Despite the fact that environmental security has emerged as most demanding subject in the 21st century, there has been a very limited progress in thinking about the conservation of sustainable environment. Perceptions and thinking about environment related issues like the climate change have not changed much because some people actually benefit from the status quo. Powerful business lobbies aim to influence politicians to shape policy debates in ways that favors their economic interests and ideological framework.
Over the years, there has been phenomenal growth in terms of the rise of multinational/transnational actors that have the potential to (re)shape the trends and directions of world politics in a significant way. It is however disturbing to note that much of the international relations discourse had been slow to recognize the impact of such ‘non-state actors’ and it continued to focus on the traditional line of thinking that domestic and international politics are two separate domains. Much of the theoretical analyses relentlessly focused on national interests and the belief that they could be pursued successfully if the state in question is powerful enough. The reality is however otherwise. Along with the traditional line of thinking, a new parallel trend has emerged where a growing number of IR scholars feel that the distinction between inside and outside and a preoccupation with the state as the principal focus of attention no longer made much sense. In other words, environmental security cannot be addressed within the hard power theoretical framework alone.
What is therefore required is a long-term holistic approach in dealing with the emergent issues emanating out of climate change that affects the environmental security discourse in a big way, and it offers new avenues for research on the state-society interface. It also implies new roles for security actors and different means to provide security. The moot point is that the securitization of the environment has radically transformed existing security practices and provisions.
In the above stated backdrop, this proposal aims to delve with various approaches and issues relating to the domain of environmental security.