Suchergebnisse

Explores environmental protection in time of war, in context of the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Use of Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD Convention).

THERE IS A GROWING TENDENCY AMONG AMERICAN POLICY MAKERS TO SEE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AS PART OF A WIDER RANGE OF SECURITY ISSUES. ALTHOUGH SOMETIMES TOUTED BY ENVIRONMENTALISTS AS A WAY TO GENERATE ATTENTION AND ACTION, THE LINKING OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS TO NATIONAL SECURITY AND "STRATEGIC" AMERICAN INTERESTS IS DEEPLY TROUBLING. IT DISTORTS THE PROBLEM, BLURS UNDERLYING RESPONSIBILITY, LEGITIMIZES COERCION, AND DIVERTS ATTENTION FROM WHERE ACTION IS MOST BADLY NEEDED.

The Routledge Handbook on Environmental Security provides a comprehensive, accessible, and sophisticated overview of the field of environmental security. The volume outlines the defining theories, major policy and programming interventions, and applied research surrounding the relationship between the natural environment and human and national security. Through the use of large-scale research and ground-level case analyses from across the globe, it details how environmental factors affect human security and contribute to the onset and continuation of violent conflict. It also examines the effects of violent conflict on the social and natural environment and the importance of environmental factors in conflict resolution and peacebuilding.

The methodological approach to the integral assessment of business environment security is developed in the article; the blocks of factors of business environment security are identified and the indices which affect the formation of economic security of entrepreneurship are analyzed. The integral indicator for assessing business environment security is based on 6 indicators, which are the most significant elements of the business environment formation: the availability of basic economic freedoms, the favorable organizational conditions for doing business, the state of political and legal system, the level (quality) of life, resource provision and infrastructure development, innovation development. A comparative analysis of the integral indicator of business environment security of Ukraine with the Baltic countries, Black Sea region countries and the Visegrad Group countries is carried out. The article identifies interdependence between the business environment security and the share of unprofitable enterprises. The functional relationship of the business environment security with the number of bankrupt enterprises and the level of enterprises losses is substantiated as well. The model shows that the increase of environmental security leads to the decrease of a number of bankruptcies exponentially. The negative and positive factors which influence the formation of economic security of entrepreneurship are revealed.

Environmental challenges, resulting from either a scarcity of natural resources or environmental degradation, may contribute to security risks in Central Asia. An encouraging sign is the recent attention of the governments of Central Asia, civil society groups and international organizations to these environmental security issues. Their efforts indicate that by working together to prevent conflicts caused by environmental problems, cooperation among the countries of Central Asia may expand. Both short and long-term obstacles must be overcome if these groups are to ensure that environmental stresses do not lead to security concerns.

The California power crisis and September 11 terrorist attacks of 2001 have reinvigorated debate over the electric power system's vulnerabilities. But beyond the threat of terrorist attacks on nuclear power stations and the issue of insufficient power, a central, fossil-, and nuclear-based electric power infrastructure carries additional risks. These include aging transmission and distribution systems, environmental impacts, and the failure to bring power to 1.8 billion people in the developing world. Such vulnerabilities could be lessened through small-scale, decentralized technologies. These micropower units exhibit many hidden benefits, such as improved fuel supply diversity, strengthened transmission and distribution systems, and a lower ecological footprint. Micropower is emerging in two niches: developed nations where businesses place a premium on power reliability and developing-nation regions where small-scale power is the most economical means of alleviating power poverty. But broader deployment of micropower requires removal of market barriers and greater use of innovative financing.