Analysis of Various International Environmental Conflicts

Throughout the world, conflicts over environmental issues abound. As technology progresses and our world continues to become more interconnected, an understanding of the worldâs environmental crises is important and necessary for the well-being of both humankind and the environment. This paper addresses and comments on the issues presented in the following books: Ecology of an African Rain Forest by Thomas T. Struhsaker, Green Guerillas edited by Helen Collinson, NIMBY Politics in Japan by S.Hayden Lesbirel, Where Environmental Concerns and Security Strategies Meet by James A. Winnefeld and Mary E. Morris, and Innovations in International Environmental Negotiation edited by Lawrence E. Susskind, William Moomaw and Teresa L. Hill. Innovations in International Environmental Negotiation has not been given a specific section for discussion, but is referenced in the section covering Where Environmental Concerns and Security Strategies Meet.

Where Environmental Concerns and Security Strategies Meet

This book is interesting in the way that it draws a particularly strong link between political (domestic and international) conflict and environmental crises. The authors chose to focus on environmental crises and conflicts in the Middle East and in East Asia, but the concepts discussed could easily be applied to political conflicts with underlying environmental crises worldwide. In traditional methods of security strategy policymaking, environmental issues are often given little thought and are directed to separate governmental departments. However, the authors propose that not only do environmental crises often increase the risk of political conflicts, but they can also worsen the conflict itself as well as the outcomes and damage incur...

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...dressed not only from an environmental perspective, but also from both a global and a socioeconomic perspective.

References

Collinson, Helen ed. Green Guerillas: Environmental Conflicts and Initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Reader. (1996) London: Russell Press.

Lesbirel, S.Hayden. NIMBY Politics in Japan: Energy Siting and the Management of Environmental Conflict. (1998) Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Struhsaker, Thomas T. Ecology of an African Rainforest. (1997) Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.

Susskind, Lawrence E., William Moomaw and Teresa L. Hill ed. Innovations in International Environmental Negotiation. (1997) Cambridge, MA: PON Books.

Winnefeld, James A. and Mary E. Morris. Where Environmental Concerns and Security Strategies Meet: Green Conflict in Asia and the Middle East. (1994) Santa Monica, CA: RAND.