Attention to the ‘security-development nexus’ has become commonplace in national and global policy-making, and yet the exact nature of the term remains undefined. This study approaches the subjects of development and security from a variety of different perspectives, offering an array of interpretations of the nexus along with an analysis of its potentially related issues. Particular attention is paid to studies of conflict and peace, with a focus upon the linkage between these subjects and the topic of the nexus itself.
Specific areas of investigation include the role of diasporas in peace building, the relationship between the nexus and challenges to liberal state-building, and the part played by external parties in the peace processes of the Aceh and Sri Lankan conflicts. The inclusion of case studies from Africa, Asia and Europe provides the text with a strong geographical focus, and constructs a panoramic view of the nexus that encompasses the globe. Further country-based chapters – focusing on China, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa – underline this worldwide perspective.
The volume’s collected essays thus provide a detailed and comprehensive view of this fluid, contemporaneous topic, both theoretically and empirically. ‘The Security-Development Nexus’ is a vital appraisal of both the present issues and current thought concerning conflict, security and development
In the pursuit of economic development, Ethiopia has prioritized renewable energy production, emphasizing development of its hydropower potential. As part of this strategy, it is presently constructing the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile River, ignoring opposition from the downstream Egypt. In this paper, we use the seven commonly shared strategic priorities prescribed by the World Commission on Dams (WCD) to evaluate the sustainability standard and geopolitical significance of the GERD project.
The migration of people poses many challenges but also opportunities and has strong implications for the success and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Conversely, the 2030 Agenda consti-tutes a vital opportunity to improve migrants' lives. This Voices asks: how should migration be integrated into, and actioned within, the SDG framework to maximize positive, and minimize negative, outcomes?
As a key policy tool, water diplomacy offers greater political engagement in the cooperative management of shared water. A range of initiatives has been dedicated to this end, almost invariably oriented around the interactions of nation states. Crucially, however, practitioners of water diplomacy also need to address water governance at sub-state levels. As a political, multi-level, and normative field, peace and conflict research offers a pluralism of approaches designed to bring actors together at all levels. Drawing upon this research, this paper offers new focal points for water diplomacy that can enhance its policy effectiveness and enrich its underlying academic current. More specifically, it presents three hitherto undervalued tools for water diplomacy: at the interstate level, to uncover the rich body of political norms that bind states to shared understandings of acceptable practice around water. At the intrastate level, to incorporate ethnography of water users and civil society groups’ responses to state-led waterworks projects, and at the communal level to employ disaggregated georeferenced data on water resources in conflict-prone areas. Taken together, these analytical tools provide a multi-faceted political gauge of the dynamics of water diplomacy, and add vital impetus to develop water diplomacy across multiple levels of policy engagement.
The river Paz is a transboundary river that flows through Guatemala and El Salvador. Its frequent floods endanger the lives and livelihoods of downstream communities. Attempts have previously been made to develop flood management programmes for this watershed. However, these approaches were generally made by high-level governmental institutions with few if any contributions from floodplain communities and other stakeholders. Recognising that public consultation is a key aspect in flood management programmes, we intend in this work to extract different stakeholders' views regarding current and future flooding and flood management programmes in the Paz River basin. This is achieved using Future Scenarios Workshops with a projected time horizon of 30 years. The exercise was expected to identify consensual short- and medium–long-term flood management strategies for the Paz River basin that draws on input from inhabitants of flood-prone areas and other stakeholders.
Rainfall-induced natural disasters rank first among all natural disasters in Central America. Due to the geographical conditions of the Central American region, it is common that two or more countries are struck by the same rainfall event, for example Hurricane Mitch in 1998 affected the entire Central American region, killing more than 18 000 people. As a consequence, Central American countries have started to promote regional policies and programs that aim for better preparation and response to these events, including disaster management cooperation. However, cooperation poses several challenges that may hinder its goals. In order to analyse these challenges, we present analysis in this paper of the current policy and legal institutions as well as the main challenges that may hinder international disaster management cooperation in Central America.
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on contemporary security-related issues. It also focuses on the understanding that the traditional security studies approach, which is geared more towards hard security factors, is too limited to grasp the current security challenges and even more importantly the future ones. The book discusses how the changing and evolving shifts affect regional security as well as playing into contemporary conflicts in the region. It provides an overview of the armed conflict situation in the Middle East. The chapter addresses the challenges of ineffective relationships between Middle Eastern governments and their respective populations. It shows how the Syrian globalized civil war has expanded from an unarmed mass mobilized activity to a globalized armed conflict, which causes the greatest security concerns of contemporary times.
During the past two decades, environmental security and more specifically the security of water as a natural resource has come to the forefront of research and discussion. Many regions have experienced an increased water scarcity due to climatic variability and climate change, and the uncertain impacts of climate change to the supply has brought the issue to the centre of political debates. Indeed it has been raised by both the EU and the US national governments as a major issue of concern globally and has also been highlighted by the Security Council of the UN. The four volumes of this collection seek to broadly outline the debate as it has developed, both from a policy as well as an academic perspective, with the aim to bring conceptual clarity as well as provide an account of how the water security discourse has emerged and developed.
Water security is a multifaceted concept that spreads over political, social, economic and biophysical fields, becoming increasingly important in the age of looming global water crises. Previous research outcomes suggest that escalating global water crises are the results of governance failure not limited to physical shortages of freshwater resources. Water crime is defined in both procedural and moral terms as wrongdoings determined within the legal justice systems and social norms. This chapter explores water crimes in different dimensions with examples from the Global North and South and establishes typologies as follows: mismanagement of water resources causing significant social harms and environmental damage; corruption allowing allocation of water resources for a favoured party, using public office for private economic and political gains and adding payments for more effective service delivery; and, terrorism targeting water infrastructure and systems and affecting water security in water scarce regions. A broader framework to understand the multiple dimensions of water crime is an essential precondition for establishing a comprehensive strategy for achieving water security.
Liberal state- and nationbuilding fails to include into its framework of analysis environmental problems of post-conflict societies. Economic development projects such as large hydro projects or open cast mining for lignite, as an element of broader state-building exercise, lead to environmental stress for the communities, and can further exacerbate inter-communal incompatibilities. The case study of statebuilding in Kosovo is used to highlight the complexities of sustaining a peaceful post-conflict situation within the framework of existing peacebuilding model. Moreover, it emphasises that environmental and societal security requirements have to be addressed simultaneously to reduce the risk of reoccurring conflicts. The expectations is that by better understanding of the interaction between societal and environmental security, further valuable conclusion can be drawn about the capacity and limitations of prevailing models to build peace in the aftermath of civil wars.
To understand the link between the environment and human security, the water–food–energy nexus is critical. Indeed, a growing body of literature shows how environmental degradation and change fundamentally affect the livelihood of people around the world, especially through pathways related to water, food, and energy. In fragile and conflict-affected states, environmental change, in particular, exacerbates societal instability and is linked to sustained conflict. In this chapter, we provide a state-of-the-art overview of the interlinkages of the environment and human security by looking at both the risks and opportunities. We provide specific linkages to the key determinants of human security, namely food, water, and energy, and illustrate the connection with case studies.
For international and domestic actors, postconflict situations constitute one of the most difficult policy arenas to understand and operate within. In this context, the sustainable management of natural resources to prevent conflict and build peace—before, during, or after conflict—has received increasing scholarly attention over the past three decades. Emphasizing the potential for environmental cooperation to support peace and stability, researchers have focused on the ecological foundations for a socially, economically, and politically resilient peace. This chapter takes stock of the current state of the art on environmental peacebuilding, providing a summary of the most common definitions before looking back at the development of environmental peacebuilding along the two most noticeable perspectives and the remaining challenges and pathways for future research.
South Asia is the sub-Himalayan southern region of the Asian continent, comprising eight countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. South Asia has a population of about 1.6 billion, which is characterized by significant cultural divergences between and within the states. An estimated 2,000 ethnic groups, at least six ethnic-linguistic families and several major faiths make South Asia one of the most diverse regions on earth. The states and societies in this vast region face challenges on several fronts. The major challenge is to achieve the social and political stability that is needed to enable their progress towards increased human development. Several factors, however, make the prospects of progress daunting. The rise in the region’s population is a key challenge. A large part of the population in South Asia lives in abject poverty.
Dysfunctional water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) systems are mainly determined by poor water governance, exacerbating inequalities and poverty. Multi-stakeholder partnerships provide an approach to more flexible and adaptive governance to explore these problems. In this article, national commitments made to improve WaSH, made through the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) partnership's Mutual Accountability Mechanism, are examined through qualitative content analysis and guided by the SMART framework to assess the current target-setting. The analysis reveals that there are differences in the participation of the different constituencies regarding the number of stakeholders participating and their performance for measurable and time-bound commitments. This applies especially to research and learning and the private sector. Countries have prioritized commitments related to policy and strategy, efficiency and enabling conditions; further research should understand the linkages of the SWA commitments with other priority-setting processes at the national level. In sum, the commitments leave room for improvement to specify approaches to water governance in more detail and the chance to support the creation of sustainable and resilient systems with more diversified commitments from a wider range of partners.
Global health catastrophes have complex origins, often rooted in social disruption, poverty, conflict, and environmental collapse. Avoiding them will require a new integrative analysis of the links between disease, armed conflict, and environmental degradation within a socioecological vulnerability and human security context. Exploring these connections was the aim of Avoiding Catastrophe: Linking Armed Conflict, Harm to Ecosystems, and Public Health, an expert workshop held in May 4–6, 2016, at Concordia University in Montreal, QC, Canada.
Climate change is increasingly seen as intensifying global environmental stress and insecurity. It may not itself be the sole cause of conflict, but it can be a threat multiplier by bringing increased competition over shared water resources, causing loss of land due to desertification and sea-level rise, intensifying natural disasters, and forcing large population migration. If climate-change-induced environmental stress can lead to conflict, particularly over water sharing and large population migration, it can also bring cooperation, as human survival has always depended on the collective ability to manage challenges and find peaceful solutions. This chapter argues that climate change has created strong incentives for countries and societies to come together to create various mechanisms and institutions at the global level.
Shared rivers are not only expected to cause conflict, but they can also contribute to build engagement and cooperation among the riparian states. Particularly in the last two decades, several competing riparian countries have formally agreed to share and, in some cases develop their common water resources. Many agreements have been drawn up in the South to share the international river basins. Noteworthy ones are: Zambezi, Mekong, Jordan, Ganges and Nile Rivers. However, these agreements are presently going through severe stress due to increasing demand and decreasing supply of water resources. Moreover, global climate change raises certain possibility of long-term changes to the volume and pattern of run-off in these shared river systems. This paper critically examines the suitability of existing agreements on major international river systems in the South to address the challenges posed by the global climate change.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent shifting of international political environment, a new broader concept of security began to gain acceptance. This concept encompassed socio-economic-environmental challenges, such as resource scarcity and climate change, water-sharing issues, deforestation and forest protection measures, food and health security, and large population migration. The book examines the causes and consequences of these emerging security threats, and retains a critical focus on evolving approaches to address these issues. The author attempts to develop a framework for sustainable security in a rapidly changing global political landscape, which seeks to bring states and societies together in a way that addresses weaknesses of the evolving international system. Moreover, through a detailed analysis of the emerging security issues and their pathways, the book further argues that the evolving processes not only pose critical challenges but also provide remarkable opportunity for cooperation and collaboration among and within various stakeholders.
Water-management issues cut across all sectors of governance and have a critical bearing on many post-conflict challenges. The imperative of adequate water supply and the weakness of the state in a post-conflict period provide a nexus which demands comprehensive and well thought-out policy planning, for the short term as well as for the long term. However, very little research has been conducted on the nexus between water management and sustainable development in war-torn societies that are undergoing processes of peacebuilding. This article, after critically reviewing the contribution of water scarcity to security challenges and peacemaking, makes an attempt to contribute to the policy debate on how carefully planned interventions in the water sector can significantly contribute to the post-conflict peacebuilding process, from immediate recovery and rebuilding to long-term sustainable development goals and lasting peace.
This study aims to identify regions in the Zambezi River Basin in Southern Africa that are prone to risk of violent conflicts (collective violence, popular unrest) induced by climatic changes/variability. The Zambezi River is 575 kilometres long and the basin covers eight coun- tries: Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Botswana, Mo- zambique and Namibia.Besides the ecological impact, the study argues that socio-econom- ic and political problems are disproportionately multiplied by climate change/variability. Climate change/variability amplifies stresses on the socio-political fabric because it affects the governance of resources, and hence, is linked to the weakened mitigation and adaptation capac- ity of societies, that are already facing economic challenges (rising food prices, etc.). Society becomes highly vulnerable to climate induced con- flicts when it suffers from poor central leadership, weak institutions and polarized social identities. Taking all these factors into consideration, this study identifies Bulawayo/Matableleland-North in Zimbabwe and the Zambezia Province in Mozambique as the most likely regions to experience climate induced conflicts in the near future. The reasons for arriving at this conclusion are: a) Climatechange/variabilitywillhaveasignificantimpactonthesetwo regions; due to increasing water scarcity in Bulawayo/Matabeleland- North; and intensified flooding, sea-level rise, and costal erosion in the Zambezia Province. b) Due to climate change/variability, agricultural production in these two regions will become highly volatile, leading to severe food insecurity. c) Both regions are suffering from low quality political governance, having unscrupulous elites, weak institutions, and polarized social identities.
There is an ongoing debate about whether the world is getting more violent or more peaceful. But, there is no illusion that the Middle East region has become less peaceful over the last decades. There is no dearth of violent conflicts and migrant communities, both old and new in this part of the world. In light of ongoing globalization, climate change, economic crisis and violent conflict in the Middle East, high levels of transnational migration flows will continue for the foreseeable future. The era of global interconnectedness facilitates these migrants to get more actively involved as parties in conflicts. Both migrant producing and receiving countries in the Middle East share a strong interest in understanding how the migrant groups may be encouraged to support peace, development and security rather than foment ethnic nationalism and war.
The emergence of China in the Nile basin happened simultaneously to the cooperative developments among the 10 riparian countries. This paper argues that the power structures shifted from international agencies, which advance basin-wide cooperation, to private (Chinese) enterprises that advance unilateral undertakings. The decline of influence from international agencies who generally act in accordance to the Western liberal-democratic morale and China’s increasing influence by unilateral development, challenges the cooperative (multilateral) regime. Generally, this shift in the balance of power in the Nile region is regarded with suspicion by the Western dominated view as they question the ‘responsible’ engagement of China and the risks that come with ‘no strings attached’ policy that come with unilateral development.