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English
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CHAPTER 11
PEACE, SECURITY, DEVELOPMENT, AND THE ENVIRONMENT
1. Among the dangers facing the environment, the possibility of nuclear war, or military conflict of a lesser scale involving weapons of mass destruction, is undoubtedly the gravest. Certain aspects of the issues of peace and security bear directly upon the concept of sustainable development. Indeed, they are central to it.
2. Environmental stress is both a cause and an effect of political tension and military conflict.[1] Nations have often fought to assert or resist control over raw materials, energy supplies, land, river basins, sea passages, and other key environmental resources. Such conflicts are likely to increase as these resources become scarcer and competition for them increases.
3. The environmental consequences of armed conflict would be most devastating in the case of thermo-nuclear war. But there are damaging effects too from conventional, biological, and chemical weapons. as well as from the disruption of economic production and social organization in the wake of warfare and mass migration of refugees. But even where war is prevented. and where conflict is contained, a state of 'peace' might well entail the diversion into armament production of vast resources that could, at least in part, be used to promote sustainable forms of development.
4. A number of factors affect the connection between environmental stress, poverty, and security, such as inadequate development policies, adverse trends in the international economy, inequities in multi-racial and multi-ethnic societies, and pressures of population growth. These linkages among environment. development, and conflict are complex and. in many cases, poorly understood. But a comprehensive approach to international and national security must transcend the traditional emphasis on military power and armed competition. The real sources of insecurity also encompass unsustainable development, and its effects can become intertwined with traditional forms of conflict in a manner that can extend and deepen the latter.
I. ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS AS A SOURCE OF CONFLICT
5. Environmental stress is seldom the only cause of major conflicts within or among nations. Nevertheless. they can arise from the marginalization of sectors of the population and from ensuing violence. This occurs when political processes are
- ↑ For some preliminary analyses along these lines, see L. Timberlake and J. Tinker, 'Environment and Conflict: Links Between Ecological Decay, Environmental Bankruptcy and Political and Military Instability', Earthscan Briefing Document, Earthscan, London, 1984: N. Myers, 'The Environmental Dimension to Security Isues', The Environmentalist, Winter 1986; R.H. Ullman, 'Redefining Security', International Security, Summer 1983: and A.H, Westing (ed.), Global Resources and International Conflict (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986).
