ENVIRONMENT, CONFLICT AND PEACEBUILDING
2011 Spring ENVIRON 152S-01
Perkins LINK 2-070 seminar 4
Tuesday/Thursday 10:05-11:20
Instructor: Professor Erika Weinthal
Office: LSRC A136
E-mail: weinthal@duke.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Teaching Assistant: Cassidy Travis
E-mail: cvt2@duke.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Course Description:
How do the environment and natural resources affect conflicts between and within states? Can
the environment or natural resource management facilitate peace and help to rebuild war-torn
societies? This course will examine the many ways in which the environment and natural
resources affect political governance and the economic well being of the world’s populations. In
this course, we will focus on a number of conflicts to understand the role of the environment in
the conflict spectrum. We will explore the role of particular natural resources, including water,
oil and diamonds. Other topics will include climate change, refugees, and infectious diseases.
Examples will come from particular conflicts such as those of the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Israel/Palestine, Bolivia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and others.
Course Format and Requirements:
1. Active discussion is a central component of the class. The reading will be a mix of
theoretical essays and policy briefs. To facilitate discussion, each week 1-2 students will
lead the discussion. Students will prepare a short critique of the readings and a list of
questions generated by the readings. Each student will also be asked to circulate his/her
questions for discussion on an assigned day.
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Laptops will not be allowed in class! Because this class requires active discussion
and engagement of the reading material, they end up being a distraction.
2. Students will write one paper on a conflict of their choice. Over the course of the
semester, students will turn in two installments (~ 2000 words for each installment) plus
a revised final version (additional 500 words for the conclusion) for a paper totaling ~
4500 words. The papers should not be merely descriptive, but should also address the
theoretical literature concerning the role of the environment in conflict and
peacebuilding. Students will be required to rewrite the first installment as part of turning
in the second installment. Sections will entail:
• Conflict Analysis -- The role of the environment/natural resources in the conflict
– outlining stakeholders, the resource base, etc.
• Peacebuilding/Post-conflict Peacebuilding -- The role of the environment in
peacebuilding and restoring human security, economic livelihoods and
cooperation.
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Conclusion – policy prescriptions, which may entail lessons learned or policy
proposals for preventing recidivism.
3. Students will participate in a group project. As a starting point, students will consider an
ongoing problem faced by international organizations or bilateral aid agencies in
undertaking interventions in post-conflict and/or disaster settings. Examples include
peacekeeping missions that seek to reduce their environmental footprint; refugee and
humanitarian organizations that want to improve their environmental performance
through creating “greener” refugee camps; international organizations and aid agencies
that want better indicators for measuring their effects. Thus, group projects may choose
to help to develop indicators that could be used for measuring performance of ongoing
efforts --- e.g., how to measure the impact of interventions on sustainable livelihoods.
Other groups might focus on developing a technological solution that could be introduced
in the field with a set of criteria for being able to measure success.
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Students will also make a presentation of their findings during the last two
weeks of classes.
Students are encouraged to participate in the Duke Reader Project in which students will
gain invaluable feedback on your work-in-progress from a professional in the field. For
more information, see http://dukereaderproject.org/. Also see student testimonials from
this course!
Grading will be derived from the following:
• Paper – 45% (15% for each section).
§ First Two Installments Due: October 6, November 17
• Participation/Class Activities – 20%
• Group Project/Presentation – 35%
Class Schedule and Topics
August 30 – Introduction
September 1 – The Changing Nature of War
Required:
• Paul Collier, Anke Hoeffler, and Dominic Rohner. 2009. Beyond greed and grievance:
feasibility and civil war. Oxford Economic Papers 61 (1): 1-27.
• Mary Kaldor, New & Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1999), Chapters 2 and 3, pp. 13-68.
• Also see http://www.satsentinel.org/ for a glimpse into the role of private actors in
conflict zones
Recommended:
• Collier, P. & A. Hoeffler. 2004. Greed and grievance in civil war. Oxford Economic
Papers 56(4): 563-595.
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September 6: Environmental Security
Required:
• Homer-Dixon, Thomas, "Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict: Evidence from
Cases," International Security, vol. 19, no. 1 (Summer 1994), pp. 5 - 40.
• Peluso, Nancy L. and Michael Watts. 2001. Violent Environments in Violent Environments
Ed. by Peluso and Watts. Cornell University Press, pp. 3-38.
• Report of the Secretary-General. 2009. Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium
Summit Climate change and its possible security implications. Sixty-fourth session, Item
114 of the provisional agenda, A/64/350, September 11.
September 8: Natural resources and conflict +Skype session with Dr. Alex Dehgan, Science
& Technology Adviser to the Administrator of USAID
Required:
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Le Billon, Philippe. 2001. The Political Ecology of War: Natural Resources and
Armed Conflicts. Political Geography. 20: 561-84.
Jon D. Unruh. 2006. Changing conflict resolution institutions in the Ethiopian
pastoral commons: the role of armed confrontation in rule-making. GeoJournal
(2005) 64: 225–237.
Ross, M.L. 2004. What do we know about natural resources and civil war? Journal of
Peace Research 41(3): 337-356.
This class will be allow students to hear about the work of USAID and some of the areas
where students might develop group projects to respond to some of the challenges USAID
experiences in implementing its programs.
September 13 – NO LARGE CLASS, SMALL GROUPS TO BE SCHEDULED FOR
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 27 TO DISCUSS GROUP PROJECTS
September 15 -- Oil, the Resource Curse, and Conflict
Required:
• Michael Ross. 1999. The Political Economy of the Resource Curse. World Politics 51
(Winter): 297-322.
• Dunning, Thad and Leslie Wirpsa. 2004. Oil and the Political Economy of Conflict in
Colombia and Beyond: A Linkages Approach. Geopolitics 9(1): 81-108.
Recommended:
• Kirsten E. Schulze. 2007. The Conflict in Aceh: Struggle over Oil? In Oil Wars edited by
Kaldor et al., pp. 157-182.
• Friedman, Thomas. 2006. The First Law of Petropolitics. Foreign Policy. May/June.
• Watts, Michael. 2004. Resource Curse? Governmentality, Oil and Power in the Niger
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Delta, Nigeria. Geopolitics 9 (1): 50-80.
September 20 – Oil cont. MOVIE – Trinkets and Beads
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About the conflict between oil and indigenous communities in Ecuador
September 22 – Skype Session with David Jenson, Head of Programme: Environmental
Cooperation for Peacebuilding United Nations Environment Programme
• This class will be allow students to hear about the work of UNEP and some of the areas
where students might develop group projects to respond to some of the challenges
UNEP experiences in implementing its programs.
September 27 – Global Water Wars
Required:
• Peter H. Gleick. 1993. Water and Conflict. International Security. 18(1): 79-112.
• Wolf, Aaron. 2003. Indentifying Basins at Risk. Water Policy 5: 29-60.
• Salman M.A. Salman. 2011. The new state of South Sudan and the hydro-politics of the
Nile Basin. 36 (2): 154-66.
Recommended:
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Aaron Wolf, Annika Kramer, Alexander Carius, and Geoffrey Dabelko. 2005.
Managing Water Conflict and Cooperation. In State of the World 2005 (Worldwatch
Institute): 80-95.
September 29 – Internal Conflicts over Water
Required:
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Willem Assies, David versus Goliath in Cochabamba: Water Rights, Neoliberalism, and
the Revival of Social Protest in Bolivia, Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp.
14-36.
P. Routledge. 2003. Voices of the Dammed: Discursive Resistance amidst Erasure in the
Narmada Valley, India. Political Geography 22: 243-70.
K. Witsenburg and A. Roba. 2007. “The Use and Management of Water Sources in
Kenya’s Drylands: Is there a Link Between Scarcity and Violent Conflicts?” In: Bill
Derman, Rie Odgaard and Espen Sjaastad eds. Conflicts over Land and Water in Africa.
Pp. 215-238.
Recommended:
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Ken Conca. 2006. Governing Water. Chapter 6: The Ecology of Human Rights: AntiDam Activism and Watershed Democracy, pp. 167-214.
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October 4 – Forests and Activists
Required:
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Donovan, D., W. De Jong & K.I. Abe. 2007. “Tropical forests and extreme conflict.”
Springer. Chapter 1, pp. 1-17.
Davis, M. 2005. Forests and conflict in Cambodia. International Forestry Review 7(2):
161-164.
LeBillon, Phillipe. 2000. The Political Ecology of Transition in Cambodia 1989-1999:
War, Peace and Forest Exploitation. Development and Change. 31: 785:805.
Recommended:
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Keck, Margaret E. and Kathryn Sikkink. Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy
Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998: 138.
Global Witness. 1996. Corruption, War and Forest Policy – The Unsustainable
Exploitation of Cambodia’s Forests.
October 6 – Forests cont.
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MOVIE -- National Geographic Film on Gorilla Murders
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FIRST PAPER DUE
FALL BREAK – OCTOBER 7-11
October 13 – Conflict in the Congo
Required:
• Severine Autesserre, “The Trouble with Congo - How Local Disputes Fuel Regional
Violence”, Foreign Affairs, 87 (3), pp. 94-110, May/June 2008.
• Severine Autesserre. 2009. “Hobbes and the Congo – Frames, Local Violence, and
International Intervention in the Congo,” International Organization, 63, pp. 249-280.
Recommended:
• CIFOR 2007. Forests in Post-Conflict Democratic Republic of Congo: Analysis of a
Priority Agenda. Available at:
http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/publications/pdf_files/Books/BCIFOR0701.pdf
• IISD. 2008. Gorillas in the Midst.
http://www.iisd.org/PUBLICATIONS/pub.aspx?pno=993
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Peacebuilding
October 18: Environmental Peacebuilding (Guest Speaker, Oli Brown, UNEP, Sierra
Leone)
Required:
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Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2002. Environmental Peacemaking. Woodrow
Wilson Center Press and the Johns Hopkins University Press, chapter 1.
Recommended:
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Erika Weinthal. 2002. The Promises and Pitfalls of Environmental Peacemaking in
the Aral Sea Basin. In Conca and Dabelko, chapter 4.
October 20: Peace Parks
Required:
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Duffy, Rosaleen. 2001. Peace Parks: The Paradox of Globalisation. Geopolitics. 6 (2): 126.
Michelle L. Stevens. 2007. Iraq and Iran in Ecological Perspective: The Mesopotamian
Marshes and the Hawizeh-Azim Peace Park. In Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict
Resolution, ed. by Saleem Ali. MIT Press, pp. 313-331.
Recommended:
• Adler, Emanuel. 1997. Imagined (security) communities: Cognitive regions in international
relations. Millennium: Journal of International Studies (June): 249-77.
Environment and Post-Conflict
October 25: Environmental Impacts of War
Film -- Lessons of Darkness -- looks at the impacts of the burning of Kuwait’s oil fields
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Dudley et al. 2002. Effects of War and Civil Strife on Wildlife and Wildlife Habitats.
Conservation Biology Vol. 16. No. 2: 319-29.
UNEP Final Report: The Kosovo Conflict : Consequences for the Environment & Human
Settlements, 1999. Balkanshttp://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/finalreport.pdf
October 27: Post-Conflict and Peacebuilding
Required:
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Roland Paris. 2004. At War’s End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict. Cambridge
University Press. Chapters 9 and 10, pp. 151-78, 179-211.
Call, Charles T. and Elizabeth M. Cousens. 2008. Ending Wars and Building Peace:
International Responses to War-Torn Societies. International Studies Perspectives 9 (1):
1-21.
Matthew, R., O. Brown, and D. Jensen (2009) “From Conflict to Peacebuilding: The Role
of the Environment and Natural Resources,” UNEP (50pp),
http://www.unep.org/publications/search/pub_details_s.asp?ID=3998
Recommended:
• Doyle, M.W. & N. Sambanis. 2006. Making War and Building Peace: United Nations
Peace Operations. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Chapter 2: Theoretical
Perspectives.
• Scott, Amy. 2008. The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission: An Early
Assessment. Journal of Peacebuilding and Development 4 (2): 7-18.
November 1 – Environmental Refugees
Required:
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Reuveny, R. 2007. Climate change-induced migration and violent conflict. Political
Geography 26(6): 656-673.
Martin, A. 2005. Environmental Conflict between Refugee and Host Communities.
Journal of Peace Research 42(3): 329-346.
Williams, Angela. “Turning the Tide: Recognizing Climate Change Refugees in
International Law,” Law & Policy, Vol. 30 No. 4 October (2008).
Recommended:
• Reuveny, R. 2008. Ecomigration and violent conflict: case studies and public policy
implications. Human Ecology 36(1): 1-13.
• Biswas and Tortajada-Quiroz. 1996. Environmental Impacts of the Rwandan Refugees on
Zaire. Ambio. Vol. 25. No. 6: 403-408.
• Cooper, Jessica B. “Meeting the Requirements of the Refugee Definition,” New York
University Environmental Law Journal 480 (1998). Accessed December 14, 2010.
• Keane, D. 2003. Environmental causes and consequences of migration: a search for the
meaning of ‘environmental refugees.’ Georgetown International Environmental Law
Review 16: 209-225.
November 3 – Infectious Disease, Sanitation, and Health
Required:
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Richard J. Brennan, et al., 2001. Rehabilitating Public Health Infrastructure in the PostConflict Setting: Epidemic Prevention and Preparedness in Kosovo. Prehospital and
Disaster Medicine 16 (4): 244-51.
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Ghobarah, H.A. et al., 2003. Civil Wars Kill and Main People – Long after the Shooting
Stops. American Political Science Review 97 (2): 189-202.
Pinera, JF and RA Reed. 2009. A Tale of Two Cities: Restoring Water Services in Kabul
and Monravia. Disasters 33 (4): 574-90.
“Health Security through Healthy Environments: First Inter-ministerial Conference on
Health and Environment in Africa.” (2008) www.unep.org/healthenv/pdfs/WHOLibrevilleReport.pdf
Recommended:
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Michael Specter. 2010. The Doomsday Strain: Letter from Cameroon. New Yorker
December 20 and 27: 50-63.
November 8 – Peacekeeping + Refugee Camp Exercise (CASE OF SOMALIA/HORN OF
AFRICA)
Required:
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C. Cramer, J. Goodhand. 2003. Try again, fail again, fail better? War, the state, and the
'post-conflict' challenge in Afghanistan. In State failure, collapse and reconstruction.
Recommended:
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Fortna, V.P. 2004. Does peacekeeping keep peace? International intervention and the
duration of peace after civil war. International Studies Quarterly 48(2): 269-292.
IN CLASS EXERCISE ON REFUGEES
November 10: Environment and Counterinsurgency
• L.J. Palmer-Moloney. 2011. “Water's Role in Measuring Security and Stability in
Helmand Province, Afghanistan.” Water International 36 (2): 207-22.
• International Crisis Group. 2011. Aid and Conflict in Afghanistan. Asia Report No. 210. 4
August.
• Nancy Lee Peluso and Peter Vandergeest. 2011. Political Ecologies of War and Forests:
Counterinsurgencies and the Making of National Natures. Annals of the Association of
American Geographers 101 (3): 567-608.
November 15 – The Private Sector in Zones of Conflict: The Global Compact and the
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
Required:
• Virginia Hauffler. 2010. Corporations in Zones of Conflict: Issues, Actors, and Institutions.
In Who Governs the Globe? Edited by Avant, Finnemore, and Sell. Cambridge
University Press.
• Kell, Georg. 2003. The Global Compact: origins, operations, process, challenges. Journal
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of Corporate Citizenship 11: 35-49.
Eigen, Peter. 2007. Fighting corruption in a global economy: transparency initiatives in
the oil and gas industry. Houston Journal of International Law 29(2): 327-54.
Recommended:
• Ruggie, John. 2002. The theory and practice of learning networks: corporate social
responsibility and the Global Compact. Journal of Corporate Citizenship 5: 27-36.
November 17 -- Gender
• Ruth Meinzen-Dick et al. 1997. Gender, Property Rights, and Natural Resources. World
Development. 25 (8): 1303-1315.
• Murray Burt and Bilha Joy Keiru. 2011. Strengthening Post-Conflict Peacebuilding
Through Community Water Management: Case Studies from the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Afghanistan, and Liberia
• Excerpts from the Enough Project
November 22: Climate Change
Required:
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Marshall B. Burke, Edward Miguel, Shanker Satyanath, John A. Dykema, and David B.
Lobell. 2009. Warming increases the risk of civil war in Africa. PNAS. December 8, 2009.
Vol. 106 No. 49.
Halvard Buhaug. Climate not to blame for African civil wars. PNAS 2010 107(38).
Salehyan, Idean. (2008) From Climate Change to Conflict? No Consensus Yet. Journal of
Peace Research 45: 315–326.
Curtis Abraham. 2007. Don't exaggerate climate change link to conflict. New Scientist Issue
2626, October 20.
Recommended:
• Barnett, Jon and W. Neil Adger. 2007. Climate Change, Human Security and Violent
Conflict. Political Geography. 26: 639-55.
• House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, House Select Committee on Energy
Independence and Global Warming. 25 June 2008. National Intelligence Assessment on the
National Security Implications of Global Climate Change to 2030. Statement for the Record
of Dr. Thomas Fingar.
• UNEP. 2007 Post-Conflict Assessment on Sudan
(http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications.php?prog=sudan) Skim relevant sections on climate
impacts.
November 29 -- Moral Dilemmas
• Jonathan Moore, ed., Hard Choices: Moral Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention
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(Latham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998), chapter 8, pp. 137-156.
• Fiona Terry. 2002. Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action. Chapter
1, pp. 17-54. Cornell University Press.
December 1, 6, 8 – Student Presentations
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