Environmental Security: The Search for Strategic Legitimacy

Abstract

Environmental security-the intersection of environmental conditions and security affairs-is a subject that increasingly demands the attention of those concerned with relations between the armed forces and society. It is at the heart of new, more comprehensive post-Cold War conceptions of security that could fundamentally redefine the essence of military establishments. It is also central to societal well-being and the attendant public trust and confidence in the institutions of government that ultimately determine the efficacy of the state.

There is growing acceptance today of the link between the environment and security. However, two issues continue to divide scholars and practitioners alike and thereby undermine the legitimacy of the subject: the definition of the phrase and the causal relationship between the environment and security. Definitionally, the very nature of the subject forces a new degree of attention to the linkage between individual (human) security and national, regional, and global security. On the other hand, the suggestion that conflict may be caused-or at least prefigured-by environmental conditions lies at the heart of most disagreements on the subject and thus on its integral importance to the field of security affairs.

What seems clear is that environmental conditions must be viewed in conjunction with associated economic and political factors. It may turn out that there is a masking phenomenon at work by which ostensibly political and economic precipitants of violence and unrest actually mask underlying environmental sources of discontent. By the same token, increasing attention must be given to autocatalytic events (such as natural disasters) that feed and feed off environmental degradation. Recognizing the existence and prevalence of these sorts of conditions and relationships is a challenge that will test the intellectual mettle of analysts and policymakers in the world that lies before us.