Citation

Haldén P. Coop. Confl. 2011; 46(3): 406-414.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Nordic Committee for the Study of International Politics, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0010836711407660

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Research on the connection between environmental factors and conflict has received increasing attention in the past decade, in part due to the interest in the political and social effects of climate change. Environmental security in the widest sense has two meanings: securitizing the environment (ranging from ecosystems, species, biotopes to the entire biosphere) or the environment–civilization nexus (Buzan et al., 1998: 75 ff.). The former deals with how, for example, environmental issues in the Arctic region are gradually understood to be security issues. Ultimately, the latter concerns the survival of human civilization itself. A subset of this field of inquiry is research on whether armed conflict will ensue from changes in natural systems.