Environmental and Energy Security: Conceptual Evolution and Potential Applications to European Cross-Border Energy Supply Infrastructure

Abstract

The term of energy security has evolved since the oil shocks of the 1970s and the concept of environmental security was used in the political debates and the scientific discourse since 1989 when the Cold War was winding down. The key thesis of this chapter is that since the early 1990s the concept of security has been fundamentally reconceptualized: It was widened (from the narrow political and military focus to include also the economic, societal and environmental dimensions), deepened (by broadening the reference object from the state [in national and international security] to human beings and humankind [in human security]) and it was sectorialized [by creating many sectoral concepts of food, water, health, soil, climate security et al.].This chapter primarily reviews this reconceptualization of the security concept that has direct implications for the understanding of the notions of environmental security (a new dimension) and energy security (a sectoral concept). This chapter also briefly discusses potential applications for the European cross-border energy supply infrastructure (e.g. of oil and gas pipelines) linking Russia, the Central Asian states and the MENA region with energy-deficient European countries. Oil and gas pipelines face a dual challenge of both geophysical (earthquakes) and hydro meteorological (e.g. forest fires) natural disasters as well as deliberate attacks on them by terrorist groups (e.g. in Iraq and in Algeria), and new political problems between Russia, the Ukraine and NATO countries. This chapter addresses selected environmental security challenges and impacts of both globalization and global environmental change (GEC), environmental security tasks and tools and possible environmental security applications and conceivable forms of institutionalization; it will conclude with a brief discussion of the potential contribution of integrated environment monitoring systems for the cross border energy supply infrastructure. The contextual change of the implications of Russia’s annexation of the Crimea peninsula for pan-European energy security will remain a key political and security challenge for the future relations between NATO countries and Russia.KeywordsEnvironmental and energy securityCross-border energy supply infrastructureEurope