New Priorities in American Foreign Policy: Defining and Implementing Environmental Security

　

Braden Allenby

　

Abstract

　

In Chapter 2, Braden Allenby defines "environmental security," which he argues can be defined as the intersection of environmental and security considerations at the national policy level.  A relatively new and still somewhat contentious concept, environmental security may be understood as an outcome of several important trends.  One is the breakdown of the bipolar geopolitical structure that characterized the Cold War period from the 1940s to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Another trend, less visible to many in the policy community, is the shift of environmental considerations from "overhead" to "strategic." This process is occurring at many different levels, from individuals and private firms, to the national, state, regional and global policy levels. Taken together, according to Allenby, these trends suggest that environmental security may signal an important evolution of national and international policy systems. If this evolution is to solidify, however, the concept—which has been used to mean different things by different stakeholder communities—must be defined with sufficient rigor to support its operationalization in policy programs.