In the last several decades, “environmental security” has become almost as much of a buzz phrase as “sustainable development,” and there is as much debate about what it means. Understandings range from a narrowly defined focus on conflict due to resource struggle or resource scarcity to a broad focus on the environmental factors required for fundamental well-being. Environmental issues are thus seen both as causes of conflict and as preconditions for human security, or “ultimate security.” Moreover, as analysts point out, security institutions can create environmental damage, they can repair it, and they can contribute to environmental stability and ecosystem health.
How are we to sort out the disparate interpretations of the roles of the environment in security and of security institutions in the environment? Is it useful to recast traditional understandings of “security” to include stresses due to environmental scarcity and degradation? Can abundance of certain resources (diamonds, fossil fuels) also lead to conflict? Should issues such as food, energy, water, and climate security be added to the list of traditional security concerns? What are the practical implications of such re-definitions in terms of governmental structures, relationships, and activities?
In addition to these questions, this course will examine whether the concept of environmental security can deepen understanding of underlying causes of past and present tensions and problems, and help to predict the challenges of the future. We will also examine whether the concept can focus attention on opportunities for cooperation and peacemaking as well as on competition and conflict.
The course will enjoy a special relationship with scholar/practitioners from the Woodrow Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Project.
The course pursues four main themes, THEORY, IMPLEMENTATION, CASES, and RESEARCH.
Theory: We familiarize ourselves with the scholarly/theoretical debate about environmental security by studying the history of the term and reading two books on environmental conflict and its relationship to resource scarcity (Homer-Dixon; Klare). We also examine the leading alternative views of environmental security as related to human security (Najam; UNDP).
Implementation: The course examines how the concept is being applied. A speaker from the U.S. military will talk about how security institutions are implementing the concept. We also look at websites and publications of the Department of Defense, other U.S. agencies, and parallel institutions overseas to understand how countries are dealing with each other on “environmental security” issues.
Empirical Studies: We explore numerous "cases" -- all of them in Asia (broadly defined). We “slice” the issue in four ways: according to country, according to sector, according to type of threat, and according to specific cases. With these cases (some of which will be examined as a class, others via small groups, and others individually), we will test the efficacy of various understandings and definitions of environmental security so as to develop our own positions on the utility of the concept.
In-depth Research: Students conduct their own major projects, on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. The research begins early in the semester and culminates in a final paper and report.
Course Requirements:
Class attendance is essential. If you MUST miss class, you must send me an email explaining why. There will be two short papers (4-6 pages) and one final research paper (12-18 pages), several short reports (based on research on cases) and a final presentation. Final grades will be based on attendance and participation (20%), short projects (10%) two papers (15%, 15% and 30%), and presentation (10%).
For purchase in the bookstore
Jon Barnett, The Meaning of Environmental Security: Ecological Politics and Policy in the New Security Era. New York: Zed Books, 2001.
Michael T. Klare, Resource Wars. New York: Owl Books, 2001
Thomas Homer-Dixon, Environment, Scarcity, and Violence. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. (Recommended, although we will not read the entire book.)
September 2
Organizational meeting: What is environmental security?
September 9
* Issues One and Two of ECSP project (handouts)
Geoffrey D. Dabelko, “The Environmental Factor,” Wilson Quarterly, Autumn 1999 (handout)
Class visit: Environmental Change and Security Project
September 16
Implementation: I
VISIT FROM DR. KENT BUTTS, ARMY WAR COLLEGE
* Robert Kaplan, “The Coming Anarchy” (1994)
* Kent Butts, “The Case for DOD Involvement in Environmental Security.” In Daniel H. Deudney and Richard A. Matthew, eds., Contested Grounds: Security and Conflict in the New Environmental Politics. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1999, pp. 109-126.
* Lorraine Elliott, “Keynote Address” AND
* Richard Matthew, “Environment and Security: Concepts and Definitions.”
Both in Catherine Phinney and Kent Butts, eds. Regional Asia Pacific Defence Environmental Workshop, May 11-14, 1998. Environmental Security Series Number 5, Center for Strategic Leadership (Army War College), pp. 9-23 and 45-58. e-reserves.
* E-research: Army Environmental Policy Institute,
* E-research: Nato Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society
* E-research: State of the Future (UN University) Millennium Project “Defining Environmental Security: Implications for the US Army” http://www.acunu.org/millennium/es-exsum.html
SHORT PAPER ON CONCEPTS TOPIC DISTRIBUTED
September 23
History of the concept and competing definitions
* Lester R. Brown, “Redefining National Security,” Worldwatch Paper 14. Washington: Worldwatch Institute, 1977. (e-reserves)
* Jessica Tuchman Mathews, “Redefining Security,” Foreign Affairs, Spring 1989, pp. 162-177 (E-reserves).
* Norman Myers, Ultimate Security: The Environmental Basis of Political Stability. New York: W. W. Norton, 1995, pp. 5-36. (e-reserves)
* Daniel Deudney, “Environmental Security: A Critique.” In Daniel H. Deudney and Richard A. Matthew, eds., Contested Grounds: Security and Conflict in the New Environmental Politics. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1999, pp. 187-222. (e-reserves)
* UNDP 1994. (e-reserves)
* Marc Levy, “Is the Environment a National Security Issue?” International Security, Fall 1995 (E-reserves).
* Adil Najam, “The Human Dimensions of Environmental Insecurity: Some Insights from South Asia” (ECSP 9, 2003). Available on line at: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1413&fuseaction=topics.publications&group_id=43158
SHORT PAPER DUE
September 30
Environmental Security and Conflict
* Klare, Resource Wars, Introduction through Chapter Two (pp. ix - 50)
* Homer-Dixon, Environment, Scarcity, and Violence, Introduction through Chapter Four (pp. 3 - 52).
October 7
Slicing by country
Class case: China
* “China, the Environmental Dragon”
http://www.aepi.army.mil/library/AEPI_Publications_&%20_reports.htm
* FOOD SECURITY
* FALLING WATER TABLE
* Howard French, “China’s Boom Brings Fear of an Electricity Breakdown.” NYT, July 5, 2004.
* “Addressing Environmental Risks in Central Asia” OR
Individual research on countries
October 14
Environmental Security and Cooperation
* Ken Conca, “The Case for Environmental Peacemaking” AND
* Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dalbelko, “The Problems and Possibilities of Environmental Peacemaking.”
Both in Ken Conca and Geoffrey Dabelko, eds, “Environmental Peacemaking” (Washington, DC, Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2002), pp.1-22 and 220-232. (e-reserves)
Individual (or group) research on cases of cooperation
SECOND VISIT WITH GEOFF DABELKO
October 21
Slicing by sector, part I
Class case: Energy security
* Klare, Resource Wars, Chapters Four and Five (pp. 81-137).
* Paul Roberts, “The Undeclared Oil War,” Monday, June 28, 2004, The Washington Post A21 (handout).
Group research on other sectors: Food, air, population, ocean resources, forest resources, health/disease
PROPOSED FINAL PAPER TOPICS DUE
October 28
Slicing by sector, part II
Class case: Water security
* Water Aviso (handout)
* Klare, Resource Wars, Chapter 7 (pp. 161-189).
* Sandra Postel and Aaron T. Wolf, "Dehydrating Conflict", Foreign Policy September/October 2001, pp. 2-9, (follow links to pdf)
* World Commission on Dams reports, TBA
* Reading on access to clean water/ water privatization debate, TBA
Film on Narmada Dam, “Drowned Out.”
November 4
Environmental Security: A Critique
Jon Barnett, The Meaning of Environmental Security (All)
SECOND SHORT PAPER: CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE BOOK
November 11
Slicing by “threat”
Class case: Climate change
* “Environmental Change, Vulnerability and Security in the Pacific” Aviso (handout)
AOSIS website
Individual or group research on other threats, e.g. urbanization (Chris Cocklin)
November 18
Slicing by “case”
Class case: The Aral Sea
Documentary: “Unnatural Disasters”
* “Eternal winter: lessons of the Aral Sea disaster,” Harper's Magazine, April, 2002, by Tom Bissell
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1111/1823_304/84184701/print.jhtml
* Erika Weinthal, “The Promises and Pitfalls of Environmental Peacemaking in the Aral Sea Basin.” In Ken Conca and Geoffrey Dabelko, eds, “Environmental Peacemaking” (Washington, DC, Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2002), pp. 86-121, E-reserves.
* Medecins Sans Frontieres websites (TBA)
December 2 Reports
December 9 Reports
December 16 Final Papers Due
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