The implications of a major war in an increasingly industrial world would be far-reaching and incalculable. Releasing Dangerous Forces discusses the ramifications and places special emphasis on the fast growing potential for collateral effects: the release of dangerous forces from civil artifacts. The key issues at stake are not only the unprecedented loss of human life but also the threat to basic human life support systems, both economic and environmental, placing the future of all human existence in doubt.

This work presents the evolution of the traditional concept of "national security" as military security to additionally embrace "environmental security" and then necessarily also "social (societal) security", thence to be termed "comprehensive human security". It accomplishes this primarily by presenting 11 of the author's own benchmark papers published between 1983 and 2010 (additionally providing bibliographic citations to a further 36 of the author's related publications during that period). The work stresses the importance of transfrontier (regional) cooperation, and also recognizes global overpopulation as a key impediment to achieving comprehensive human security.

Since the 1960s the environment has become an issue of increasing public concern in North America and elsewhere. Triggered by the Second Indochina War (Vietnam Conflict) of 1961-1975, and further encouraged by the International Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972, the environmental impact of war emerged and grew as a topic of research in the natural and the social sciences. And in the late 1980s this led additionally to a focus and debate on environmental security. Arthur Westing, a forest ecologist, was a major pioneer contributing and framing both of those debates conceptually, theoretically, and empirically, starting with "Harvest of Death: Chemical Warfare in Vietnam and Cambodia" (1972) (co-authored with wildlife biologist E.W. Pfeiffer and others). As a Senior Researcher at the Stockholm and Oslo International Peace Research Institutes (SIPRI and PRIO), and as a Professor of Ecology at Windham and Hampshire Colleges, Westing authored and edited books on "Ecological Consequences of the Second Indochina War" (1976), "Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Environment" (1977), "Warfare in a Fragile World: Military Impact on the Human Environment" (1980), "Herbicides in War: the Long-term Ecological and Human Consequences" (1984), "Environmental Warfare: a Technical, Legal and Policy Appraisal" (1984), "Explosive Remnants of War: Mitigating the Environmental Effects" (1985), "Global Resources and International Conflict: Environmental Factors in Strategic Policy and Action" (1986), "Cultural Norms, War and the Environment" (1988), "Comprehensive Security for the Baltic: an Environmental Approach" (1989), and "Environmental Hazards of War: Releasing Dangerous Forces in an Industrialized World" (1990) --- as well as authoring numerous UN reports, book chapters, and journal articles. This volume combines six of his pioneering contributions on the environmental consequences of warfare in Viet Nam and in Kuwait, on the environmental impact of nuclear war, and on legal constraints and military guidelines for protecting the environment in wartime"

This volume examines the extent to which global deficiencies and degradation of natural resources, coupled with their uneven distribution, can lead to unlikely alliances, national rivalries, and even war. The study evaluates the influence of such factors as geographical distribution, availability, scarcity, and depletion of the world's natural resources--including oil, natural gas, minerals, fresh water, ocean fisheries, and food crops--on strategic and military policy-making. Westing also studies the effect of differential population growth on the actual and perceived availability of resources and presents an expanded, environmentally based view of international security.

The most immediate threats to humankind are military devastation and environmental exhaustion, both on a global scale. SIPRI, in co-operation with the United Nations Environment Programme, presents with this book the fifth major study in a series that examines linkages between these two threats. In the study specialists from several disciplines examine the ways in which cultural norms concerning the environment have inhibited the conduct of war and preparations for it, and suggest how such norms could be strengthened and developed. The subject is approached from the following perspectives: historical evolution of cultural norms concerning war and the environment; differing approaches of men and women; the special challenge of the nuclear age; roles of government and law; influence of education and the mass media; and philosophical and aesthetic influences. This series addresses the problems of constraining war and of maintaining an environment that can promote human life and welfare by examining the issues of warfare and security in relation to environmental and ecological concerns and then formulating policy recommendations. It should prove of interest, therefore, to everyone who has a personal interest in these subjects.