International Security: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Christopher S. Browning
Authors: Christopher S. Browning
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it rather seems to be reproducing neo-colonial structures of exploitation. Beyond this, though, from this perspective capitalist market-oriented conceptions of wealth and development premised on enhanced levels of consumption and resource exploitation raise further questions about whether it is possible to conceive of development in more sustainable terms, a question which leads us into Chapter 7 .
Chapter 7
Resources, climate change, and capitalism
One way of gaining an insight into debates about International Security is to keep an eye on key themes within popular culture. Over the last 10–15 years imminent threats posed by climate change have proved particularly popular, as manifest in movies like
The Day After Tomorrow
and
WALL-E
, but also in documentary films like
An Inconvenient Truth
. The message of these films is that rising global temperatures present the global community with potentially apocalyptic scenarios of environmental, social, and economic breakdown and warn that if we fail to act now the future looks grim indeed. Another popular theme, however, is that of renewed geostrategic and ethnic conflicts played out in the competition for resources. Films like
Blood Diamond
and
Syriana
, for example, tie the competition for resources over things like water, oil, minerals, and land to state national interests and the activities of big business and depict a world where limited resources almost inevitably foster conflict.
At one level these themes appear disconnected. The former concerns the overall relationship between humanity and the planetary biosphere and raises questions about the possibilities for preserving biodiversity and even for maintaining the conditions necessary for life itself. The second is mainly about issues of distribution and access, of who gets what, when, and howor whether the distribution of the earth’s resources should be dictated purely by considerations of power, or perhaps by the functioning of the market, or even out of considerations of justice. However, these issues also often feed off each other. Deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels, for example, contribute to climate change, while the effects of climate change may put an extra stress on resources or create new sites of potential conflict. The melting of the Arctic ice cap, for example, has raised questions about mineral mining rights on the Arctic seabed and provoked competing claims for sovereignty in the region ( Figure 7 ). Meanwhile, rising sea levels pose existential threats for low lying island states in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, some of which may disappear completely.
In different ways, therefore, the environment presents us with a range of security challenges that are often grouped together under the catch-all term ‘environmental security’. It is, however, important to understand that in debates about environmental security people often refer to and prioritize different things. For example, from a traditional perspective environmental security is generally translated into a concern with what environmental issues mean for state security. From a human security perspective the concern shifts to how problems of environmental degradation and resource depletion impact on people’s lives. Meanwhile, ecologists prioritize the environment itself, emphasizing the damaging effects of human activities on global and local ecosystems. The perspective we adopt matters since it shapes the nature of the security challenges that are perceived, the sorts of options that might be available to us, as well as framing the likelihood of their success (and even of what constitutes success on environmental issues in the first place).
7. A Russian submarine plants a flag under the Arctic
Resource wars and the problem of scarcity
From a traditional perspective environmental security is often reduced to an emphasis on securing access to resources and on how environmental changes and stresses may pose threats to national
Chapter 7
Resources, climate change, and capitalism
One way of gaining an insight into debates about International Security is to keep an eye on key themes within popular culture. Over the last 10–15 years imminent threats posed by climate change have proved particularly popular, as manifest in movies like
The Day After Tomorrow
and
WALL-E
, but also in documentary films like
An Inconvenient Truth
. The message of these films is that rising global temperatures present the global community with potentially apocalyptic scenarios of environmental, social, and economic breakdown and warn that if we fail to act now the future looks grim indeed. Another popular theme, however, is that of renewed geostrategic and ethnic conflicts played out in the competition for resources. Films like
Blood Diamond
and
Syriana
, for example, tie the competition for resources over things like water, oil, minerals, and land to state national interests and the activities of big business and depict a world where limited resources almost inevitably foster conflict.
At one level these themes appear disconnected. The former concerns the overall relationship between humanity and the planetary biosphere and raises questions about the possibilities for preserving biodiversity and even for maintaining the conditions necessary for life itself. The second is mainly about issues of distribution and access, of who gets what, when, and howor whether the distribution of the earth’s resources should be dictated purely by considerations of power, or perhaps by the functioning of the market, or even out of considerations of justice. However, these issues also often feed off each other. Deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels, for example, contribute to climate change, while the effects of climate change may put an extra stress on resources or create new sites of potential conflict. The melting of the Arctic ice cap, for example, has raised questions about mineral mining rights on the Arctic seabed and provoked competing claims for sovereignty in the region ( Figure 7 ). Meanwhile, rising sea levels pose existential threats for low lying island states in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, some of which may disappear completely.
In different ways, therefore, the environment presents us with a range of security challenges that are often grouped together under the catch-all term ‘environmental security’. It is, however, important to understand that in debates about environmental security people often refer to and prioritize different things. For example, from a traditional perspective environmental security is generally translated into a concern with what environmental issues mean for state security. From a human security perspective the concern shifts to how problems of environmental degradation and resource depletion impact on people’s lives. Meanwhile, ecologists prioritize the environment itself, emphasizing the damaging effects of human activities on global and local ecosystems. The perspective we adopt matters since it shapes the nature of the security challenges that are perceived, the sorts of options that might be available to us, as well as framing the likelihood of their success (and even of what constitutes success on environmental issues in the first place).
7. A Russian submarine plants a flag under the Arctic
Resource wars and the problem of scarcity
From a traditional perspective environmental security is often reduced to an emphasis on securing access to resources and on how environmental changes and stresses may pose threats to national
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