Northeast Asian Environmental Security Cooperation

Since the last half of 20^th century, due to the expansion of human's activity and the development of industrialization, environmental degradation becomes a global issue, which threatens the ecological basis of human's survival. Scholars and policy makers have accepted the concept of environmental security gradually. The study on environmental security has also become an important branch of international security studies.From the perspective of international politics, contemporary environmental security studies can be divided into four categories: the first is the study on environmental securitization; the second is the study on the relationship between environmental security and conflict; the third is the ecological angle of view; the fourth is on environmental peacemaking. This dissertation belongs to the last category. As we know, the present security cooperation in Northeast Asia faces many difficulties. The main reason is that the existing security framework and the dilemmas among the major powers of this region. How to avoid or overcome these obstacles and promote regional security cooperation is an important task putting in front of scholars and policy makers.Northeast Asian countries are confronted with common environmental problems. With the urge of regional economic regionalization wave, the interdependence within the environmental field may lead to the tension and conflict among countries. In the sense of environment, Northeast Asia has become a "Fortune Community". Beginning from Northeast Asian environmental security, this dissertation attempts to analyze the possibilities through regional environmental security cooperation to ease security dilemmas, to build up mutual trust between countries and to be an effective way to improve regional cooperation and peace.The dissertation takes the interactive relationship between regionalism and environmental cooperation as a theoretical clue. On the one hand, regionalism provides theoretical basis for regional environmental cooperation; and on the other, regional environmental cooperation is the driving force of regionalism. Based on this, the author brings forward the framework of "Regional Environmental Security Complex", which also includes the amity and the enmity in the sense of environmental security. The main purpose to introduce this analysis framework into the dissertation lies in that Northeast Asian countries are able to cooperate within various levels and enhance the amity by engaging in environmental institutional cooperation, therefore it's useful to reconstruct mutual trust and push the regional cooperation into forward. In order to ensure this study more standard and systematic, the dissertation adopts comprehensive methodologies, which include Structural-Functionalism Analysis and Constructivism Approach.The structure of this dissertation includes six parts:The introduction brings forth the argumentation, and reviews of the present research evolution of environmental security.In recent years, environmental security research has been developing very fast; a large amount of literature has been emerged. The main contribution of these achievements lies in: they not only enrich and develop the concept of national security, but broaden the security research field. Rapid development of environmental security research breaks through traditional national security concept which is dominated by military security theoretically, and produces important influence on national security policy and practice. Security is not only from external or military threat, but also originates from internal or non-military issues. Security maintenance is not an absolute "Zero Sum" logic, but it should have a sense of "Common Security" to realize environmental security by international cooperation.Otherwise, within the present research, scholars pay much attention to the relationship between environment degradation and conflict, especially put the environmental issues and military intervening together. This is not benefit for the solution of environmental issues, but will provide an excuse for some countries' intervening others' domestic politics.In today's interdependence world, all countries have common fortune to some extent. Security should be achieved through cooperation but confrontation. So we should pay more attention to environmental security cooperation and discuss whether it can be a way to maintain and build peace. This kind of systematic research is relatively deficient, especially on the research of Northeast Asian environmental security. This situation is not matched to this region's environmental situation, and this kind of research should be strengthened. This dissertation, from the perspective of regionalism, attempts to analyze the possibility by strengthening environmental cooperation to improve common knowledge among countries, to construct international environmental regimes, to bring up cooperative habits, and to promote regional security cooperation and the process of regionalism.The first chapter defines the concept of environmental security and analyzes the arguments on environmental securitization. Then the author discusses the situation of environmental security research in contemporary international relations.The second chapter makes an analysis of Northeast Asian environmental cooperation from the theoretical perspective of regionalism. Based on the interactive relationship between regionalism and environmental cooperation, the author brings in "Regional Environmental Security Complex" as the framework for analysis.The third chapter mainly discusses the present situation, driving forces and the environmental policies within Northeast Asian environmental cooperation. In spite of Northeast Asian environmental cooperation has developed at multi-levels, this region's environmental cooperation still has large potential. If regional countries promote environmental issues up to a higher position of international security, the situation of Northeast Asian environmental cooperation will be largely improved. This chapter analyzes the driving forces from the angle of security, economy and society. Despite the achievements, environmental cooperation in Northeast Asia still faces some difficulties, such as the different environmental policies and goals of regional countries; these have negative influence on regional environmental cooperation.The forth chapter makes a survey of Northeast Asian regional cooperation from the view of environmental security, mainly discusses the actual function and path-dependence of environmental security on promoting regional cooperation. By clarifying the security dilemma and its cause, the author points out that in order to promote regional security, the region must realize the sharing of power, building-up of regional institution, and the formation of common rules and identification. In order to achieve these goals, environmental security cooperation will play an active role. Northeast Asia can be treated as a "Regional Environmental Security Complex", through institutional cooperation of environmental field, to promote mutual trust, to ease security dilemmas, and to push regional security and the process of peace.By summarizing of the contents and main points of the whole dissertation, the author concludes that China should clarify the environmental security policy in its regionalism strategy to promote regional environmental security cooperation and to construct a good outer environment for China's peaceful rise.