Introduction

This chapter examines whether the environment remained a security issue under the Bush administrations or whether there was a shift in policy-making which led to the desecuritisation of the environment. It is possible to begin by taking it for granted that the environment was securitised when the first Bush administration came into office, as every new President inadvertently ‘inherits his predecessor's budget, structures, commitments, and bureaucratic personnel’ upon taking office. This chapter will examine what happened to all the existing domestic and international environmental security initiatives and programmes, as outlined in the previous chapter. Did they remain in place? Did they change? If yes, in what way? These are just some of the questions addressed.

First, it will be necessary to examine the first Bush administration's national security strategy in light of the historical context in which it took place. For the first Clinton administration the historical context was the end of the Cold War, for the first Bush administration it was the events of 11 September 2001 and the resultant ‘war on terror’. Although the first Bush administration was in office for ten months prior to 9/11, these events shaped national security the most, with the first NSS by the administration issued on 17 September 2002, a year into the ongoing war on terror.

From its outset the first Bush administration had a different attitude to environmental security than the Clinton administrations, ending programmes wherever they could, and changing the more institutionalised initiatives/programmes like the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Environmental Security and calling this particular office the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Installations and Environment (ODUSD–I&E).