Global Warming, Environmental Degradation, And Resource Scarcity

1776 Words8 Pages
The concept of environmental security although introduced in 1960’s (in the framework of International Relations), became mainstream in 1990’s after the end of cold war which ushered in an era of intellectual instability in the field of security studies introducing a variety of new agendas within the security discourse, including the environment, economy, and, more recently, terrorism (Michel and Pandya 2009).. Alexander Bell in his book Peak waters describes three broad types of environmental concerns which are; global warming, environmental degradation, and resource scarcity. For the purpose of this review, the focus will be on resource scarcity. There are two types of resource scarcity one that is Malthusian in nature and the second is…show more content…
In his book Eco violence he presented five key social effects of environmental scarcity which could cause conflict in some part, which are constrained agricultural output, constrained economic production, migration, social segmentation, and disrupted institutions— which can either singly or in combination produce or exacerbate conflict among groups or states (Homer and Blitt 1998). Despite its importance and relevance, Homer T Dixon says that literature on the specific connections between environmental scarcity and acute conflict is surprisingly thin (Dixon 1991). The Rio and Dublin conferences in 1992 had much influence in fostering interest in shared water issues specifically in relation to politics, economy, security and international relations (Dinar et al 2006). The subsequent hydro-political literature has both embodied and benefited from the tools, lessons and underpinnings provided by different academic disciplines like: economics, international law, international relations and negotiation as well as geography and hydrology. (Biswas 2011, Wilner 2005,). Economics has brought to bear such concepts as regional cooperation, game theory and institutional economics. International water law rich in its history but relatively juvenile in its codification status; as of 1997 has introduced particular important legal principles such as equitable utilization and the obligation not to
Show More
Related
Open Document