Critical evaluation of the implementation of the concept of environmental security: Case study of the Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the theoretical and empirical conceptual approaches to the link between environment and security in order to test their ability to function as guiding concepts in the multiple and complex challenges posed by the Anthropocene. For this purpose, the Critical Environmental Security Studies (CESS) are proposed and further developed in order to bridge the theory-practice gap and inform the literature on the conceptual approach carried out by the Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC).The empirical research that attempts to pinpoint and evaluate the dominant conceptual use of environmental security in reference to geopolitics, status quo maintenance, and normative change relies on document analyses of the period from 2001 to 2014 and semi-structured interviews with decision-makers of ENVSEC.