76 Book Reviews

of scarcity. Essentially we are confronted with Brackley, P. (1988) Energy and environrnenral ‘trade-offs’-more production as against a less- rermst aglossary. Aldershot: ‘Sower, 1988. 189 pp. polluted environment, natural resources now or in (Energy Papers No. 24, Joint Energy Programme, the future and the question of development or Policy Studies Institute and Royal Institute for preservation. International Affairs.)

The text treats these issues with both rigour and clarity. It is primarily intended for environmental scientists, who need to understand how economists approach the valuation of natural resources, but will also provide an intermediate text for economists with environmental interests, but who eschew extensive use of differential calculus. Algebraic symbols, diagrams and arithmetic examples are used to good effect, so that the non- economist who patiently works through them should leave the book with a thorough under- standing of how conventional economic analysis can be applied to the environment.

After a brief survey of the evolution of economic thought, there is a particularly effective demonstra- tion of the relative price effect, which is followed by a thorough grounding in the functioning of the market mechanism, together with an analysis of market failure, public goods and externalities, which forms the basis for a detailed examination of the economics of pollution. Natural resource exploitation is preceded by a careful analysis of how the interest rate mediates between present and future needs. The question of how the market can take account of the interests of the generations yet to be born, being a philosophical and ethical issue, does not receive a great deal of attention. In con- clusion comes a section on cost-benefit analysis, which includes the notion that natural resources may have values in uses other than for the direct production of commodities. The tempering of development with conservation may well mean leaving some environments as they are. Environ- mental and resource economics will provide a suit- able core text for courses in environmental economics and contributes to the building of bridges between environmental science and economics. The urgency to complete such a task is obvious, but for insight into the difficulties to be encountered, it might be useful to consult Eco- logical economics (Juan Martinez-Alier 1987), which should be required reading alongside Common’s very welcome addition to the literature.

Martinez-Alier, J. (1987) Ecological economics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Jim Butterfield Department of Accountancy and Applied Economics. Leeds Polytechnic

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a concept which has come of age, having emerged in the United States in the heady days of the late 19605 to spread, develop and become adopted in the legislation of countries all over the world. Many texts on the subject are either methodological (directed at practitioners) or critical in the radical tradition of the practice and/or the philosophy of EIA. Wathern’s volume, however, is essentially practical, focusing on methodology, on issues such as monitoring, evaluation and training rcquire- ments and on actual experience of applying the technique. The contributions come from past and present research fellows of the International Institute for Environmental and Society in Berlin, as well as from a number of outside experts. They cover many different aspects of the subject, making the book a timely addition to the literature in the year that the European Community’s Environ- mental Impact Assessment Directive finally passed into the legislation of all the member states. Following an introduction, there are five distinct sections, on methodology, efficacy, application and the role of international agencies. It is particu- larly useful to have five chapters on the develop- ment and application of EIA in different parts of the world, not only in North America and Western Europe (where the development and implementa- tion of the relevant legislation has received a considerable amount of attention already), but also in centrally planned economies and developing countries, including Poland, Asia, the Pacific region and Latin America. These (and other chapters in the book) well illustrate the many pitfalls involved in translating an apparently attrac- tive theoretical concept into practical environ- mental policy. Some broader conceptual issues are dealt with (in de Jongh’s chapter on uncertainty, for example), but the book does not offer a philosophical treatment of the subject, nor does it claim to. As Wathern explains in the introductory chapter, authors were invited to review recent developments to give an up-to-date overview of EIA. This the varied contributions achieve rather well, though it would have been interesting, and more complete, to have a few chapters on some of the more significant shortcomings and criticisms of techniques like EIA, which seek ultimately to con- tribute to achieving a ‘balance’ between environ- mental and other social goals.

Wathern, P. (ed.), Environmental impacl assess- ment: theory and practice. London: Unwin Hyman, 1988. 332 pp.

‘Environmental impact assessment’ is defined (not quite satisfactorily) in Peter Brackley’s glossary of energy and environmental terms as: ‘The European extension (Directive 85/37/EEC) of the USA’s environmental impact statement. It requires an analysis and judgement of the effects

Book Reviews 77

upon the environment, both temporary and per- manent, of a significant development and project. It must also consider the social consequences and alternative actions’ (p. 52). This cryptic definition is typical of the entries in this rather curious little book, which aims to provide ‘descriptions, as simple as possible, of many expressions used in the energy and environmental fields’ (p. viii). If one accepts that it is not written for experts, it is actually quite useful, for there are times when everyone seeks a simple definition, the meaning of an acronym or a conversion from tonnes of coal equivalent to kilowatt hours. Terms defined range from those in everyday use (like ‘atmospheric pollution’), through assorted organizations and legislation to more strictly scientific or economic expressions. There are problems, of course, with trying to define some of the more complex and subjective concepts in this way (‘conservation’, for example, gets less than three lines), and values do creep in-‘difficulties and drawbacks’ are outlined under the entry for ‘tidal power’, but the entry on ‘nuclear power generation’ is simply technical (though there is a separate entry for ‘Chernobyl’!) In spite of such drawbacks, people whose initial reaction is that they would not have much use for this book may actually find themselves opening it for convenience more often than they expect.

Susan Owens Department of Geography, University of Cam bridge

Faringdon, H. Strafegic geography: NATO, the Warsaw Pact and the superpowers. London: Routledge, 1989. 435 pp. f35 hardback.

The first edition of this book was published under the title Confrontation: the strategic geography oj NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The reason for the change is not clear. Perhaps the new title was thought more clearly to reflect the contents; or perhaps it was just that a book with geography in the title rather than the subtitle is more saleable. Neither author nor publisher help, because neither make the book’s purpose clear. The author notes with obvious pleasure that the first edition ‘is being used as a textbook in a number of service academies, and that the military planners of at least one of the superpowers [which?] have studied many of the passages with the narrowest attention [sic]’ (p. 2). The publishers, as usual, use more ‘hype’, arguing on the dustcover that the first edition is ‘recognized as a standard text among professional analysts, ministries of defence, political parties, and service colleges and other military institutions. They recognize that no other work addresses itself so directly to the “operational level” of war, or sets it in so wide a context’. But the author refers to himself in several places in the text as a layman, and

(despite the dustcover presentation of him as a specialist in analysing ‘contemporary military and strategic events’ of more than 20 years’ standing) claims that the book ‘was compiled without institu- tional support or access to any kind of privileged information, and is derived solely from a reading of history, and recently published literature, maps and the ground’ (p. 3).

So what is ‘strategic geography’? Faringdon divides it into two parts: the basis of security and war; and the map of confrontation. The first occupies the introductory 70 pages of the book, concentrating on the nature of warfare-the weapons and human resources used, and the problems that the environment poses. The remainder of the book covers the second part, with a series of ten chapters on different parts of the world. These have two major sets of contents: general discussions of individual countries, with particular reference to their ability to wage war; and detailed discussions of ‘strategic regions’ and the ways in which war might be waged across them. Countries in certain parts of the world, notably around the borders of the Soviet Union, get more coverage of ‘strategic regions’ than others, because it is assumed throughout the book that war means Soviet invasion of ‘the west’.

And what do we learn from it? From the ‘potted’ histories and geographies very little. The writing is frequently offputting in its characterizations of people (almost invariably presented as reifications of the state): thus New Zealand is categorized as ‘inoffensive’ on p. 8, but on p. 12 we are told that it had to be expelled from the JlC; ‘armed neutral’ countries are characterized by ‘large areas of rocks, woods, or other easily defensible ground’ (p. 13; aren’t these characteristics present in the Soviet Union?); southern European, African, Asian and Latin American countries have ‘endless reeking townships’ (p. 68); ‘The Bulgarians go in for political murder’ (p. 117); New Zealand is ‘moral King of the Coconut Club’ (p. 153); and the Quebecois speak ‘a Long John Silver kind of French’ (p. 165). There are other gems, too, such as ‘the effects of darkness may be partly overcome by means of old-fashioned direct illumination’ (p. 62) and ‘the kind of message which busy politicians and military men like to hear from the academic world -namely something which is simple, which explains everything, and which has never been thought of before’ (p. 15).

I fear that this book falls into the first of those categories at least, and the title may well lead readers to think that it comes from the academic world of geography. It does not, and it carries little of the sort of analysis that geographers interested in the topic could offer. The discussions of environ: mental limits to warfare are often slight, for example; the literature of geopolitics (traditional and modern) is largely ignored-it is certainly not included in the references; and the rationale for war preparations (including the definition of ‘enemies’)