Environment and Security: Transforming risks into cooperation

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Environment and Security

Legacy of the military-industrial complex Environmental degradation and security

Another dimension of Environment and Se- curity analysis is the impact of military ac- tivities on a specific area. The anxiety about security fuelled by the Cold War also had significant environmental consequences for Soviet Central Asia. The construction and operation of military-industrial facili- ties and weapons testing sites caused the arms race’s greatest environmental impact. In the region this was particularly apparent in Kazakhstan, where the vast steppes lent themselves to the creation of large-scale military testing ranges stretching for hun- dreds of kilometres, now often polluted with rocket fuel and radioactivity making agricultural use of the land either difficult or impossible. The Soviet nuclear industry also flourished in the region until the early 1990s, for example at the formerly “secret” town of Aktau where it created a large ura- nium-tailing dump and onshore nuclear station. Major military sites in Kazakhstan included the nuclear and weapon test sites of Azgir, Kapustin Yar, Taysogan, Ashuluk and Say-Utes, as well as the uranium-min- ing industry in Aktau. Activities in the military ranges in the north- east Caspian region had numerous impacts on the environment, the health of the local civilian population and their livelihoods. Most of all these activities reduced scope