The Reality of International Environmental Security Issues: Multilateral Conventions as Threat Indicators.

Issues of environmental concern have emerged as serious threats to national security for many states. Chief among these are: (1) Terrestrial Issues (biodiversity loss, deforestation, radioactive waste management, soil erosion and desertification; (2) Water Issues (ocean pollution, fisheries depletion, coral reef erosion, and river degradation); (3) Atmospheric Issues (air pollution, acid rain, climate change, ozone depletion) and (4) Other Issues (natural disasters, food security, population growth, poverty, invasive species and genetic pollution). This paper will present a systematic assessment of environmental security as a relevant contemporary concept, supported by analysis of the aforementioned issues as real world national security threats. The crux of the argument will analyze the ways and means that governments seek widespread cooperation through international legal commitments to deal with these perceived transnational threats to their own security conditions. This process is most often attempted through the negotiation of multilateral legal agreements that seek to minimize various facets of these threats by coordinating international efforts to that end. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]