Ecological Security

Abstract

This chapter appraises the concept of ecological security. The treatment of environmental questions as matters of security has grown over the last half century— both in theory and practice—but has also proved contentious. Firstly, environmental “securitization” is anathema to the traditional realist view that non-military issues do not warrant such treatment and, secondly, it is resisted by most ecologists through fears that this may prompt the inappropriate militarization of such concerns. The critical or human security rationale that the millions of deaths from pollution are, in themselves, enough to merit emergency treatment has subsequently suffered by being unwelcomed by a large proportion of both the conservatives and the radicals in international environmental politics.