Is the environment an international security issue?

Résumé du document

The latter half of the 20th Century was exclusively dominated by the conflict of the Cold War. The study of world politics included topics such as nuclear war and balance of terror. The scholars had no scope for analyzing areas of international relations for other minor issues of low politics'. Although the signing of international agreements and contracts have been at its peak for over a century, the position of the global and political economy was coined as, ?the environment with an unchanging context of international politics.' The first change was observed in the late 60s and early 1970s. The change began with a public awareness of environmental degradation due to the industrial activity. This emergence of the ecological sensibility was translated by the creation of lobbying and influential groups such as Greenpeace, and other political parties around the western world. But the real change that occurred in that respect was corollary to the end of the cold war. The collapse of the USSR resulted in a temporary end to the major threat of the time, which was ?the nuclear war.' The definition of security was revised and new threats began to bloom. This new revision and flourishing of new threats was published in the study of International relations and was seen as a challenge to the old realist theories. In the first part of this study, aspects such as reinvention and redefinition of concepts including security or threat will be scrutinized. By comprehending these concepts, the environment can then be assimilated to security. There are several patterns or trends by which environmental issues can represented as international threats. Therefore, the second part of the study will focus on environmental issues as a global threat.

Extraits

[...] The resolution of ecological problems can only happen within the international community, with the help of all the countries. But it is a long term agenda, which doesn't fit really well in the reality of electoral stakes. That's why, Levy argues, ecologists are trying to make it a security issue, in the hope it will be taken more seriously. I think it is important to make it a trans- subject issue, and to deal with it in every field, not as a separate subject. That's what makes environment an international security issue. [...]

[...] President Clinton saw the environment as the global fear which has replaced the fear of nuclear weapons. The boundaries between low and high politics are actually blurring, and the question is to know if “traditional security, constructed as ‘national security' and [which] involved the construction of military defence and alliances against a potential external armed threats” is the only type security we can think of[7]. Is security merely the absence of external military threats, or is it about preserving and improving the well being of citizens? [...]

[...] Vogler, John “Environment”, in Issues in world politics, edited by Brian White, Richard Little and Michael Smith. New-York, Palgrave. P Levy, Marc the environment a National Security issue?” International security 20. Ibid Quoted in Levy, Op. Sic Vogler, Op. Sic, p.192 Ibid Vogler, Op. Sic, p Ibid, p Levy, Op. Sic Ibid Ibid Ibid Matthews, Jessica Tuchman ‘Redefining security', Foreign affairs 68. Caroit, Jean-Michel, 25/04/06, A Jalousie, bidonville d'Haïti, la lutte pour l'eau prime sur les querelles électorales Le Monde Matthews, Op. [...]

[...] Environment can be a threat to international security in several ways. It can pose a grave threat to health of human beings, be directly a cause for war and destabilise the economical, social and political structures of a country. Considering human lives as one of international “most important value” makes sense. Levy states that “human health is the only risk that, by itself, might constitute a security risk.”[11] Since environment degradation is a threat to human lives, it can be considered as a threat to international security. [...]

[...] In his article environment a national security issue?' Marc Levy insists on the importance of the definition of both terms environment and security[2]. Environment comes from the French term “environner”, which means to surround. The environment is often linked in text books with physical and biological systems, distinguished from political, economic, and other social systems.”[3] Resources are a key concept in environment, which sometimes lead to a very broad definition and can be misguiding. Arthur Westing for example states that as soon as a natural resource is part of the reason for a war, it is an ecological issue. [...]