How do we secure the environment?
We should heed this warning against militarising environmental hazards, writes Tim Dunne
Every age seems to invent a master narrative about its own demise. At the turn of the 20th century, the fear was of a violent struggle between races and civilisations. In the post-1945 world, the nightmare was of a nuclear holocaust. The narrative of demise that haunts us today is the threat that environmental harm holds for the planet and its ability to support human and other life forms.
What does it mean to speak of environmental change as a "threat"? As Simon Dalby argues in this outstanding and original book, threats in the 21st century have less to do with governments' mobilisation of military force in pursuit of certain goals and more to do with a broader range of security issues. These new threats include climate change, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, global diseases, unchecked population growth and environmental hazards.
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