GLCb2020
Environmental
threats and
security
Environmental security:
history and concepts
March 7, 2024
Miriam Matejova, PhD
Agenda
• What makes the world
dangerous?
• What is security?
• What is environmental security?
Realism and global danger
• Rational agents with self-interests
• Danger and fear linked to the questions of war
and violence
Realism and security
• Security: a need to be protected from danger
• Security for states
– Focused on the concept of sovereignty
– Usually from military perspective
– Power understood as military or economic power
Human security
• 1994 UN Human Development Report
• Focus on human life and dignity
• Dimensions: economic, food, health, environmental,
personal, community, and political security
Securitization
• Barry Buzan and the
Copenhagen school
– Security is not only military
but also political, economic,
social and environmental
– Securitization agents, using
speech acts, turn a problem
into a security threat
Securitization of the environment
Environmental threats and politics
•Three political dilemmas:
1) “Threats without an enemy”
2) High cost and economic interests
3) Need for global coordination
•Should we explicitly link the environment and
security? Why yes/no?
Questions?