Environmental degradation and security

Dilara Choudhury

ntil very recently, security concept in Bangladesh was limited within the parameters of traditional concept of security. According to this concept, a country's security was well protected as long as it was militarily prepared to deter any external aggression that comes from outside its national border. Since then the concept of national security has gone through a profound transformation. In 1970s came the concept of comprehensive security, which propagated that threats to national security emanate both from outside and inside the country.

The concept was further deepened when the security of individual was placed at the very heart of 'Security Paradigm' since 1990s. It is now comprehended that security and development are synonymous. There is a growing realisation that 'security is development and without development there is no security.' According to UNDP's 1994 'Human Development Report,' seven specific values such as economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, common security and political security are needed in order to address Human Security.

This does not, however, mean that traditional threats or military threats should be marginalised in the context of the objective assessment of the threats. It, thus, becomes obvious that, at present, security challenges, especially in the developing countries, have become both varied and complex.

Challenges to national security
As a third world country, Bangladesh faces numerous challenges to its national security. It is a poor, underdeveloped country with limited resources. As a result, when a comprehensive/non-traditional security paradigm calls for multifarious sources of threats, it becomes hard for Bangladesh to wisely appropriate resources to the various sources of the threats.

Besides the internal dimensions of the threats, the country, in the context of increased global connectivity through information technology and computer (ICT) revolution, globalisation, aid dependency, widening gap between the rich and the poor countries, also faces threats like drug trafficking, human trafficking environmental degradations etc. that emanate from transnational scenario.

On top of the above mentioned threats it can not and should not completely overlook the threats that are considered traditional. One can, thus, easily discern that for a weak and resource poor country like Bangladesh challenges to its national security are daunting. One of the most challenging threats to our national security is environmental degradation.

Degradation and insecurity
Linkage between environmental issues and national security in Bangladesh came to the attention of the policy planners only in the 1990s. The West, especially United States, had begun to realise the environmental dimension of security since late 1970s and the outcome of it had been the Earth Summit in Rio de Janerio. There are now substantial indications, which point out the linkage between environmental degradation and scarcities, as the potential threats to social as well as inter-state conflicts.

Studies show that environmental degradation and scarcities can have two-fold impact: First, environmental issues enhance inter-state conflicts; and second, it can have devastating consequences on the economy and polity of a nation. Looking from this perspective, Bangladesh's national security is threatened by environmental issues in multifarious ways, three of which are discussed here.

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