Environmental Security and Environmental Management: The Role of Risk Assessment

The concept of "Environmental security" has emerged as one basis for understanding international conflicts. This phrase can mean a variety of things. It can signify security issues stemming from environmental concerns or conflicting needs, or it can mean that the environment is treated as a resource for the long term, and the question is what should be done today to preserve the quality of the environment in the future. Over the last several years, the authors of this book and their colleagues have demonstrated the power and value of risk assessment and decision analysis as tools that decision makers should use for a broad range of environmental problems, including environmental security. §This book is based on the discussions and papers prepared for the NATO Advanced Research Workshop that took place in Eilat, Israel, in April 2004. Many of the contributions in the book do not deal directly with the region, instead, they apply a risk analytical approach to a variety of environmental problems. The goal was as much to inform about the problems as it was to show the power of risk analysis as a tool to discuss environmental policy.§