Environmental Security

Concepts, Challenges, and Case Studies

John Lanicci, Elisabeth Hope Murray, James D. Ramsay, John Lanicci, Elisabeth Hope Murray, James D. Ramsay

• Publisher: American Meteorological Society
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781944970420
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Security threats today are increasingly complex, dynamic, and asymmetric, and can affect environmental factors like energy, water, and food supply. As a result, it is becoming evident that the traditional model of nation-state based security is incomplete, and that purely military capabilities, though necessary, are insufficient to protect the United States and other democracies from the array of threats that challenge liberty and the free flow of people and commerce. A more complete picture of modern national security requires a more complete integration of the question of environmental security.The purpose of text is to better address the many aspects of environmental security and to represent this major area of academic research in an introductory text format that can be used in the rapidly growing number of homeland security studies programs as well as related degree programs. The concepts, challenges, and case studies in this text vitally extended such curricula, giving students a deeper appreciation for the critical role environmental security plays in overall state security, as well as for our nation, our way of life, and indeed for the human race at large.

1

INTRODUCTION

This is not the first book ever written about environmental security. The authors are aware of nearly a dozen books on the subject published over the last 20 years. It is not our intention to describe or comment on any of these texts as they are all well written and provide a rich source of information about the topic. However, if one wants to teach a course on this subject, it is important to understand that potential students will likely come from a variety of disciplines, such as international studies, political science, geography, security studies, environmental science, atmospheric and climate science, etc., each with its own unique vernacular, body of research, and approaches to such research. Hence, there is a need for a way to “level the playing field” so that students coming from these various disciplines can attain a common level of understanding prior to tackling the weighty issues that environmental security attempts to address. Most of the texts written about environmental security provide some introduction prior to engaging the heart of their material, but none of them are written as textbooks specifically for use by either undergraduate or graduate students. We believe that environmental security will only grow in importance over time, especially as the impacts of climate change begin to play out on the global stage; thus, it is important for students (and faculty) to have a good foundation from which they can launch more complex, intertwined studies in this area.

We also want to point out that, as climate change is a security threat reaching across regional and state boundaries, so our authorship spans the globe. Indeed, some of the perspectives of other authors show the perspective held by their respective states. The most interesting example of this is found in unit 2, where our case study authors actually disagree with each other as to the level of risk our environment is under from increased energy demands and the fossil fuel industry. You will also see this in the chapter 1.2’s presentation of the IPCC reports, which highlight not one but five possible global futures based on different greenhouse gas outputs and global temperature rise. These discrepancies are not worrisome; instead, they represent the flexibility of the environmental security paradigm. They also show that, despite differences in political affiliation, the responsibility for climate change is firmly in human hands.

With this in mind, we have organized this book into main sections (units), each containing 2–3 chapters:

• Unit 1—Introduction

• What are the environment and security, and how should the concept of environmental security be defined?

• Defining climate change: Causes, impacts, and institutions

• Unit 2—Natural resources and security

• Food scarcity and conflict in an era of climate change

• Energy security

• Water security: Challenges and adaptations

• Unit 3—Disaster management and response

• Natural disasters and disaster management

• Unit 4—Conflict: Sources and types

• Environmental security and conflict

Unit 2 covers several security domains of concern to practitioners. Unit 3 covers those extreme events and climatic anomalies that produce natural disasters around the world that could destabilize fragile geopolitical stability in less-developed countries and threaten critical infrastructure and economic stability in well-developed countries. Unit 4 describes various types of conflicts that stress current stability structures around the world and introduces the concept of human security. A fifth unit is intended to provide a summary of the book from the policy-making perspective and offers a “Where do we go from here?” conclusion.

Each unit in the book begins with an overview intended to introduce students to the key concepts and questions necessary for understanding that major topic area. The overview is followed by individual case studies that provide real-world examples of these topic areas and illustrate the concepts in action. As the topics covered in unit 2 are so broad and crucial to the greater context of the book, there is a short preface, followed by several introductory chapters, followed by case studies. Thus, the book can be used several ways. One approach is to use the unit overviews as a traditional academic text without the case studies, which may be more appropriate for basic undergraduate courses without a high level of rigor. Another approach uses the overviews and case studies to introduce the major topics and examine them in more detail. This approach would be appropriate for senior-level “capstone” types of courses and beginning or intermediate graduate-level courses. Yet a third approach could use this book as a reference text for study of a subset of environmental security (e.g., food security). This approach would be most appropriate for an advanced graduate-level “reading” type of course in which students would be reading and discussing several articles from the peer-reviewed literature, in which our book provides a handy “desk reference.” However the book is used, we hope that it provides a useful foundation and will act as a catalyst to learn more about this fascinating topic that is critical to our future.

1.1

WHAT ARE THE ENVIRONMENT AND SECURITY, AND HOW SHOULD THE CONCEPT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY BE DEFINED?

Jarrod Hayes
Elisabeth Hope Murray
John M. Lanicci
James D. Ramsay

KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

Homeland security Homeland security represents the intersection of evolving threats and hazards with traditional governmental and civic responsibilities for civil defense, emergency response, law enforcement, customs, border control, and immigration. In combining these responsibilities under one overarching concept, homeland security breaks down longstanding stovepipes of activity that have been and could still be exploited by those seeking to harm America. Homeland security also creates a greater emphasis on the need for joint actions and efforts across previously discrete elements of government and society (Department of Homeland Security 2010).

National security The art and science of developing policy and strategy actions, coordinating and applying all instruments of national power including diplomatic, informational/intelligence, military, and economic power in order to preserve the nation-state and defend the economy and citizenry.

Human security Human security is an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities. Proponents challenge the traditional notion of national security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be the individual rather than the state. Human security holds that a people-centered view of security is necessary for national, regional, and global stability. Human security typically includes several security subdimensions including environmental, political, economic, personal, community, food, and health security [adapted from Gómez and Gasper (2013)].

Environmental security Challenges to national or homeland security posture that result from extreme environmental or climatic events acting locally or transnationally to destabilize the countries or regions of the world, resulting in geopolitical instability, resource conflicts, vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure, or some combination of these impacts

Security strategy A coordinated plan to identify risks, threats, or hazards to a nation, organization, community, or individual including development of countermeasures designed to mitigate either the frequency or severity or both of identified risks, threats, or hazards.

Weather The U.S. National Weather Service defines weather as the “state of the atmosphere with respect to wind, temperature, cloudiness, moisture, pressure, etc. Weather refers to these conditions at a given point in time (e.g., today’s high temperature)” (National Weather Service 2018).

Climate Climate, in contrast to weather, is understood as the long-term pattern of weather in a particular region, including averages of “precipitation, temperature, humidity, sunshine, wind velocity, phenomena such as fog, frost, and hail storms, and other measures of the weather that occur over a long period in a particular place” (NASA 2017).

Climate change (aka anthropomorphic climate change) According to the UN 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC; United Nations 1992) “climate change” means a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.

IPCC The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is part of the United Nations and is the foremost authority of peer-reviewed scholarship on climate science (see www.ipcc.ch). The IPCC is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts. In the same year, the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. It is composed of scholars and policy makers from 195 nations; however, the IPCC only reviews and assesses the most recent scientific, technical, and socioeconomic information produced worldwide that is relevant to the understanding of climate change. It does not conduct any research, nor does it monitor climate-related data or parameters.

Disaster (see Mach et al. 2014) Severe alterations in the normal functioning of a community or a society due to hazardous physical events interacting with vulnerable social conditions, leading to widespread adverse human, material, economic, or environmental effects that require immediate emergency response to satisfy critical human needs and that may require external support for recovery.

Risk (see Mach et al. 2014) “The potential for consequences where something of value is at stake and where the outcome is uncertain, recognizing the diversity of values. Risk is often represented as probability or likelihood of occurrence of hazardous events or trends multiplied by the impacts if these events or trends occur. . . . The term risk is often used to refer to the potential, when the outcome is uncertain, for adverse consequences on lives, livelihoods, health, ecosystems and species, economic, social and cultural assets, services (including environmental services) and infrastructure.”

1.1.1. CREATING WORKING DEFINITIONS FOR ENVIRONMENT AND SECURITY

Weather and climate have always played important roles in human history. There are numerous historical examples of weather and climate resulting in widespread famine and mass migrations and influencing the start of hostilities between nations and within nations. However, the linkages among weather, climate, and security are complex and nonlinear. In many cases, the environment is not the sole cause of instability but may be a contributor to it, in combination with several other factors. While these factors are critically important to understanding the complex geopolitical situations that exist in many regions around the world, it is first necessary to discuss the concepts of environment and security and then define environmental security as it will be used in this textbook.

The American Meteorological Society (AMS) Glossary defines environment as “external conditions and surroundings, especially those that affect the quality of life of plants, animals, and human beings” (AMS 2018). A useful exercise that is often conducted at the start of environmental security courses is to require each student to write a term on the board that they think should be included in a list of features that characterize the environment. When the list was sufficiently lengthy, we would lead a guided discussion where the class would attempt to categorize these features. The categorizations could be natural vs human-made or they could be domain related (oceanic, land, atmosphere, etc.). Regardless of the categorization used, at the end of the exercise, the class had a working list that they could use throughout the course for evaluating environmental impacts as they relate to other factors, including security.

Once the list of environmental features has been created and the class has properly vetted them, compare them to the list we provide here as Table 1.1.1. (Do not look at these until the exercise is complete!) Examination of Table 1.1.1 shows that this list includes both natural and human-made features, and thus, the extent of the potential influence of the environment has become wide-ranging. How many of the items in Table 1.1.1 are consistent with the AMS Glossary definition of environment presented above?

Table 1.1.1. Features of environment as described by an environmental security class.

Now we can conduct a similar exercise on the concept of security. In this case, we begin with an excerpt from a standard dictionary definition of security (Merriam-Webster, s.v. “security”):

1. The quality or state of being secure, such as freedom from danger (safety) and/or freedom from fear or anxiety

2. Something that secures protection, which can include measur...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Natural Resources: Their Access and Relationship to Security
• 3. Natural Disasters and Environmental Security
• 4. Conflict and Environmental Security
• 5. Concluding Points: Integrating Environmental Security into National Security Planning.
• Index