Worldwide Emerging Environmental Issues Affecting the U.S. Military. Summarizing Environmental Security Monthly Scanning. July 2008 - June 2009
Abstract
The scope and scale of the effects of climate change -- ranging from changes in weather patterns to loss of livelihoods and disappearing states -- has unprecedented implications for political and social stability. Global strategies are needed to address anthropological causes of climate change and increasingly catastrophic environmental deterioration. International military and civilian collaboration is necessary to create adaptation policies and mechanisms to reduce potential environmentally induced conflicts. Environmental diplomacy and environmental considerations are increasingly integrated into conflict prevention and peacekeeping efforts as well as international efforts for confidence building. Nontraditional security issues -- including environment, migration, and social development -- have become standard considerations in security planning. Since it is well acknowledged that environmental security cannot be addressed by any nation alone, military strategies and geopolitics are being reshaped around complex issues and within multilateral frameworks. Increasingly powerful sensors connected by satellites and advancing software improve the ability to identify environmental threats and crimes. Hence, the capacities of international institutions to implement current legal agreements and make new more-powerful legal instruments are being strengthened. As a result, environmental damages that people and organizations got away with in the past are less likely to escape detection and punishment in the future. The purpose of the monthly environmental security scanning reports is to assess worldwide environment-related events in order to identify and analyze issues that might trigger future international environmental regulations and/or modifications to the existing ones with potential implications for the military.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA527195