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For over five decades, the Cold War security agenda was distinguished by the principal strategic balance, that of a structure of bipolarity, between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR). This book seeks to draw from current developments in critical security studies in order to establish a new framework of inquiry for security in the Middle East. It addresses the need to redefine security in the Middle East. The focus is squarely on the Arab-Israeli context in general, and the Palestinian-Israeli context in particular. The character of Arab-Israeli relations are measured by the Israeli foreign policy debate from the 1950s to the 1990s. A dialogue between Islam and Islamism as a means to broaden the terrain on which conflict resolution and post-bipolar security in the Middle East is to be understood is presented. The Middle East peace process (MEPP) was an additional factor in problematizing the military-strategic concept of security in the Middle East. The shift in analysis from national security to human security reflects the transformations of the post-Cold War era by combining military with non-military concerns such as environmental damage, social unrest, economic mismanagement, cultural conflict, gender inequity and radical fundamentalism. By way of contrast to realist international relations (IR) theory, developing-world theorists have proposed a different set of variables to explain the unique challenges facing developing states. Finally, the book examines the significance of ecopolitics in security agendas in the Middle East.
have eagerly adopted CMC (Clark 1996). Their utilisation of such technologies sits uneasily within traditional environmental philosophy. CMC requires the use of high technology, the production and use of which have extensive environmental and social consequences. Not surprisingly, its use results in tensions between environmentalists’ theories and practices, for not only is CMC technology environmentally damaging, but it is that very technology which facilitates the functioning of environmentalists’ adversaries and aids those processes of corporate globalisation that
is just as intense, though less informed by Marxism. Biohazard, another metal band whose early use of rap can be credited with pioneering the nu metal genre, addressed similar themes to Rage, often (as their name would suggest) emphasising the environmental damage caused by capitalist exploitation and the waste of natural resources. Formed in 1988, their first major-label album, State of the World Address (1994), combined rap and metal with political rage directed at nuclear power, pollution, greed, violence and rage itself which becomes the object of self
Chapter 11 looks at the breakdown of Brazil’s efforts to control deforestation and the growing international concern about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. This chapter considers some of the issues that have divided Bolsonaro’s supporters. The dramatic increase in deforestation in 2019–20 brought to the fore global concerns about the impact of deforestation on global warming. Much of this was down to Bolsonaro, whose administration weakened the institutions whose monitoring and policing work reduced deforestation in the period between 2004 and 2012. Bolsonaro provided encouragement for his wilder supporters – the small farmers, informal miners and loggers and property speculators who have colonised parts of the Amazon. The town of Novo Progresso in Pará celebrated Bolsonaro’s first six months in government by coordinating a series of fires in neighbouring tracts of rainforest. Yet many powerful commercial interests are alarmed by the impact of environmental damage on Brazil’s reputation abroad and the potential loss of markets and investment. A painstakingly negotiated and valuable trade deal with the European Union completed in 2019 may well come unstuck, for example.
: social, economic, cultural and environmental development are in balance; and this development is not at the expense of future generations. The ‘polluter pays’ principle provides that the costs of environmental damage, as well as the costs of preventing, reducing, and controlling environmental damage, are borne by the
This book explains the direct link between the structure of the corporation and its limitless capacity for ecological destruction. It argues that we need to find the most effective means of ending the corporation’s death grip over us. The corporation is a problem, not merely because it devours natural resources, pollutes and accelerates the carbon economy. As this book argues, the constitutional structure of the corporation eradicates the possibility that we can put the protection of the planet before profit. A fight to get rid of the corporations that have brought us to this point may seem an impossible task at the moment, but it is necessary for our survival. It is hardly radical to suggest that if something is killing us, we should over-power it and make it stop. We need to kill the corporation before it kills us.
Introduction to Part II Thom Davies Pollution surrounds us all. From the clothes we wear, to the way we travel, to our consumption choices, we are all – in highly uneven ways – creators and repositories of environmental damage. Toxicants have become increasingly ubiquitous in everyday life, and toxic potential suspends itself between absolute mundanity and perpetual threat. Yet despite the ever-present realities of contamination and environmental damage, pollution is often very difficult to sense or witness. Hazardous substances, for example, are often
lists of places to visit, people to meet and events to attend in the post-pandemic world. This specific mindset that accompanies frequent flying does not seem likely to abate any time soon and needs to be reconstructed, as it exemplifies a more general reluctance to address the environmental damage caused by the artistic industries. Just a couple of months before the COVID-19 crisis hit, Chayka's answer to his own question was tentatively pessimistic, written with an aura of self-confessional resignation as mobility was commonly recognised as a
The well-being of Europe’s citizens depends less on individual consumption and more on their social consumption of essential goods and services – from water and retail banking to schools and care homes – in what we call the foundational economy. Individual consumption depends on market income, while foundational consumption depends on social infrastructure and delivery systems of networks and branches, which are neither created nor renewed automatically, even as incomes increase. This historically created foundational economy has been wrecked in the last generation by privatisation, outsourcing, franchising and the widespread penetration of opportunistic and predatory business models. The distinctive, primary role of public policy should therefore be to secure the supply of basic services for all citizens (not a quantum of economic growth and jobs). Reconstructing the foundational has to start with a vision of citizenship that identifies foundational entitlements as the conditions for dignified human development, and likewise has to depend on treating the business enterprises central to the foundational economy as juridical persons with claims to entitlements but also with responsibilities and duties. If the aim is citizen well-being and flourishing for the many not the few, then European politics at regional, national and EU level needs to be refocused on foundational consumption and securing universal minimum access and quality. If/when government is unresponsive, the impetus for change has to come from engaging citizens locally and regionally in actions which break with the top down politics of ‘vote for us and we will do this for you’.
This book examines the relationship between environmental justice and citizen science, focusing on enduring issues and new challenges in a post-truth age. Debates over science, facts, and values have always been pivotal within environmental justice struggles. For decades, environmental justice activists have campaigned against the misuses of science, while at the same time engaging in community-led citizen science. However, post-truth politics has threatened science itself. This book makes the case for the importance of science, knowledge, and data that are produced by and for ordinary people living with environmental risks and hazards. The international, interdisciplinary contributions range from grassroots environmental justice struggles in American hog country and contaminated indigenous communities, to local environmental controversies in Spain and China, to questions about “knowledge justice,” citizenship, participation, and data in citizen science surrounding toxicity. The book features inspiring studies of community-based participatory environmental health and justice research; different ways of sensing, witnessing, and interpreting environmental injustice; political strategies for seeking environmental justice; and ways of expanding the concepts and forms of engagement of citizen science around the world. While the book will be of critical interest to specialists in social and environmental sciences, it will also be accessible to graduate and postgraduate audiences. More broadly, the book will appeal to members of the public interested in social justice issues, as well as community members who are thinking about participating in citizen science and activism. Toxic Truths includes distinguished contributing authors in the field of environmental justice, alongside cutting-edge research from emerging scholars and community activists.