Resource and Environmental Conflict: The-State-of-the-Art

Abstract

Drawing a link between environmental degradation and conflict has become quite common in the past few decades and particularly after the end of the Cold War. The idea that resource scarcity may lead to conflict is an old one, and the struggle for territory in particular is generally regarded as the most pervasive form of conflict. Environmental degradation depletes the resource basis and potentially exacerbates resource conflict. Most of the empirical evidence adduced for these views consists of case studies that suffer from selection bias. However, some statistical studies are also cited. This chapter discusses how various other factors that are associated with conflict interact with resource and environmental factors, notably regime type, economic development, ethnic fragmentation, and past conflict. The case for environmental conflict is also modified by a more balanced view of global scarcity, by the declining role of population pressure, and by the possibility of environmental cooperation.

An earlier version of this chapter was presented at a Norwegian Foreign Ministry workshop on ‘Environmental Conflict and Preventive Action’, Lysebu, Oslo, 23–24 November 1998, at a NATO Advanced Research Workshop ‘Responding to Environmental Conflicts: Implications for Theory and Practice’, Budapest, 21-23 January 1999, and at a workshop of the European Network on Environment and Security, 7-8 December, 1999 in San Rafael de Heredia, Costa Rica. Some of the issues treated here are discussed at great length in (Gleditsch 1997a, 1998). A more detailed history of research at PRIO on security and the environment is found in Gleditsch and Hauge (1998). The author’s work on this issue has been supported by the United States Institute of Peace and the Research Council of Norway. Comments and help on specific points are gratefully acknowledged from Tanja Ellingsen and Håvard Hegre.