Redefining Security,” International Security 8, No. 1 (Summer 1983): 129-153.
- Westing, A.H. 1986. “An Expanded Concept of International Security,” In Global Resources and International Conflict, ed. Arthur H. Westing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Myers, N. 1986. “The Environmental Dimension to Security Issues.” The Environmentalist 6 (1986): pp. 251–257.
- Ehrlich, P.R., and A.H. Ehrlich. 1988. The Environmental Dimensions of National Security. Stanford, CA: Stanford Institute for Population and Resource Studies.
- Svensson, U. 1988. “Environmental Security: A Concept.” Presented at the International Conference on Environmental Stress and Security, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden, December 1988.
- Mathews, J.T. 1989. “Redefining Security,” Foreign Affairs 68, No. 2 (Spring 1989): 162-177.
- Gleick, P H. “The Implications of Global Climate Changes for International Security.” Climate Change 15 (October 1989): pp. 303-325.
- Gleick, P.H. 1990c. "Environment, resources, and international security and politics." In E. Arnett (ed.) Science and International Security: Responding to a Changing World. American Association for the Advancement of Science Press, Washington, D.C. pp. 501-523.
- Gleick, P.H. 1991b. "Environment and security: The clear connections." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 16-21.
- Homer-Dixon, T.F. 1991. “On the Threshold: Environmental Changes as Causes of Acute Conflict, International Security 16, No. 2 (Fall 1991): 76-116 ISBN 0-688-11868-2
- Romm, Joseph J. 1993. Defining National Security: The Nonmilitary Aspects (New York: Council on Foreign Relations)
- Levy, M.A. 1995. “Is the Environment a National Security Issue?” International Security 20, No. 2 (Fall 1995)
- Dabelko, G.D. 1996. “Ideas and the Evolution of Environmental Security Conceptions.” Paper presented at the International Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, April 1996.
- Kobtzeff, Oleg. 2000. “Environmental Security and Civil Society”, in- Gardner, Hall, (ed.) Central and South-central Europe in Transition, Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000, pp. 219-296.
- Dodds,F. Pippard, T. 2005. (edited) "Human and Environmental Security: An Agenda for Change, London. Earthscan.
- Dodds, F. Higham, A. Sherman, R. 2009. (edited) "Climate Change and Energy Insecurity: The Challenge for Peace, Security and Development", London. Earthscan
External links
- Monthly International Environmental Security reports by the Millennium Project
- The Institute for Environmental Security
- Essay on environmental security by Steve McCormick of The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization working to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive....
- Environmental Change & Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center, directed by Geoffrey Dabelko
- Environmental Security and Peace Program at the United Nations mandated University for Peace
- Human and Environmental Security: An Agenda for Change edited by Felix Dodds and Tim Pippard, London Earthscan
- http://www.pacinst.org/topics/environment_and_security/Environment and Security Program of the Pacific Institute
The Pacific Institute is a non-profit research institute created in 1987 to provide independent research and policy analysis on issues at the intersection of development, environment, and security...
, directed by Peter GleickDr. Peter H. Gleick is a scientist working on issues related to the environment, economic development, and international security, with a focus on global freshwater challenges. He works at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, which he co-founded in 1987. In 2003 he was awarded a MacArthur...
]
- Stakeholder Forum for a Suatinable Future
- UMass Professor Peter M. Haas
Peter M. Haas is a professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the Karl Deutsch Visiting Professor at the Wisseschaftszentrum Berlin....
defends a skeptical view on Environmental Security