International Journal of Environmental Research University of Tehran ISSN: 1735-6865 EISSN: 2008-2304 Vol. 4, Num. 3, 2010, pp. 541-548

International Journal of Environmental Research, Vol. 4, No. 3, July-September, 2010, pp. 541-548

Article

The position of environmental threats in creating different models of regional integration

Alizadeh, E . ^1* and Pishgahi Fard, Z . ²

¹ Department of Political Geography, Science & Research Branch, Islamic Azad University (IAU) , Tehran , Iran ² Department of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran Iran

Correspondence Address:* Department of Political Geography, Science & Research Branch, Islamic Azad University (IAU) , Tehran , Iran
Biopolitic2000@yahoo.com

Date of Submission: 11-Sep-2009
Date of Decision: 05-Mar-2010
Date of Acceptance: 20-Mar-2010

Code Number: er10061

Abstract

Keywords: International security, Environmental security, Regional integration, Sustainable development, Cold War

Introduction

Concerns over the environmental destruction and social conflicts due to climate changes have been added to the contemporary discussions over the security of the planet, militarism, and ruling over the earth. The risk of international conflicts along with increasing environmental pressures and shortages will be aug-mented, and will destabilize governments more than ever (Homer, 1990). The literature related to the envi-ronmental or ecological security was expanded since 1987 when the United Nations introduced the concept for the first time (Kakonen, 1990). The concerns over the international environmental policy issues were raised in the United Nations Conference entitled 'Envi-ronment and Development' at the Rio meeting in 1992 in which more than hundreds of non-governmental or-ganizations (NGO) and hundreds of governments as well as their leaders were united to combat the dangers of global ecology. Concerns about the environmental issues have a lengthy history, as a growth in urban industrialization and development has led to new per-spectives about the earth as a layer in life (Dads, 2000). Many writers, who have a concern over such environ-mental problems, believe that ozone destruction, cli-mate changes and environmental erosion will lead to a political turmoil in the world because most of such issues are beyond-boundaries, and are not within the responsibility of a government (Shafer, 1998). Some scientists do not believe that the changes and de-struction in the environment may cause international conflicts. Further, some others, criticizing the Rio Con-ference, state that the basic principles which focus on the sustainable development had been preset by North countries and multi-national companies (Doyle, 1998).

Human beings' healthy living depends on the ability of the governments to cooperate in fighting against environmental pollution, and on accepting the dependence of the fate of local ecology on beyond-national systems of production. The theorists work-ing on globalization as well as the writers working on the Third World issues insist that the environmental problems have become an inseparable part of the con-cerns over the poverty-stricken areas, consumption, development, and the relations between North and South (Mittleman, 1996).

In the report published by the United Nations in 1998 on human development, it had been mentioned that the poor countries absorbed 1.1% of the world income although they constitute only 20% of the world popu-lation. While the northern countries worry about the changes in the ozone layer, the southern countries worry about their increasing population, lack of re-sources, human needs and increasing poverty. There-fore, it is necessary to classify the adopted analyses and policies while defining environmental issues (Lipschultz, 2000).

Ernst Haas the founder of the integration theory defines the regional system in this way: 'a process whereby the political leaders of several countries are convinced and willing to direct their loyalty, expec-tations and political activities to a new center whose symbols have legal authority, or it asks for legal au-thority and the views representative of peoples and nations'. During the period after the war, the world witnessed the formation of many different regional systems that had come to provide political and eco-nomical stability in the region as well as to enhance a balance between the two superpowers after the Cold War. Thus, countries were forced to work together for their happiness and prosperity, consequently, this co-operation replaced past empires(Fellmann, 2001).

The articles 52, 53, and 54 of the UN Charter have accepted the regional systems and have invited coun-tries to establish regional systems in order to enhance peace and security. In the threshold of the twenty-first century, the process of globalization has become cru-cial, and it seems that the beginning of this century is entering a new era of economic interaction between nations. Within the globalization, the convergence pro-cess is ongoing including:

1. economic integration through trade, investment and capital flow;
2. convergence of political issues;
3. information technology and information, and
4. the convergence of cultural environments in this category. Such a situation will lead to a kind of envi-ronmental imperialism by which the northern countries seek to impose their demands on the southern coun-tries to reform the programs they are developing while they refuse from relieving their debts and transferring technology to them (Shiva, 1993).

Globalization will accelerate structural changes and will transform the structure of countries; as a result, resource consumption and pollution levels will speed. Globalization can cause investment and technology to be developed, but its effect on the environment de-pends on the environmental characteristics of the ar-eas and their quality; and this is the factor that sets the environment in such areas of globalization is to decline or to improve. Globalization is the cause of market imbalance and political abnormality. This, in turn, founds the background to destruct the environ-ment and can also direct policies that previously con-sidered as domestic toward policies that are completely new via exerting pressure for a reform. Despite in-creased economic growth as a result of globalization, it will also be possible in some regions and countries that globalization causes the collapse of some indus-tries and sectors; this, in turn, will lead to deterioration of resources and eventually the spread of poverty among the people of such regions and ultimately the destruction of the environment (Baker, 2000).

Globalization can develop the global standards of production. The development of environmental stan-dards and the expansion of consumer markets can bring up a sort of current that may cause a remarkable increase in global standards. Of course, within the stream of events, it is possible that certain activities of unfair competition cause damages to healthy competi-tion, or certain weak standards result in a sort of com-petition leading to downfall. Economic globalization will change the joints between the market and the gov-ernment. This process exerts pressure on governments and increases the role of the markets in economic, so-cial and environmental interests. Further, it creates new global requirements for the governments to cooperate environmentally. It will bring convergence with itself and the following objectives are followed: first, to de-termine the key links between globalization and the environment; second: to determine problems and mul-tilateral international agreements in fields such as fi-nance, investment and intellectual property rights that affect environmental sustainability; third: the priority of revising policies that affect multilateral economic agreements. In this way, we are able to analyze the incentives that play a role in trade and investment policy-making, whose implications affect the environmental sustainability (Kelly, 1994). In fact, creating re-gional integration can help the establishment of a multi-polar system worldwide; something that seems un-wanted by the powerful countries which are willing to have bilateral relations (Huntington, 1999).

Materials and Methods

The method used in the current study was the library research, which was completed via using the published documents about regional integrations as well as the computerized information about environ-mental issues and threats. Also, this study used an analytical-descriptive method in which library and documental investigation have been done using prin-ciples of geography and other sciences including: en-vironmental and political sciences. In addition , soft wares such as Excel and Encarta have been used as well as necessary maps and charts.

Results and Discussion

The variables that can be effective in the forma-tion of a regional system are different. Hetten writes in his paper entitled: 'New Regionalism, Security and De-velopment': 'The emergence of regional systems can be intentional and can be formed based on the prede-termined plans of governments, but in most cases, it is non-intentional and is due to various international conditions.'

In his point of view, the economic, political, social, cultural and particularly security variables are effec-tive in the realization of a regional system and he, thus, points to the regional systems that are based on dif-ferent foundations including: the geography-based re-gional system, social-based regional systems which correspond to the cultural-social solidarity among hu-man groups residing in the same vast geographic area, and finally, the cooperation-based regional system which has roots in intra-governmental collaboration in different cultural, political and economic scopes (Hetten, 1991). In future, the trend of strengthening the existing international organizations and creating new international organizations will continue as there will be an increase in their volume and number of ac-tivities as well as the role they play.

In order to draw more accurate picture of the vari-ables that influence the formation of a regional system separately, the following points are mentioned: Geo-graphical variable: When talking about geography, various dimensions must be considered. Geographical proximity is the most important and the most common factor in the emergence of a regional system, but it should not be mentioned in isolation. In the areas in which there are regional differences and political ten-sions, the environmental situation will be worsen if the environment is kept under pressure. The existence of a geographic factor, that creates common or con-flicting interests for certain countries, can result in pre-paring the ground for the establishment of the regional system. In this case, the environmental threats can be considered the most important factors in shaping the regional system.

The Mediterranean has formed a Mediterranean system for its littoral states including European, Asian and African countries; and the Persian Gulf plays the same role for its coastal countries.

This variable has been evaluated as two positive sign (+ +) in terms of the environmental threats in this study. Political variable: Here, integration means: inte-gration in policies. In other words, it includes a sort of coordinated operation/action by a group of countries that follow common strategies in their domestic and foreign policies. The amount and the range of such common strategies are effective in measuring the de-gree of integration. The inter-consistency of demo-cratic regimes against the authoritarian regimes is among the effective variables in creating a regional system. Environmental threats in such structures are usually devalued for regional integration. This vari-able has been evaluated as a minus sign (-) in terms of the environmental threats in this study.Security vari-able : If we define security as: 'The time when human beings' vital values are not endangered.'(Lippmann, 1973), then, threatening such values by the one or two powers in a region prepares the ground for polarity in the region, which in turn, provides the foundation of further attempts to create a balance. However, Mohammad Ayoub in his book entitled: 'Regional Se-curity in the Third World' points to a distinguishing dimension between the threats to regional security systems in the west and the threats to security sys-tems in the third world countries, and states: any threat to western security is considered to be from external opposition groups and not from minorities or from the actions taken inside, while in the third world coun-tries, all actions and activities no matter from foreign forces or opposition groups are considered anti-secu-rity, and thus, governments prevent the emergence of such opposing flows strongly.

It must be accepted that achieving a balanced system in the third world regions (South today) is very complicated, and the relations between nations should be also considered in addition to the inter-governmental relations to be able to analyze the causes of behav-iors. Perhaps, if security is introduced using the Cold War conceptions, the environmental threats can be said to have no place in such integrations, but envi-ronmental security can be considered a variable in this model with the conceptions of security used in the 21st century. This variable has been evaluated as a minus sign (-) in terms of the environmental threats in this study.

Economic variable: Economic needs and the exist-ence of common or conflicting economical interests are among factors that shape a regional system. For instance, the necessity of unity about the issue of en-ergy which is in the monopoly of certain countries (such as APEC) or the conflict of interest in connection with an economic category that becomes a matter of com-petition by a group of countries (such as oil exploita-tion in the Caspian Sea) prepares the ground for a re-gional system. If the economy is looked at only super-ficially, the environmental threats seem to have no place in such an approach; however, economy should exist based on the environmental security criteria if a sus-tainable development is intended. It should be of course noted that open and unrestricted economic growth may lead to environmental erosion and reduces the ability of governments and non-governmental or-ganizations to lessen the resulted environmental losses (Deudney, 1990).

This variable has been evaluated as a minus sign (-) in terms of the environmental threats in this study. Socio-cultural variables : Various variables such as ethnicity, race, historical relations, language and reli-gion can play a role in the formation of a regional sys-tem. For example, the expansion of the Arabic language founds the Arab League, or Muslim nations estab-lish the Organization of Islamic Conference. Usually, the discussed environmental threats do not play any role in such a model of regional integration. This vari-able has been evaluated as a minus sign (-) in terms of the environmental threats in this study. Variable of Foreign powers: Foreign powers, especially the su-perpowers whose interests are not restricted to the geographical scope and their local borders, are effec-tive in the emergence, destruction, strengthening or weakening of a regional system based on their secu-rity/economical considerations. It is generally known that the measures taken by the Red Army and the Soviet Union have been significantly effective in the formation of the Eastern Europe during the Cold War. Generally during the Cold War, studying the regional systems has been basically possible via surveying the competitive relations of the superpowers, and the two global superpowers, the United States and Rus-sia, have played an active role in regional issues .Usu-ally, the environmental threats play no significant role in such a model of regional integration. This variable has been evaluated as a minus sign (-) in terms of the environmental threats in this study. The six mentioned variables or factors are formed via the combination of two or three of the variables related to regional integration. The role of each variable in creating re-gional integrations has been illustrated in [Table - 1 a,b,c]. [Figure - 1]. bellow:

Conclusion

As has been shown in the table illustrating the division of active regional organizations in the world, only 19 organizations out of 45 have formed a regional organization due to geographical reasons (42.2%). In such regional organizations, the environmental threats can be considered the most important factors in shap-ing regional organization. In addition to the geographi-cal variables of other factors, eleven organizations have been effective in their formation (24.4%). The in-terference of the non-geographic and geographic vari-ables necessarily devalues the environmental threats between the member countries so that those countries often ignore environmental threats on the basis of their own security or economical interests. 15 organizations were also formed for non-geographical reasons vari-ables which play no role in the environmental threats (33.4%).

If we also glance at the formation date of the orga-nizations, we will find out that most organizations in which no geographic variables can be seen, are related to the Cold War period; they have lost their value in-ternationally within the years after the Cold War. The importance of economic power during recent years and its superiority over military power in the Cold War pe-riod show that we cannot expect nowadays that re-gional integrations are merely formed on the basis of one of the above-mentioned variables, rather today, the economic variable can be considered one of the most important variables to cause regional integration. It is expected that in future, economy-oriented regional co-operations will have the desired output, provided that economy becomes the flourishing core in the sus-tainable development; in addition, the sustainable de-velopment that is human-oriented will certainly look at the environmental threats as the major factor that threat-ens economy. In this case, we can claim that the eco-nomic variable will not only avoid reducing the impor-tance of the environmental security in a given regional integration, but it will cause the degree of the environ-mental security to grow up.^[13]

References

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