Relevance of Human and Environmental Security Concepts for the Military Services: A Perspective of a Former Chief of Staff

Abstract

There is overwhelming evidence for a direct and integral relationship between the human condition and the environment. Historically, early civilizations derived their needs from being hunters and collectors, from their association with great rivers and watersheds and biodiversity, in terms of flora and fauna that supported their needs for food, fuel, and shelter. Such examples are the almost mystical and religious relationships that exist between the Nile, the Euphrates, the Ganges, the Amazon and their human populations. It has been argued that the collapse of the great Aztec, Mayan, and Inca civilizations occurred when their exploitation of natural resources reached the point of unsustainability. The desertification of parts of Africa through deforestation and harvesting of firewood has manifested itself in the cycle of famine, disease, and civil wars.1 At the national levels, the irresponsible exploitation of natural resources and the environment has led to degradation of watersheds, landslides from denuded mountain and hill slopes, polluted water and streams, spread of diseases such as malaria and typhoid, and the excessive urbanization resulting from the migration from rural and hinterland areas to the cities and towns in pursuit of the material culture. The relationships between the environment and the human condition are the subject of much debate at international fora. The Convention on Biodiversity (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997) are two examples of the outcomes of policy debates that have been converted into political strategies. The vulnerabilities of the planet to catastrophic events such as tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, floods, and fires are very topical due to the massive loss of life, property damage, investments, and the scale of physical, emotional, and mental suffering. The newest manifestation of conflict after the damage to humankind and the environment from major wars, wars of attrition, chemical warfare, and civil wars, are terrorist attacks on the infrastructure to cause maximum trauma to humankind for political ends. Undoubtedly a combination of demographic growth due to population growth and environmental stress from increasing demand for resources will be a catalyst for social unrest and make for increasing vulnerability to intraand inter-state tensions and conflicts. Human security as now defined puts the individual at the centre of debate, analysis, and policy. “It is the individual who is paramount; government is an instrument of the people to protect human life and enhance human welfare”2. Environmental security is the relative public safety from environmental dangers caused by natural or human processes due to ignorance, accident, mismanagement or design and originating within or across national borders. This relationship between human security and environmental security forms the basis of international and national strategies to cope with the negative manifestations of the lack or absence of such security. Such strategies should stress the importance of international interde-