Michael Rühle – CSS Blog Network

Scoping NATO’s Environmental Security Agenda

Image courtesy of Lisa Ferdinando/DVIDS.

This article was originally published by NATO Defense College in March 2020.

Environmental change¹ is increasingly recognised as one of the major factors that will shape the global security environment. According to most experts, rising global temperatures will lead to rising sea levels and cause more extreme weather events, such as storms, flooding, droughts and wildfires.² The firestorms that engulfed parts of Australia in late 2019 and early 2020, burning an area the size of Belgium and Denmark combined, and severely decimating that continent’s wildlife, were a stark reminder of the force of these changes.

NATO’s Nuclear Deterrence: More Important, Yet More Contested

Image courtesy of NATO/Flickr. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

This article was originally published by the NATO Defense College in February 2019.

A more competitive international environment, and in particular Russia’s assertive policies, have sparked renewed interest in the concept of nuclear deterrence as part of NATO’s approach to security. This has manifested itself in devoting greater attention to Russia’s nuclear policy and posture as well as to NATO’s own nuclear arrangements, and in a stronger emphasis on nuclear deterrence in public statements. However, this renaissance of nuclear deterrence takes place against the backdrop of new developments that seek to challenge the military rationale and moral legitimacy of that very concept. Put differently, just as nuclear deterrence is again becoming more important, it is also becoming more contested.