Deudney's Delusions: How the DRC Shows That Environmental Degradation Is An Actual National Security Threat

     There are many logical linkings exsiting between national security and the manner in which it is affected by environmental resource use. In The Case Against Linking Environmental Degradation and National Security, Daniel Deudney discusses his reasons for believing the claim to be invalid. However, an examination of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the various issues the conflict-ridden nation has been facing over the past decade clearly shows the ways in which environmental degradation acts as a national security threat to this developing nation.
     The economy of the nation is heavily dependent on subsistence industries, agriculture in particular. However, other harmful practices that run rampant in the land include deforestation, poaching of wildlife, mineral extraction, and oil drilling. It is also essential to note that since the early 1990s (and in truth, really, since its independence in 1960), the country has been ravaged by much political strife. Many rebel groups have taken over rule of the nation’s weak transportation infrastructure, and many manners in which economic diversification is available for populations, such as through ecotourism, or even various extractive industries, such as mining or logging, are often hindered by the presence of these violent factions.
     Degradation of natural resources, whether by local or domestic forces, presents a threat to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, not only in terms of greatly working against economic growth, but also from a security perspective. Industries dependent on healthy environmental conditions, for instance, ecotourism and fishing, are unable to thrive if certain industries (ie; oil) are allowed to expand within the nation. If one is defining security as “the state of being free from danger or threat,” and as encompassing aspects such as economic, physical,  resource, and non-use well-being, then environmental degradation surely impacts the ability of a state to promote its interests, both in comparison to other states, and alone as well.
     Environmental degradation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has the potential to harm many communities in a number of manners, as well as cause international conflict. For instance, oil reserves surrounding the Virunga National Park have the potential to pollute the nearby Lakes Albert, Edward, and Kivu. Populations in the bordering nations of Rwanda, as well as Uganda, both depend on the bodies of water for food supplies. The militarized groups in these regions could be expected to affect neighboring regions, should a third-party interfere with their livelihoods. It is also crucial to recognize, specifically in regards to the eastern region of the DRC, that there are still many refugee populations displaced by conflicts occurring in the last two decades. Thus, harming these bodies of water could not only create domestic conflict, as impoverished populations struggle to find new modes of subsistence (it should also be mentioned that agricultural capabilities within the DRC is quite region-dependent, given the size of the country), but also cause international conflict as pollution seeps to negatively affect its neighbors. In this manner, one can consider it almost the existence of a resource war.
     Deudney’s statement, “The fact that so many resource-poor countries, like Japan, are very wealthy, while many countries with more extensive resource endowments are poor, suggests that there is no clear and direct relationship between abundant resource availability and national wealth,” quite clearly sums up the condition of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The biodiversity within the nation is one of the highest levels worldwide; there is enough arable land in the country so that if it was utilized properly, it would be able to feed the entire African continent; and the country has numerous deposits of valuable minerals such as gold, tungsten, bauxite, iron, and uranium. Because the national infrastructure is so very frail, the environment exists as a fallback for the majority of the peoples within the country. The layout of the nation does not allow for many sites of westernized commerce, especially in reference to rural farming populations. Therefore, the Congolese have a strong reliance and dependence on the environment for their basic needs and services. Degradation in developing nations such as the DRC also involves the realm of environmental justice, primarily because the firms involved are foreign, and do not reinvest the resources back into community development. That, combined with the weak hand of the largely corrupt government does not allow for exploitative resource use to exist positively within the nation.
     In conclusion, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s current state is one of many examples as to why environmental and resource degradation has implications serious enough that the actions can be considered a national security threat. Interstate violence cannot be disconnected from resource utilization and availability, and a state that wishes to promote its interests by harnessing the “emotive powers of nationalism” to protect resources is in no way upsetting or undermining any sensibilities. The environment is the determining factor for many nations’ prosperity, and to discount its importance by claiming that it is not connected to national security is to adopt a rather naïve, narrow-minded perspective.


Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/11/soco-oil-virunga-national-park-congo-wwf
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/democratic-republic-congo-facts/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16394635
http://www.unep.org/NEWSCENTRE/default.aspx?DocumentId=2656&ArticleId=8890
Deudney, Daniel. The Case Against Linking Environmental Degradation and National Security. Green Planet Blues: Four Decades of Environmental Politics.