Importance of the Environment Security to the Future of International Relations - Essay Example

Importance of the environment and resource security to the future of international relations in the 21st Century Name Course Professor’s name Date International relations refer to the way people around the world interact and related with each other. It covers international politics, foreign policies, international economy, strategic environment, and new diplomacies. With globalization in the 21st century, almost all countries are interrelated in one or more ways. No single country can survive on its own, hence the need for good international relations with other countries. Resources and environmental security play a crucial role into how countries relate with each other especially in the 21st century. We are living in world that experiences conflicts as a result of environment and resources inequalities. The environment has become a clear target for the military and human actions. The world is undergoing important but hazardous environmental changes. The increased adaption of greenhouses mostly by the western country has led to a lot complains from other countries accusing them of degrading the environment and exposing mankind to dangerous ultra-violet rays due to destruction of Ozone layer. Such environmental threats and dangers are real and the ability of human being to manipulate the natural environment is a cause for international tension. Research indicates that people in the developing countries are likely to suffer from the effects of ecological dilapidation. This is because; these nations do not have adequate capital to protect themselves. Moreover, the poor African countries are in lower longitudinal levels and thus suffer more from global warning, this is despite the fact that the developing worlds contribute to a very small percentage of global destruction. This creates tension among the developed and the developing nations as the latter accuse the former of polluting the environment. The developing countries on the other hand, are accused of deforestation in their countries. This has an effect of reducing rainfall in most countries in the world. This results to food shortage across the world. This will threaten international relations among different countries. For the international community to live peacefully there is need for the nations to deal with the climate changes being experienced in the 21st century. Such changes will lead to massive water shortages and food shortages, serious disease outbreaks, and migration of people and animals in search of greener pastures, and water will lead to increased competition over natural resources, the result of this is increased tensions among different nations. There will also be conflicts among people and animals as they compete for water and food. If such climatic changes are not dealt with now, there are no technological or political solutions will not prevent the effects of climatic change. This will present serious security problems to the entire international community. As people migrate to look for resources for survival, this causes border problems with other nations, massive internal migration but they will be affected by the migration from other countries. For instance, when Mexico experiences serious water shortages, people will migrate to the US. Likewise, when the Caribbean island experiences damages from storms, over 60% of the population will move to the US. The hike in the number of immigrants will cause more political anxiety. People in the United States will feel that the immigrants are depleting their resources resulting to tensions between the immigrants and the citizens. This means that resources insecurity may resource to great international problems1. The effect of the migration induced by climate changes will have more impacts on the developing world. The migration will increase the wealth gap within and between many of the developing worlds. The educated elite will migrate to the already developed countries depriving them the much needed intellectual and economic capital for development. The educated individuals will shift to countries that will be capable to pay for their services overseas. The developing nations will continue to endure the current problems as no one is willing to solve the problems. This may spark war among countries by increasing competition over resources that are scarce. This also upsets the ethnic and cultural dignity within countries and regions. This in turn threatens the stability of international relations. Environmental changes are responsible for a condition called glacial lake outburst where violent floods reach highs of 15 meters destroying dams, settlements, bridges and other resources. For instance in Nepal, millions of recent investments were lost because the infrastructure and hydropower design fail to take into account of such floods. Ultimately, this puts more pressure on a country, which is already beleaguered as it struggles to maintain and preserve the fragile peace. Due to its close proximity to conflict areas of Kashmir, and the china’s and India’s borders that are contested, eruption of turmoil in Nepal could results to turmoil in the whole of Asia. This shows that resource insecurity will ultimately result in problems in the international relations. The whole world will feel the impact of a single country with resource problems2. As the environment continues to suffer from the degradation arising from carbon emissions in the atmosphere, Africa will experience the worse consequences. Its effects particularly in East Africa and Nigeria will pose acute geopolitical problems. In East Africa, people will move from the agricultural regions to the urban centers. This movement will lead o scarcity of resources like food and medical services in the country. The states will not be able to be able to provide social services to such people and the result will be an increase in crime levels. This will in turn affect the interaction between the countries and other international countries. Western countries will, for instance, forbid their citizens from visiting such countries owing to high crime levels. People will then start moving to the neighboring countries resulting to territorial conflicts and wars. The climate changes will result in increased rainfall during winter in the East African region, resulting to massive flooding and soil erosion and severe drought during summer. This will affect the livelihood of people as 80% of them depend on agriculture. This will cause fights between the farmers and herdsmen as they compete over the remaining land. Ethnic and religious differences will fuel this tension that could result in genocide in the 21st century. This conflict will spill over to other East African countries resulting to conflict in the whole of Africa. The western community will also suffer as they have invested heavily in such countries. This was the case in Darfur where shortage of water led to ethnic fight. The impacts of these conflicts were felt in the entire East African region. This will affect the international relations3. In Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa, climate changes will result to high sea levels, and drought. The country is slowly turning into a desert without the knowledge of many people due to the changes in the climatic conditions. 1350 square miles of land in Nigeria turns into desert every year. This forces herdsmen and farmers to leave their homes to other areas. This is likely to increase the already existing tension in the Delta region. Conflicts in this region have led to the closure of 25% of the oil output in the country. Bearing in mind that Nigeria is the largest single oil exporter in Africa and the eighth largest in the world, this closure will have a big impact on global oil prices in the 21st century. When the oil prices hike, this will result to an increase in the cost of production of vital goods and services. This will result into tension across the world. Natural resources often play a crucial role in national, regional and international politics. They crucial for economic development and as such states will regard them as scarce and strategic resources which they need to protect from other states, as a result, nations should come up with rights and policies that govern how such resources are utilized. However, there are resources that run across different countries, as a result, regional treaties are necessary to maintain peace and corporation among the nations sharing such resources. The treaties should give outcomes that will benefit the international community. For instance, the water treaties signed on river Nile waters should be revised so that Egypt does not remain the sole beneficially of the water while other countries like Uganda that are the sources the water experience problems4. The increase in water shortage is a possible cause for instability in the whole world in the 2st Century. Different countries need to identify ways of preserving water for use in the near future when water will not be available. Water shortage is likely to spike geopolitical instability as countries engage in competition over reducing water supplies. People will move across borders in search for drinking water which may cause border problems. The ever increasing energy demands are becoming a cause of worry in international community. As countries spend heavily on growth of industries, there is an immense need for energy. However, only a few countries contain oil necessary for the production of energy. The energy demands pose a great problem to international relations. For instance, Russia being second largest oil producer in Europe has been accused of interfering with the flow of oil to other European nations. In 2006, a dispute between Russia and Ukraine led Russia to suspend supply of oil in the country. This affected supply of oil in other countries like Germany and Poland. This creates serious tension among the European countries as they depend entirely on the Russia. If international relations in the 21st century are to be improved, then countries responsible for energy production should not play monopoly over the other countries. They should not interrupt the flow of energy to other countries since they have full control over the energy zones. The role of energy in maintaining international relations cannot be overlooked. Energy is the key driver of all the economies in the world. Disruptions in the energy sector leads to increase in hydro electric power which in turn raises costs of production for major consumer goods. When such costs increase, the cost of living goes up. People are not able to buy foods and basic commodities. They start migrating to other regions and countries. This makes things worse for such countries that are already experiencing similar problems, as a result, social-political tension arises and wars become inevitable. This threatens international relations5. Accessibility of exhaustible resources in various countries and lack of the same has resulted to high tensions and conflicts among citizens from the similar country or from other nations. This is a great threat to international relations. The United States is accused of declaring war on Iraq, no for security reasons but to have control over oil. There are allegations that the US declared war on Iraq long before the 9/11 attacks. This attack over oil created tensions among the countries supporting the move and those opposed to the same. This is an immense impediment to the international affairs. Conclusively, it is clear that international relations depend so much on resource and environmental security. When the environment is degraded, the result is adverse climatic changes. These changes result to adverse food and water shortages; these push people into migrations within and across the borders. This creates conflicts among tribes in the same country and among people of different nationalities. This result of this is international tension and consequently wars. The world needs to act fast to reduce carbon emissions to revert the effects of global warming. The developing world, on the other hand, need to invest heavily on reforestation to conserve the environment. This way, such international conflicts can be avoided. Scarcity of resources, on the other hand, leads to stiff competition among people of different countries. People will fight for access over resources that belong to other countries. Moreover, the countries with vast resources will play monopoly over the resources causing shortage for the nations without such resources. This results into international conflicts that affect how the international community relates. Over the 21st century, advancement of communication and information technologies will enable people around the globe to follow the crises created by resource and environmental issues. This is will be hard for people to ignore such effects. People in different parts of the world will be following any developments on the state of the environment and resources around the world. Ultimately, the threat of insensitivity of any government will be a great threat to the foreign policies and national securities. The international community, therefore, have to act fast to ensure that resource and environmental security is achieved to avoid worldwide war. Bibliography Fagan, H., & Munck, R. Globalization and Security: Social and cultural aspects. Introduction to volume 2, New York: ABC-CLIO, 2009. Harris, P. 2002. The environment, International Relations, and U.S. Foreign Policy, Georgia, Georgetown University Press, 2002. Kutting,G. Globalization and the environment: greening global political economy, New York: Suny Press, 2004. Podesta, J., & Ogden, P. The Security Implications of climate changes. The Washington Quarterly • 31:1 pp. 115–138, 2007. Salmon, T. Issues in International Relations, Florence, Routledge, 2005. Read More