Understanding Environmental Security: A Military Perspective
Abstract
Environmental security is a topic of growing interest in national security affairs and thus has significant implications to the military national defense mission. In the context of this report environmental security is a process of addressing those environmental issues having the potential to cause crisis or conflict to such an extent that they represent a threat to the security of the United States. The major products of this research are: A layman's description of the science of the major environmental degradation and resource scarcity issues in the world, a strategic threat assessment of the risk of these issues, a delineation of environmental security into the military and civilian security missions, and identification of possible military supporting role missions in environmental security. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis was applied to correlate regional environmental scarcity and degradation issues. This analysis of the major issues determined that the best predictive metric of environmental degradation is rate of natural population growth. Strong correlations were found between this statistic and rates of deforestation and water scarcity. All data reflected that population evaluated on the basis of regional carrying capacity best determined the overall stability of a region.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 14, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA387703
Entities
People
- W. C. King
Organizations
- Naval War College