The Environmental Security and International Conflicts: An Analytical and Theoretical Framework

Abstract

“Conflict” represents one side of the international interactions, while “Cooperation” represents the other side. The international conflict is ”a situation of interests” contradiction between two or more international actors. Such conflict might be political, as well as economic, social, cultural, ethnic, sectarian, religious and ideological or a propaganda one. There are multiple approaches and analytical theories to explain the international conflict in international relations, such as the psychological, the ideological, the national interests, the arms race, the geopolitical and the sociological approaches, as well as the theory of “peace-through-parity”, the theory of “power preponderance”, as well as the theory of “pressure to the outside”. In the framework of the environmental school, the “environmental security theory” comes as one of the approaches used for the analytical interpretation of international conflict. The traditional concept of “national security” has expanded, and it is no longer limited to military threats, but it extends to the dangers and threats of non-military nature, such as the political, environmental, social, economic, ideological and other threats. In this context, the main argument of the “environmental security theory” is that there is a correlation between the “environmental problems” on one hand, and the “international conflicts” on the other. Hence, it provides an analysis and explanation of the international conflict, in light of the environmental threats. A review of the literature in the field of environmental security reveals the existence of three generations of the theory of environmental security. The first generation focused on understanding the relationship between “environment” and “security”, while the second generation focused on the relationship between “security”, “environmental issues” and “international conflicts”. The third generation has focused on the notion of “environmental conflict”, and thus, it tackled the relationship between environmental security and violence or violent conflict.