Natural Resources, Conflict and Peace
During the 1990s, security dynamics established during the decades long Cold War began to lose their currency. At the same time, increasing evidence about the unprecedented magnitude of human-generated pollution, ecosystem simplification, and resource depletion was compelling. Many important relationships between nature and security had long been acknowledged by security specialists: the differences in the modalities of power of land- and sea-based states; the advantages and disadvantages conferred on offense and defense by topography and climate; the challenge of getting fuel and food to troops on foreign soil; and the risks to soldiers posed by unfamiliar viruses and bacteria. Perhaps addressing challenges posed by new forms of environmental stress and scarcity was the logical next phase of a well-established defense tradition. A significant number of people within the national security community--including researchers, policymakers, and high-level officials--began to take this idea seriously, and act upon it.
Thinking about nature and security, however, was by no means confined to the defense establishment. In the 1980s and 1990s a variety of perspectives sought to shape public perceptions, attract resources, and guide policy. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, it is fair to claim that concerns about the magnitude and multiple implications of human-generated environmental change have had significant influence on the theory and practice of national security. Our research continues to explore linkages between natural resources, environmental degradation and security issues.
Featured Publication
From Conflict to Peacebuilding: The Role of Natural Resources and the Environment
Richard Matthew, Oli Brown, David Jensen, UNEP, 2009.
Since 1990 at least eighteen violent conflicts have been fuelled by the exploitation of natural resources. In fact, recent research suggests that over the last sixty years at least forty per cent of all intrastate conflicts have a link to natural resources. Civil wars such as those in Liberia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo have centred on "high-value" resources like timber, diamonds, gold, minerals and oil. Other conflicts, including those in Darfur and the Middle East, have involved control of scarce resources such as fertile land and water.
As the global population continues to rise, and the demand for resources continues to grow, there is significant potential for conflicts over natural resources to intensify in the coming decades. In addition, the potential consequences of climate change for water availability, food security, prevalence of disease, coastal boundaries and population distribution may aggravate existing tensions and generate new conflicts.
This major report, co-authored by IISD and UNEP, discusses the key linkages among environment, conflict and peacebuilding, and provides recommendations on how these can be addressed more effectively by the international community.
Download the report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development
Related Publications and Activities
Richard A Matthew, Jon Barnett, Bryan McDonald and Karen O'Brien (eds.), Global Environmental Change and Human Security. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2009.
Richard Matthew and Anne Hammill. "Sustainable development and climate change." International Affairs Vol. 85 No. 6 (2009): 1117-1128.
Matthew, Richard A. "Environmental Security," in Norman J. Vig and Michael E. Kraft (eds.), Environmental Policy: New Directions for the Twenty-First Century, 7th Edition (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2009).
Anne Hammill, Alec Crawford, Robert Craig, Robert Malpas, Richard Matthew. Conflict-Sensitive Conservation: Practitioners' Manual. IISD, 2009.
Richard Matthew presented on "Natural Resources, Conflict and Peacebuilding"to the Symposium on Resource Governance and Conflict sponsored by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam on May 29, 2009.
CUSA's work on environmental security is included in Hans Gunter Brauch, et al (eds.), Facing Global Environmental Change: Environmental, Human, Energy, Food, Health and Water Security Concepts (Peace Research and European Security Studies Press, 2009). This volume is the fourth in the Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace, and contains a chapter by Richard A. Matthew and Bryan McDonald on "Environmental Security: Academic and Policy Debates in North America." Book launches for this volume have been held in Berlin and Bonn Germany and at United Nations Headquarters in New York. More information about this volume is available at: http://www.afes-press-books.de/html/hexagon_04.htm
Matthew, Richard A., et. al. From Conflict to Peacebuilding: The Role of Natural Resources and the Environment. (Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme, 2009).
Matthew, Richard A., Bryan McDonald and Heather Goldsworthy. "Environmental Ethics," in Antonio Franceschet (ed.) The Ethics of Global Governance (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2009).
Hammill, Anne, Richard Matthew and Elissa McCarter. "Microfinance and Climate Change Adaptation." IDS Bulletin Volume 39 Number 4 September 2008.
Matthew, Richard. "Resource Scarcity: Responding to the Security Challenge." International Peace Institute, April 2008.
Barnett, Jon, Richard A. Matthew and Karen O'Brien. "Global Environmental Change and Human Security." In Brauch, H.G. (ed), Globalization and Environmental Challenges: Reconceptualizing Security in the 21st Century. Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace, Vol. 3. Springer, 2008.
An article about a CUSA co-sponsored workshop on "Environmental Challenges in War-Torn Societies: Sustainability and Human Security in Post-Conflict Reconstruction" appears in the April 2007 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP).
CUSA participated in "Environmental Challenges in War-Torn Societies: Sustainability and Human Security in Post-Conflict Reconstruction"a workshop on November 29-30 at Duke University. This event was co-sponsored by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences with support from Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda, University of Maryland; Environmental Change and Security Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; and the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs, University of California at Irvine.
Richard Matthew presented results of CUSA's research projects as part of a panel discussion on "Environmental Challenges in War-Torn Societies: Sustainability and Human Security in Post-Conflict Reconstruction"on November 29 at Duke University.
Bishnu Raj Upreti and Richard Matthew presented "Environmental Stress and Demographic Change: Underlying Conditions and Nepal's Instability" on November 1, 2006 at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Richard Matthew and Anne Hammill. "Surviving in a Changing World: Environment, Security and Microfinance." The Green Cross Optimist, Summer 2006.
Richard Matthew presented "Environment, Security and Sustainable Development," at Taking Security and Development Seriously: An Agenda for Policy Reform, a conference on February 24, 2006 sponsored by the United Nation's International Peace Academy.
Richard Matthew and Bishnu Raj Upreti. "Environmental Stress and Demographic Change in Nepal: Underlying Conditions Contributing to a Decade of Insurgency." Environmental Change and Security Project Report 11 (2006).
Richard Matthew and Bryan McDonald. "Cities Under Siege: Urban Planning and the Threat of Infectious Disease." Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA) Vol. 72 No. 1 (Winter 2006): 109-117.
Richard A. Matthew and Bryan McDonald. "Networks of Threat and Vulnerability: Lessons from Environmental Security Research." Environmental Change and Security Project Report 10 (2004).
Richard A. Matthew, Michael Brklacich and Bryan McDonald. "Analyzing Environment, Conflict and Cooperation," in Understanding Environment, Conflict and Cooperation (United Nations Environment Program and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2004).
Mike Brklacich, Richard Matthew, Bryan McDonald and Bishnu Upreti. "Advancing Conflict, Cooperation and Environmental Change - Human Security Research." IHDP Update 03 (2004).
Matthew, Richard, Ted Gaulin and Bryan McDonald. 2003. "The Elusive Quest: Linking Environmental Change and Conflict," Canadian Journal of Political Science (September).
Matthew, Richard A. 2002. Dichotomy of Power: Nation Versus State in World Politics. Lexington Books.
Matthew, Richard Mark Halle and Jason Switzer (eds). 2002. Conserving the Peace: Resources, Livelihoods and Security (Geneva: IISD).
Matthew, Richard A. and Ted Gaulin. 2002. "The Ecology of Peace." Peace Review 14 (1).
Matthew, Richard A. and Ted Gaulin. 2001. "Conflict or Cooperation? The Social and Political Impacts of Resource Scarcity on Small Island States." Global Environmental Politics 1 (2).
Matthew, Richard A. "Environmental Stress and Human Security in Northern Pakistan." Environmental Change and Security Project Report 7, Summer 2001.
Matthew, Richard A. 2000. "The Environment as a National Security Issue," Journal of Policy History 12 (1).
Matthew, Richard A. 2000. "The Greening of American Foreign Policy," Issues in Science and Technology 13 (1).
Matthew, Richard A. 2000. "Environment and Security in an International Context: Critiquing a Pilot Study from NATO's Committee on the Challenges of a Modern Society," Environmental Change and Security Project Report 6.
Matthew, Richard. 2000. "Integrating Environmental Factors into Conventional Security." In Lowi & Shaw (eds), Environment and Security: Discourses and Practices (New York: St Martin's).
Matthew, Richard A. and Dan Duedney, (eds.). 1999. Contested Grounds: Security and Conflict in the New Environmental Politics (Albany, NY:State University of New York Press).