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Linking Security and Environmental Security from a Theoretical Perspective

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Linking Security and Environmental Security from a Theoretical Perspective International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI) ISSN (Online): 2319 – 7722, ISSN (Print): 2319 – 7714 www.ijhssi.org ||Volume 8 Issue 05 Ser. III ||May 2019 || PP54-60 Linking Security and Environmental Security from a theoretical perspective VC Shushant Parashar, Dr. Shalini Saxena, PhD Research Scholar, Amity Institute of Social Sciences, Amity University, Noida Campus, UP-201305. Assistant Professor, Amity Institute of Social Sciences, Amity University, Noida Campus, UP-201305 Corresponding Author: VC Shushant Parashar ABSTRACT: Global politics has undergone tremendous change in the post-Cold War era. With the emergence of many players on the global stage, the security paradigm has evolved wherein issues such as human security, economic security, political security and environmental security and other issues have been incorporated into the security umbrella. One such issue that is gaining momentum in today’s evolving world is environmental security. The world of today is facing a host of environmental issues as these issues have a long- term effect on the innerworkings of a nation. This is so because environmental issues are not unique to a particular nation rather, they play a major role in the realm of human security as well as global security. Based upon this notion, it becomes important to look into the theoretical aspects of security and how they propose to incorporate environmental security into the current evolving security paradigm. The proposed research paper aims to do the same. Keywords: Environmental Security, Security, Realism, Regional Security Complex. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 20-05-2019 Date of acceptance:03-06-2019 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. INTRODUCTION The word security has been characterized by researchers in various courses throughout history. As the worldwide situation continues to change, the talk in global politics on the meaning of security likewise is changing itself. In its non-specific and strict meaning, security passes on as the state or feeling of being free from fear, stress, risk, peril and so on, thus guaranteeing a feeling of safety1. Nonetheless the idea of security has changed its meaning in contemporary times. Amid the 19th century, it was characterized as the security of the state and the legislature formulated was in terms of maintaining the security of the state. This idea of security experienced further change due to WWI taking place, which threatened the security and emphasized the need for a worldwide security network thus making security the concern of everyone. This prompted the foundation of the “League of Nations” in 1919 and it was foreseen that it would work in turning away another war. The League before long proved to be ineffective and the world saw the rise of WWII. However, the urge and need for collective security was not abandoned in the face of insecurity, instead in the place of the League of Nations came in another an organization known as the “United Nations Organization” in 1945 whose main aim was to promote and establish global peace and security. In spite of various multilateral organization aimed at the implementation of security at a global level, the concerns over national security have not yet withered away and was seen in relation to military security and it was only after the end of the 20th century, that the security paradigm changed drastically to include within its reasonable space various non-militaristic dimensions. With the reign of Cold War over, those specializing in International Relations reached to a conclusion that there is the requirement to develop a theory which incorporated the ideas that were prior barred from the ambit of the security paradigm. One of the many issues that gained enough traction was that of environmental security and gave rise to the notion that welfare of the environment will dictate future agendas as the destruction of the environment is now being seen on a global scale and in the coming future can undermine the monetary base and the social texture of frail and poor states by creating or worsening intra/interstate pressures and conflicts2. Security in International Relations War, strife and security have been spoken deeply about in the realm of international relations since olden times as the theme of those days were security and struggle. Works composed by Thucydides, is one of 1 Kalam, Abul. (1998). Environment and Development: Widening security frontier and the quest for a new security framework in South Asia. BIISS Journal. 19(2), pp116. 2Ibid. (1998). pp 299. www.ijhssi.org 54 | Page Linking Security and Environmental Security from a theoretical perspective the prior works that talks about International Relations and ideas like security3.The idea of security has remained a focal issue in the present day and yet has different perspectives to it thus making it hard to reach a common consensus. Customarily, the idea of security has fundamentally been identified with the utilization of military power as mentioned beforehand. In today‟s cutting-edge world, different variables such as monetary contemplations and welfare issues are progressively becoming essential and pertinent parts of the idea of security4. The idea of security alludes to various arrangements of issues, goals and values; it regularly mirrors the contention that takes place in international relations. The verbal confrontations that take place among scholars about the conceptualization of security is an on-going process and that to at the level of examination and the scope of the study of security. This argument though academic in nature is not limited to academics only. Amid the years prior to the Cold-War, numerous scholars had accepted that the idea of security had a particular definition, principally at the level of the nation-state and that the nature of security was militaristic. The predominant idea of security amid the Cold-War was connected to the theory of realism, which concentrated on the conduct of states in guaranteeing security by military means thus equating military might to the strength of the nation. This notion of security has been progressively been tested on various issues. A few researchers have condemned the need to look at every threat from a militaristic approach; instead they urge to focus on a plethora of issues and bring them into the idea of security. Others have justified that there needs to be a multi-level examination of security instead of the state-centric approach. Recently, many have stressed upon the need to focus upon certain issues as a major aspect of the security issue. In this view, there are no security threats, but only issues developed by specific actors through practices and discourses. During the time spent securitization, a threat is assigned a status which requires prompt activity or measures to battle it out5. With the end of the Cold-war, there emerged logical discussion on the survivability of national and international security. Emerging research in the realm of security has turned out to be more extensive by nature as numerous researchers started to concentrate on the impact of various issues on the concept of security. The most overwhelming issues that took birth from the discussions and intellectual debate among scholars were related to globalization, the relationship between state and the newly emerging non-state actors etc. Post-Cold war there also emerged the notion to re-think the existing political theories with respect to considerable measure of issues to the idea of security. With the fall of the Soviet Union, scholars started to work on building a more extensive idea of security which is not only militaristic by nature. The rise of new worldwide factors and issues prompted the development of another look towards the security idea in international relations. Issues and factors such as ethnic issues, conflict over resources and a great deal of developing issues have given another dimension to the idea of security in international relations6. In the mid-nineties, international relations entered onto a new phase wherein the period of bi-polar rule ended thus leading to a reduction in global military clashes of which emerged a period of global stability and the rise of the forces of globalization and liberalism that aided in the growth of concepts such as human rights, identity of the individual and the most important being the assertion of the self. A key advancement inside the academic mainstream of security studies took place in 1983 with the publication of Barry Buzan‟s book “People, States and Fear”7. Buzan contended powerfully, through his book, that security was not just about states but rather should be related with all the human collectivities and shouldn‟t be focused only on military power and emphasized upon military, political, economic, social and environmental security8. II. THEORETICAL CONCEPT The study of security in the worldwide setting is a sub-part of the more extensive subject typically referred toInternational Relations and is related to the investigation of every single political association between global actors that include states (represented by the governments), global associations (either intergovernmental or non-governmental) and to a lesser degree some well off private people. The study of security
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