Methods and materials

The research will proceed as a traditional historical analysis forming a chronological narrative. It will, however, be thematically organised in order to better illustrate the development of the concept of environmental security. In addition, the research will utilise an analytical framework adopted from Balzacq⁴⁸ to examine the environmental securitisation process in detail. By separately outlining the agents, actions and contexts of securitisation, it will allow a closer consideration of its premises and consequences. Along with other theoretical aspects, the framework will be described in Section 2.

As is relatively common in historical research, the sources in the current study are variable and come in several formats. The main share will come from reports, strategies, project plans and other documents in which environmental security and the cooperation to implement it has been motivated, planned and developed further. These are materials that are usually produced by the international organisations, such as the OSCE, UN agencies, the Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC); the various programmes, projects and meetings they have engaged in as well as some of their key stakeholders. As these materials specifically aim to describe and, in some cases, define environmental security, they are crucial for constructing the ways in which the environmental security actors themselves have envisioned their work and have wished to present it to their audience. In addition, the research will examine a limited amount of materials produced by other actors. These primarily involve the national

48 Balzacq 2011.

18

ministries and other counterparts from the regional countries, but also other stakeholders who have been relevant to environmental security processes in one way or another.

There are some differences among the documents and the information they provide, however. Some are brochures, leaflets and presentations specifically intended for the general public as promotional materials. They aim to present the work of the organisations in a positive light and usually in a concise way, but are important as they provide insight into the way in which the organisations wanted their work to be perceived. Meanwhile, the organisations have prepared project plans and progress reports that give detailed information as to how environmental security was implemented into action. These documents are often directed at financing bodies and therefore have an interest in presenting the work as effective and productive. At the same time, however, they are intended to clearly outline the planned and completed tasks to all stakeholders, meaning that they also are highly informative. In addition, the various actors have produced numerous meeting documents and conference outcomes primarily intended for the internal use of the actors involved but usually also made available for public access.

These documents provide perhaps the most in-depth view into the internal discussions of the organisations and give an idea of the kinds of goals these organisations might not directly promote to the public.

The study relies primarily on materials that are publicly available. In fact, few materials will come from archival sources or represent information that would have previously been classified or otherwise kept from the public eye. Essentially this is a feature of the work under study, as international cooperation generally is financed through public funds and the implementing agencies are usually obliged to openly report their activities. To some extent, however, this also is an inevitable aspect of researching recent history, as archives usually are subject to certain embargoes during which their materials must remain classified and these time periods tend last longer than the time that has lapsed since the period under study. In other words, scholars of recent history do not necessarily have access to all the possible information concerning the events they examine. In the current study, this is not a significant obstacle as most of the information concerning financing decisions and strategic choices about development cooperation, for instance, is not classified. As a result, it has been possible to also investigate the archives of the Finnish Foreign Ministry, which has been an important donor for environmental security projects in the Balkans. However, this examination did not provide particularly dramatic insights concerning the linkage of environment security.

The research has aimed to examine all major documents produced by the relevant organisations, including project plans, project reports and annual reports that are related to the work on environmental security. This has been possible, as the amount of material is not enormous and they are

19

relatively easily accessible. Meanwhile, minutes of meetings and other documents of a more general nature have been scanned through for the key word ‘security’ or, where applicable, the names of specific projects or programmes that have been discussed in documents that fall outside the main body of source materials. However, the question of covering every single document is not wholly decisive for the research as the aim is not to determine the prevalence of environmental security through comparison or statistical analysis, for instance. This is why a thoroughly systematic sampling mechanism has not been considered a prerequisite for a comprehensive analysis.

Another particularity of the research of recent history is that the key actors in the events are often still able to give their accounts of the events. Instead of merely relying on previously marked down descriptions, it is possible to hear their stories directly and ask further questions. However, the caveat is that interviews can only produce subjective accounts that can be distorted by memory or biased views. Just as other sources, these need to be considered in the context of other materials. Taking into account these considerations, however, interviews can yield useful information or context for the research.

Therefore, this study will also make use of interviews to complement the documentary sources in order to illuminate aims and intentions that have not necessarily been written down in official papers, thereby adding context and background information. The idea has been to interview key actors in environmental security cooperation, especially the representatives of international organisations who have had a central role in developing the programmes related to the concept. In addition, counterparts from the Western Balkan countries have been interviewed to better gauge the perceptions concerning the cooperation at the regional level. The interviewees were identified either on the basis of their crucial role in environmental security work on the basis of the source materials or through a snowballing method, where the initial interviewees were asked to recommend potential contacts. The method follows that of oral history in the sense that the aim has been to identify actors who have had a central role in the process and can report their account of the events. However, a thorough oral history of environmental security in the Western Balkans remains beyond the scope of this study.

The interviews were carried out throughout the duration of the research, from the earliest ones conducted in 2011 all the way up until 2017. 19 interviews were carried out altogether. They were conducted in a free format with open ended questions. The questions were prepared in advance on the basis of the role of each interviewee, but with the possibility of asking further questions for elaboration where needed. Therefore, there was no uniform set of questions used for all interviewees. Some of the interviews were carried out in person with the respondent, but due to obstacles of location several were also done over the phone or even through e-mail. The responses therefore are clearly not equal in terms

20

of depth and detail, but this is not considered a problem for the purposes of this study, as the interviews are not used for comparison or to evaluate conflicting information but rather to give additional context and background.

The interviewees were duly informed that their replies would be used as material for this research. They were given the possibility to speak on the condition of anonymity in order to protect their privacy and to allow them to speak more freely. However, the interviewees were asked for their permission to disclose their identity in cases where the interviewee held a prominent position in a given organisation or would have been otherwise easy to identify. The full list of interviews is available in the Literature and Sources Section.

The combination of different sources and materials has particularly contributed to the potential for source criticism. By looking at a variety of descriptions of the process or particular events, it is possible to find support for some interpretations and contradictions to others. While there is no way to arrive at a comprehensive and universally agreed-upon narrative, this approach will help to avoid misunderstandings. Nevertheless, the final responsibility for the interpretations of this study is entirely carried by the author.