Citation

Barnett J. J. Hum. Secur. 2007; 3(1): 4-16.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Librello Publishing)

DOI

10.3316/JHS0301004

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

For all that has been written about environmental security, there has been little explicit consideration of how it relates to peace. There are, however, a number of important links between environmental security and peace in theory and practice. Based on an understanding of peace as including the absence of both direct violence and structural violence, the paper explores four principal connections between environmental security and peace. It examines the ways in which environmental change is a factor in direct violence, and the ways in which it exacerbates structural violence. The paper then examines the ways in which direct violence and structural violence cause environmental insecurity. The conclusion from this analysis is that neither environmental security nor peace can be achieved without the other.

Peace, development and environmental protection are interdependent and indivisible.

-Principle 25, The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, 1992