Abstract:

The extensive and targeted environmental destruction caused by the Ukraine war transcends a localized ecological catastrophe, emerging as a decisive geopolitical factor in redefining the security calculus of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This article investigates the security and political dimensions of Ukraine's environmental crisis, focusing on a central research question: How has this ecological devastation been discursively constructed as an "existential threat" within NATO, and how has this securitization process driven transformation in strategic doctrines, institutional innovation, and scientific-military cooperation? Employing an analytical-explanatory methodology with a mixed approach, this study utilizes critical discourse analysis of NATO's primary documents (Strategic Concepts of 2010 and 2022), international reports (UNEP, EU), and joint project agreements covering the 2022–2025 period. The findings demonstrate that the ecological crisis acted as a catalyst, shifting NATO's discourse from viewing climate change as a peripheral "challenge" to a direct "security threat," thereby redefining "environmental security" in the 2022 Strategic Concept. This shift concretely materialized in establishing the Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence and forging a strategic partnership with the European Space Agency to leverage satellite monitoring capabilities. Crucially, the results reveal that while this securitization holds potential for ecosystem protection, it primarily functions as an institutional legitimation strategy and facilitates the militarization of climate responses within great-power geopolitical rivalries. Ultimately, this process firmly establishes environmental concerns as a core axis of twenty-first-century defense policymaking and multilateral cooperation.