What is an environmental security issue? How does the environment constitute a security threat? After providing a historically grounded introduction to the concept of environmental security, this research seminar will explore the ways in which environmental degradation and natural resource competition can lead to different forms of international contention, including intergroup conflict, civil wars, and interstate violence. It will also assess critiques of the environmental security approach. Theories of environmental conflict will be applied to various contemporary environmental security concerns, including climate change, water politics, “resource wars” and environmental refugees.
Access to readings
Book sections are in a polycopié, while articles are available online.
Expectations
Participation: 25%
This is a seminar course. While I may lecture briefly, most of the course will consist of class discussions. You are expected to complete all of each week’s readings prior to class, so you can participate fully. Twice during the semester, you will be responsible for writing discussion questions prior to the class meeting. A selection of these questions will be circulated at the beginning of class and will serve as a starting point for discussion. For the week that you write questions, you will be expected to take a lead role in class discussion.
Discussion questions must be submitted to me by 17:00 on Wednesday.
Midterm Exams: 20% for first, 25% for second
There will be two take-home midterm exams. They will be distributed at the end of class on October 21 and November 25 and you will have 24 hours to respond to one of two essay questions (5-7 pp.). Your response must demonstrate your knowledge of the readings covered in class.
Final Paper: 30%
May be written on a topic of your choice, drawing from the theoretical and empirical issues discussed in class (12-14 pp.).
Week 1: September 23
Introduction
Robert Kaplan (1994) “The Coming Anarchy,” Foreign Affairs.
Michael Klare (2001) “The New Geography of Conflict,” Foreign Affairs 80(3).
Week 2: September 30
a New Security Threat?
Barry Buzan (1991) People, States and Fear, second edition. New York: Harvester. Introduction and Chapter 3, pp.1-34, 112-145. [in polycopié]
Richard H. Ullman (1983) “Redefining Security,” International Security, 8(1).
Peter Gleick (1991) “Environment and Security: the Clear Connections,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, pp. 17-21 [only available through Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=cwwAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA16&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=1#v=onepage&q&f=false]
Lothar Brock (1991) “Peace through Parks: the Environment on the Peace Research Agenda,” Journal of Peace Research, 28(4): 407-423.
OPTIONAL: Kent Hughes Butts (1999) “The Case for DOD Involvement in Environmental Security” in Deudney and Matthew, eds., Contested Grounds. pp. 109-126. [in polycopié]
Week 3: October 7
Resistance
Daniel Deudney (1990) “The Case Against Linking Environmental Degradation and National Security,” Millenium 19(3): 461-476.
Marc Levy (1995) “Is the Environment a National Security Issue?” International Security, 20(2): 35-62.
Simon Dalby (1999) “Threats from the South? Geopolitics, Equity, and Environmental Security,” in Deudney and Matthew, eds., Contested Grounds. pp. 155-186 [in polycopié]
Jon Barnett (2001) “Environmental Insecurity” and “Environmental Security for People,” chapters 2 and 9 of The Meaning of Environmental Security. Zed Books: London, pp. 12-22, 122-138. [in polycopié]
Ole Waever (1995) “Securitization and Desecuritization,” in Ronnie Lipshutz, ed. On Security. New York: Columbia University Press, pp.1-14, 21-28. [in polycopié]
Week 4: October 14
Environmental Conflict
Thomas Homer-Dixon (1991) “On the Threshold: Environmental Changes as Causes of Acute Conflict,” International Security 16: 76–116.
Thomas Homer-Dixon (1994) “Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict: Evidence from Cases,” International Security 19(1): 5-40.
Stephan Libiszewski (1992) “What is an Environmental Conflict?” Environment and Conflicts Project: ENCOP Occasional Papers. Centre for Security Studies, ETH Zurich/Swiss Peace Foundation, Zurich/Berne. pp. 1-7. [in polycopié]
Gunther Bächler (1998) “Why Environmental Conflict Causes Violence: a Synthesis,” Environmental Change and Security Project Report, Issue 4, pp. 24-44.
SKIM: Kurt M. Lietzmann and Gary D. Vest (1999) “Environment and Security in an International Context: Executive Summary Report,” Environmental Change and Security Project Report, Issue 5, pp. 34-48. [see “NATO and SFTF summary.pdf”]
SKIM: Daniel Esty, et. al. (1999) “State Failure Task Force Report: Phase II Findings,” Environmental Change and Security Project Report, Issue 5, pp. 49-68. [see “NATO and SFTF summary.pdf”]
Week 5: October 21
Critics
Nils Petter Gleditsch (1998) “Armed Conflict and the Environment: a Critique of the Literature,” Journal of Peace Research 35(3).
Christopher T. Timura (2001) “‘Environmental Conflict’ and the Social Life of Environmental Security Discourse,” Anthropological Quarterly 74(3): 104-113.
Nancy Lee Peluso and Michael Watts (2001) “Violent Environments” in Peluso and Watts, eds.,Violent Environments, pp. 3-38. [in polycopié]
Jack Goldstone (2006) “Scarcity, Crisis, and Choice,” Journal of International Affairs 59(2): 335.
Bjorn Lomborg (2001) “Resource Constraints or Abundance?” in Diehl and Gleditsch, eds., Environmental Conflict. pp. 125-152. [in polycopié]
Week 6: October 28
Elaborations
Wench Hauge and Tanja Ellingsen (1998) “Causal Pathways to Armed Conflict” Journal of Peace Research 35(3): 299-317.
Ole Magnus Theisen (2008) “Blood and Soil? Resource Scarcity and Internal Armed Conflict Revisited,” Journal of Peace Research 45:801.
Colin Kahl (1998) “Population Growth, Environmental Degradation, and State-Sponsored Violence: The Case of Kenya, 1991-93,” International Security 23(2): 80-119.
John W. Maxwell and Rafael Reuveny (2000) “Resource Scarcity in Developing Countries,” Journal of Peace Research 37(3): 301-322.
Cullen Hendrix and Idean Salehyan (2010) “After the Rain: Rainfall Variability, Hydro-Meteorological Disasters, and Social Conflict in Africa,” Presented at the Climate Change and Security Conference, Trondheim, Norway, June 21-24, 2010.
Week 7: November 4
Demography and Migration
Hendrik Urdal (2005) “People vs. Malthus: Population Pressure, Environmental Degradation, and Armed Conflict Revisited,” Journal of Peace Research 42(4): 417-434.
Jack Goldstone (2002) “Population and Security: How Demographic Change can Lead to Violent Conflict,” Journal of International Affairs 56(1).
Steve Lonergan (1998) “The Role of Environmental Degradation in Population Displacement,” Environmental Change and Security Project Report, Issue 4, pp. 5-15.
Gaim Kibreab (1997) “Environmental Causes and Impact of Refugee Movements: a Critique of the Current Debate,” Disasters, 21(1): 20-38.
Ashok Swain (1996) “Displacing the Conflict: Environmental Destruction in Bangladesh and Ethnic Conflict in India” Journal of Peace Research 33(2): 189-204.
Week 8: November 11
Climate Change
Jon Barnett and W. Neil Adger (2003) “Climate Danger and Atoll Countries,” Climatic Change 61: 321-337.
Joshua W. Busby (2008) “Who Cares about the Weather?: Climate Change and U.S. National Security,” Security Studies 17: 3, 468-504.
Nicole Detraz and Michele M. Betsill (2009) “Climate Change and Environmental Security: For Whom the Discourse Shifts,” International Studies Perspectives 10: 303-320.
Ragnhild Nordås and Nils Petter Gleditsch (2007) “Climate Change and Conflict,” in a special issue of Political Geography on climate change, 26: 627-638.
Richard S.J. Tol and Sebastian Wagner (2010) “Climate Change and Violent Conflict in Europe over the Last Millennium,” Climatic Change 99: 65-79.
Week 9: November 18
the Resource Curse I
Philippe Le Billon (2001). “The Political Ecology of War: Natural Resources and Armed Conflicts,” Political Geography 20(5): 561–584.
Indra de Soysa (2002) “Paradise Is a Bazaar? Greed, Creed, andGovernance in Civil War, 1989–99,” Journal of Peace Research 39(4): 395-416.
Richard M. Auty (2004) “Natural Resources and Civil Strife: a Two-Stage Process,” Geopolitics 9(1): 29-49.
Michael L. Ross (2004) “How Do Natural Resource Influence Civil War? Evidence from Thirteen Cases,” International Organization 58, pp. 35–67.
Richard Snyder and Ravi Bhavnani (2005) “Diamonds, Blood and Taxes: a Revenue-Centered Framework for Explaining Political Order,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 49(4): 563-597.
Week 10: November 25
the Resource Curse II, Local and Transnational Dimensions
Thad Dunning and Leslie Wirpsa (2004) “Oil and the Political Economy of Conflict in Colombia and Beyond: a Linkages Approach”, Geopolitics, 9(1): 81-108.
Michael Watts (2004) “Resource curse? Governmentality, Oil and Power in the Niger Delta, Nigeria,” Geopolitics, 9(1): 50-80.
Michael Klare (2001) Resource Wars, pp. 199-208. [in polycopié]
Siri Camilla Aas Rustad et. al. (2008) “Foliage and Fighting: Forest Resources and the Onset, Duration, and Location of Civil War,” Political Geography 27: 761-782.
Paul Richards (2001) “Are ‘Forest Wars’ in Africa Resource Conflicts?” in Peluso and Watts, eds., Violent Environments, pp. 65-82. [in polycopié]
Week 11: December 2
Water Wars
Malin Falkenmark (1990) “Global Water Issues Confronting Humanity,” Journal of Peace Research 27(2): 177-190.
John K. Cooley (1984) “The War Over Water,” Foreign Policy 54: 3-26.
Peter H. Gleick (1993) “Water and Conflict: Fresh Water Resources and International Security,” International Security 18(1): 79-112.
A.T. Wolf (1998) “Conflict and Cooperation along International Waterways,” Water Policy 1(2): 251-265.
J.A. Allen (2002) “Hydro-Peace in the Middle East: Why no Water Wars? A Case Study of the Jordan River Basin,” SAIS Review 22(2).
Week 12: December 9
Water Cooperation
Karen Bakker (1999) “The Politics of Water: Developing the Mekong,” Political Geography 18: 209-232.
Miriam Lowi (1995) “Rivers of Conflict, Rivers of Peace,” Journal of International Affairs 49(1): 123.
Jaroslav Tir and John T. Ackerman (2009) “Politics of Formalized River Cooperation,” Journal of Peace Research 46: 623.
Mark Zeitoun and Naho Mirumachi (2008) “Transboundary Water Interaction I: Reconsidering Conflict and Cooperation,” International Environmental Agreements 8: 297-316.
Mark F. Giordano et. al., (2005) “International Resource Conflict and Mitigation,” Journal of Peace Research 42(1): 47-65.
Week 13: December 16
Environmental Peacemaking
Rodger A. Payne (1998) “The Limits and Promise of Environmental Conflict Prevention: The Case of the GEF,” Journal of Peace Research 35(3): 363-380.
Philippe Le Billon and Estelle Levin (2009) “Building Peace with Conflict Diamonds? Merging Security and Development in Sierra Leone” Development and Change 40(4): 693-715.
Ken Conca (2001) “Environmental Cooperation and International Peace,” in Diehl and Gleditsch, eds., Environmental Conflict, pp. 225-247. [in polycopié]
Saleem H. Ali, ed. Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution, selection from Introduction and Chapter 12, pp. 1-10, 228-238. [in polycopié]
Karina Barquet et. al. (2010) “Transboundary Conservation and Militarized Interstate Disputes,” Presented at the Climate Change and Security Conference, Trondheim, Norway, June 21-24, 2010.
