İnsani Güvenlik Kavramı Bağlamında Çevre Güvenliği
Environmental Security in the Context of Human Security Concept

Summary/Abstract: Security studies have involved a widening extent of agenda in the period following the end of the Cold War. This article will discuss environmental security in the context of human security concept. In doing so, the study first discusses when human security notion has emerged and how different definitions of human security have risen. While the 1994 UN Human Development Report was a milestone document in the rise of human security phenomenon, two major definitions of human security have earned utmost attention. The broad definition has taken poverty and development as reference points while the narrow definition has considered the use of physical force as the fundamental dynamic to define human security. Moreover, debates around human security concept have involved to a great extent normative and theoretical dimensions. For this reason, the paper also examines major theories of international relations in regard to their relevance for and position against human security phenomenon. Overall, realist theories have a skeptical approach while liberal, constructivist and critical IR theories consider human security as an important phenomenon in the realm of security studies. Thereafter, the paper analyzes how various environmental problems, particularly climate change, pose threats for human security and inter-state relations. In this regard, domestic and international migration arising from environmental catastrophes could result in domestic instabilities for states and lead to inter-state conflicts. Environmental insecurities also have potential for triggering hot conflicts such as happened in Darfur and Syria. In the concluding part, several suggestions and criticisms take place in regard to human security, environmental security and their potential and limits in the realm of security studies.

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