Theory and Security: Ecological and Environmental Security in International Relations

Module Overview and Objectives

• General Purpose: The course is designed to share comprehensive knowledge concerning ecological security from a comparative perspective.

• Scope of Study:

  • Theory and fundamental definitions related to the environment and security.

  • The legal frameworks governing ecological issues.

  • Key international and regional organizations tasked with maintaining ecological security and environmental protection.

  • Contemporary threats to the environment in the modern world.

  • Global and regional strategies for prevention and counteraction against ecological disasters.

• Instructor and Session Details:

  • Dr. Slawomir Raszewski.

  • Session $1a$ (March $4$, $2026$) and Session $2$ (February $29$, $2024$).

  • Session $2$ schedule: $15:00-16:30$ and $16:45-18:15$ in Room $9$.

Foundations of Security Studies

• Definition: Security studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that investigates the sources, nature, and management of security threats. Analysis spans from the individual level to the global level.

• Broadening Scope:

  • Traditional Security: Investigates military conflicts, interstate rivalries, and the balance of power between states.

  • Non-Traditional Security: Examines challenges such as terrorism, environmental degradation, and pandemics.

• Interdisciplinary Nature: The field draws on diverse disciplines, including:

  • Political Science and International Relations (IR).

  • Sociology and Psychology.

  • Economics and History.

  • Law.

• Theoretical Underpinnings: As a sub-field of International Relations, security studies is built upon various theoretical 'churches':

  • The Realist school.

  • The Liberal tradition.

  • Marxist and Constructivist perspectives.

• Key Terms and Related Concepts:

  • Security, National Security Culture, and Global Security.

  • The relationship between Security and Politics.

  • Securitisation and the concept of 'framing'.

• International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Keywords: Rebel, Nuclear Weapons, Proliferation, Statecraft, Conflict, Strategy, Technology, Intervention, Asia Politics, Power Dynamics, Ontological security, and Training.

The Evolution of the Security Research Agenda

• Historical Pivot: The research agenda was reshaped in the late $1980s$ and early $1990s$, reflecting systemic changes such as the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

• Conceptual Shift:

  • The ‘emergence’ of ‘non-traditional’ threats led to new conceptual frameworks.

  • A move away from focusing exclusively on 'States' to including 'People' and 'Fear' as objects of security.

• Deepening and Broadening: The scope of analysis was expanded to change the way security and politics are perceived.

• Analytical Objectives: Moving beyond the study of 'what is' and 'what should be' to understand the process of how certain issues are constructed as security matters.

Barry Buzan’s Sectoral Approach to Security

• The Multi-Sectoral Framework: Barry Buzan proposed a sectoral approach to security studies, categorizing security into five distinct areas:

  1. Military Security: Centered on the State.

  2. Political Security: Centered on Institutions.

  3. Economic Security: Centered on Welfare.

  4. Societal Security: Centered on Identity and Culture.

  5. Environmental Security: Centered on Nature.

• Specific Exclusions/Inclusions:

  • There is no specific 'energy' or 'resource' security sector in this paradigm.

  • 'Ecology' as a term is not used; instead, it is classified as the 'Environmental sector'.

Securitisation Theory: Ole Wæver’s Framework

• Definition of Securitisation: Wæver and Buzan ($2003$) define it as ‘the discursive process through which an intersubjective understanding is constructed to treat something as an existential threat to the referent object’ (p. $491$).

• Distinguishing Security and Securitisation:

  • Security: The object or the threat itself.

  • Securitisation: The linguistic and social process of constructing that threat.

• The Referent Objects by Sector:

  • Military Security: State security.

  • Political Security: Sovereignty and ‘our’ democracy.

  • Economic Security: Markets and companies.

  • Societal Security: Collective identities.

  • Environmental Security: Humans and the biosphere.

The Process and Dynamics of Securitisation

• Speech Acts: Security is not an objective condition; it is a communication-based construction. By labeling an issue a threat, actors attempt to persuade an audience.

• The Securitising Actor: Individuals such as political leaders, policymakers, or influential figures who have the authority/credibility to frame issues as security concerns and mobilize resources.

• The Securitising Move: The initial attempt to label an issue as a security threat.

• Audience Acceptance: If the audience (decision-makers, political elites, or the public) accepts the framing, it justifies exceptional measures that would be unacceptable under normal circumstances.

• Stages of the Securitisation Process:

  1. Problematisation: Identifying an issue as a threat.

  2. Speech Act: Presenting the issue as requiring urgent, immediate action.

  3. Acceptance: Securing support for exceptional measures.

• Outcomes: Successful securitisation leads to the issue being treated as national security, justifying military action, emergency powers, or civil liberty restrictions.

• De-securitisation: The process of removing an issue from the realm of security by challenging the discourse and reframing it in non-security, less urgent terms.

• A-securitisation: Issues that have not been securitised.

Definitions and Scope of Ecological Security

• Definition of Ecological Security: A condition where ecosystems, biodiversity, and the environment are stable, healthy, and resilient. This provides essential services and resources for human well-being and sustainable development.

• Core Components: Protection, conservation, and sustainable management of natural resources to ensure long-term functionality.

• Requirements: Concerted efforts between governments, businesses, civil society, and individuals to maintain a harmonious relationship between humans and nature.

• Significance: Essential for human well-being, economic prosperity, and the long-term sustainability of the planet.

Ecological Science: Biotic and Abiotic Interactions

• Ecology Definition: The scientific study of relationships between living organisms and their environment.

• Components of Study:

  • Biotic Factors: Interactions between organisms.

  • Abiotic Factors: Interactions with physical surroundings, including climate, soil, water, and nutrients.

• Goals: To understand the distribution and abundance of species and the flow of energy and nutrients through ecosystems.

• Key Ecological Concepts:

  • Ecosystems: Systems of living organisms interacting with the physical environment (e.g., forests, grasslands, oceans, deserts).

  • Species Interactions: Relationships such as competition, predation, mutualism, and parasitism.

  • Population Dynamics: Changes in population size, density, and distribution over time, influenced by birth rates, death rates, immigration, and emigration.

  • Community Structure: Species composition and patterns of interaction in a specific area.

  • Energy Flow and Nutrient Cycling: Movement from producers (plants) to consumers (animals) and decomposers (bacteria, fungi).

  • Biomet and Biogeography: Large-scale regions defined by climate and vegetation (influenced by latitude, altitude, etc.).

  • Ecological Succession: Development and change in ecosystems over time, often after disturbances.

  • Conservation Ecology: Applying principles to protect species and ecosystems from extinction and degradation.

Concepts of Balance and Resilience in Ecological Security

• Ecological Balance: Perceived as a set of dynamic equilibriums:

  1. Human populations vs. nature’s ability to provide resources/services at high consumption levels.

  2. Human populations vs. pathogenic microorganisms.

  3. Human populations vs. other plant and animal species.

  4. Between different human populations.

• Critical Question: Pirages ($2005$) asks if balance can truly be achieved in the face of ongoing population growth.

• Ecosystem Resilience: Defined by McDonald ($2018$: $166$) as the capacity of ecosystems to sustain life across time and space and retain their ‘organizational structure following perturbation.’ It is the ability to ‘absorb change while retaining essential function.’

• Climate Skepticism/Denialism: Professor John F. Clauser (Nobel Prize in Physics $2022$) stated that there is ‘no real climate crisis’ but rather an ‘energy crisis’ associated with providing standards of living for a large world population.

Globalisation as a Factor in Ecological Change

• Ecological Integration: Globalisation brings together peoples and ecosystems once separated by physical, political, or cultural barriers.

• Combined Burdens: The increase in world population and the resource demands of industrial growth place immense pressure on the global system.

• Forces of Change: Technological innovation, demographic shifts, and environmental change are seen as the primary drivers of ecological instability, rather than state motives (Pirages and Manley, $2004$).

• The Double-Edged Sword (Pirages and Manley, $2004$):

  • Benefits: Economic globalization (backed by Smith and Ricardo’s ideas), synergies from the flow of information, people, and ideas.

  • Costs: Porous borders leading to migration crises, the spread of dangerous pathogens, and the weakening of government governance.

Economic and Ecological Globalisation Interplay

• Ecological Imperialism: Commodity markets facilitate the destruction of ecosystems and pollution in poor countries to support high consumption levels in wealthy nations.

• Unintended Ecological Spread: Movement of commodities facilitates the unintended spread of pests, microorganisms, and communicable diseases into new ecosystems.

• Soft Power Dynamics: While Western soft power led during the 'golden era' of globalisation, it resulted in cultural dominance, cultural approximation, and subsequent 'nativist' backlashes.

Globalisation, Evolutionary Discontinuity, and Conflict

• Impact on Security Policy: Traditionally, security focused on military defense of economic interests. Modern technology and globalisation have caused significant discontinuities in evolutionary processes and ecosystem transformations.

• Shift in Conflict: Interstate conflict has largely been replaced by prevalent intrastate conflict, often rooted in cultural or identity differences (e.g., former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Cambodia).

• Ecosystemic Casualties: Environmental changes—including plagues, pollution, blizzards, floods, and droughts—have been credited with the loss of countless human lives.