Environmental Security and Global Stability

Max G. Manwaring is Professor of Military Strategy at the Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College. He is the editor of 9 books, including The Search for U.S. Security: A Forward Strategy for the 21st Century (with Edwin G. Corr and Robert H. Dorff, forthcoming) and Deterrence in the Twenty-First Century (2000).

Once ignored in the formulation of national security policy and strategy, environmental security today is addressed in every serious think-piece written on any region of the world. We have arrived, a little late, but together. Commanders of regional military commands, diplomats, policy wonks, oceanographers, foresters, hydrologists, special interest groups, and congressmen and presidents are all thinking about internal and cross-border instability all around the world. When these people look at the root causes of instability that might fester into conflict and possible state failure, more and more fingers point at natural and man-made causes and effects of environmental degradation. Pick your region—the chapter authors who follow have. Pick your poison—the chapters that follow cover many topics that make up the broad categories of environmental degradation and stressors. The authors discuss the consequences of aberrant water supply (too much and too little), deforestation, pollution, population migration, disease vectors, political consequences of natural and man-made disasters, and more. The contributors to this volume will stir you up. They clearly link cause (environmental irresponsibility) with effect (instability that can lead to armed force

• Part 1 ForewordPart 2 IntroductionChapter 3 Environmental Security and Global Stability: Rethinking Problem and ResponseChapter 4 Making Sense of Environmental SecurityPart 5 Case Studies in Environmental Degradation: Flashpoints Around the WorldChapter 6 Geopolitics, National Security, and the Environment: An Example from the Trans-Caspian RegionChapter 7 Security Implications of Asia's Environmental ProblemsChapter 8 A Micro Look at West Africa: Rural Water Resources, Environmental Sustainability, and Security ImplicationsChapter 9 Environmental Flashpoints in Africa: Ethiopia and the Blue NileChapter 10 Security Implications of Latin America's Environmental ProblemsChapter 11 A Micro Look at Latin America: Security Implications of Panama's Environmental ProblemsChapter 12 Water: The Hydraulic Parameter of Conflict in the Jordan River BasinPart 13 Where to From Here?Chapter 14 The Environment as a Global Stability-Security Issue