ABSTRACT
Over the past two decades a substantial body of literature has emerged in North America, Europe and throughout much of the developing world exploring the existing and potential linkages between security and the environment. While it explores some ideas that have roots in classical thought, this literature is largely a response to two almost simultaneous events: the end of the Cold War (1989–92), which compelled a rethinking of the concept of security, and the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, which mobilized scientific evidence of global environmental change into a global policy agenda widely regarded as urgent and vital.
