“An important book that deserves a wide audience. This book lucidly conceptualizes, succinctly describes, and cogently analyzes the nexus between environmental and natural resources (ENR) problems and security in Northeast Asia. A clear picture of the nature and scope of ENR problems and their security implications will certainly act as a solid foundation for the development of more extensive regional cooperation in the foreseeable future. This book provides us with such a clear vision.”
—Hiroshi Ohta, Aoyama Gakuin University

Northeast Asia is a region with highly disparate levels of industrialization and political systems. It also contains some very troubling security flashpoints—the Taiwan Strait, the Korean Peninsula, and the East China Sea. China’s rapacious quest for energy and rapid industrial expansion have led to intense international competition—with Japan and the United States—and internal instability as well. North Korea poses two distinct environmental security threats: “famine refugees” and the regime’s use of “nuclear blackmail” for subsidized energy. Yet there is very little regional cooperation, despite the need to manage disputes over energy, natural resources, and pervasive pollution. The Environmental Dimension of Asian Security examines these issues through a “regional environmental security complex” that explores the potential for greater intersubjective understandings of regional environmental and natural resource problems and greater institutional collaboration and management.

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