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Environment and Security
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Links between
environment
and
security
are
the subject of heated debate in the academic
community. This report is based on the as-
sumption that multiple stress factors may cause
insecurity, whereas other factors may promote
security for individuals and groups of people:
Understanding the relationships between the environment and security
Although still very broad in its scope, the ta-
ble above underlines the need to look at the
problems and issues that lower the resilience
of groups and societies, in other words their
capacities to absorb shocks, and make them
more vulnerable to tensions and threats, in-
cluding the threat of violent conflict.
For this reason, the analysis needs to assess
the complexity of the relationship between
different security or insecurity-promot-
ing factors, not only at a local and national
level, but also in a world of rising connectivity
and progress, both in the regional and global
dimensions. In general, one can say that re-
source scarcity and degradation, access to
critical resources on which people may de-
pend, competition to extract and control valu-
able commodities and outbreaks of diseases
are significant non-military threats to security
and prosperity of nations and individuals.
In more vulnerable areas, such as arid plains,
mountain areas with highland-lowland inter-
Systems
Economic
Political
Cultural
Demographic
Ecological
Security-promoting mechanisms
Wealth and welfare
Wealth policies
Law
Legitimate force
Social identity
Justice
Low birth rate
Urbanization
Life support
Natural resources and raw materials
Stable climate
Insecurity-promoting mechanisms
Poverty
Inequity
Corruption
Unlawful use of force
Discrimination
Injustice
High birth rate
Rapid population flows
Scarcity
Degradation
Lack of access
Disputed right of resource use
Extreme natural events and climate changes
Disease and epidemics
Security-promoting vs. Insecurity-promoting mechanisms
Adapted from Dabelko et al., 2000 and Maltais et al., (2003)