Environmental Security and Peace

Description

Environmental factors have been increasingly implicated in analyses of development, peace and conflict situations. There is mounting concern over the extent to which environmental stress is threatening livelihoods, health and the fulfillment of basic needs, and harming the sustainability and resilience of fragile ecosystems. Environmental degradation is intensifying conflict and competition over natural resources, aggravating social tensions, and in certain volatile situations, provoking or escalating violence and conflict.

There is a major deficit of skilled and motivated people who fully understand the complex issues involved and their inter-linkages and can define and manage the necessary actions to reduce the threats to peace arising from environmental degradation and growing competition for resources. There are therefore many opportunities where motivated individuals will be able to follow productive and satisfying careers while making valuable contributions to improving the prospects for peace and environmental security across the world.

Objectives
The Masters in Environmental Security and Peace has been designed to:

• Offer a graduate programme that addresses the interface of environmental degradation, peace and security to students who are continuing their education or professional work in government, inter-governmental institutions, educational or training institutions, non-governmental organizations, the private sector or the media etc.
• Prepare qualified professionals who are able to define the specific nature of the threats to peace and security posed by environmental degradation and who can develop, adapt and implement appropriate approaches and solutions in their local contexts to avert and respond to critical threats to environmental security.
• Graduate professionals who have a sufficient knowledge base and skills related to environmental security to teach competently in the field, to undertake high quality research on environmental security issues, and to develop and implement sound management and policy decisions.

Student Exit Profile
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Articulate and critique key theoretical and conceptual dimensions related to environmental security including the relationships between environmental security, development, prevention of conflict, and peace-building;
  
• Apply quantitative and qualitative methodologies to analyze scientific, ecological, political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions of key environmental security issues;
• Identify and evaluate management options, supportive institutional, legal and policy regimes, governance reform, and other appropriate measures to strengthen environmental security at various scales.
  

Programme Structure

DATE	COURSE	CREDITS
End of August	ORIENTATION
August – January	TERM 1	15
	PCS-6000 - Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies	3
	ESP-6010 - Introduction to Environmental Security	3
	ESP-6020 - Introduction to Research Methods I	2
	ESP-6060 - Water, Security and Peace	3
	Electives may include: Land, Forests, Conflict and Insecurity; Measuring Sustainability; Agriculture, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development; Environmental Assessment; Skills for Non-Profit Leadership	Minimum of 4
February – May	TERM 2	18
	ESP-6020 – Research Methods II	1
	Electives may include: Hunger, Famine and Food Security; Environmental Security Assessment; Human Vulnerability and Climate Change; Local and International Environmental Governance; Urban Environmental Security; Disaster Risk Reduction; Demographic change, migration and conflict; Environmental Conflict Management and Peace Building; Central American Fiekl trip	Minimum of 17
May – July	TERM 3	7
	ESP-7100 – Independent Study ESP-7200 - Internship	7
TOTAL CREDITS		40

 

CSP-6000 Introduction to Peace Studies (3 credits)
‘Introduction to Peace Studies’ is the common element of all courses of study in the UPEACE academic programme. It establishes the core issues, insights, and debates within peace studies as an integrated field of research offering a challenging and useful perspective on issues of peace and conflict. The course allows students to explore the various perceptions of the changing nature of contemporary conflicts and their resolution, as well as the underlying issues that influence them. It includes a review of the history and theories of non-violent struggle, issues of governance, development, global institutions, human rights, gender issues, culture, and security. Students will develop an integrated understanding of the potential for and challenges to peace – a theme that they will explore further through the other courses in the MA programme. Predominant contemporary and future threats to peace will also be analyzed. Through this process, students will develop an understanding of the various theoretical and methodological options available in peace research and conflict resolution and will be encouraged to understand the systemic nature of the issues.

ESP-6010 Introduction to Environmental Security (3 credits)
This introductory course will provide an overview of global environmental issues, trends and changes in progress and future challenges, and will explore key theoretical and analytic dimensions and debates within the environmental security field. The course will open by tracing the historical development of concern for the nexus of environment, security and peace, including multilateral environmental agreements. The value of integrative approaches will be underscored by examining analytic contributions of international relations, economics, geopolitics, political ecology, institutional analysis, sociology, and ecology. In this way, students will be introduced to alternative interpretations of the concept ‘environmental security’. Through an overview of environmental change at different scales and a futures perspective of the trends in major environmental issues and relationships, students will begin to appreciate and analyze relationships between environmental degradation and human and ecological security. The concepts of vulnerability, adaptability and other coping mechanisms will be introduced, with a special focus on cases of heightened vulnerability. A special focus will be establishing connections between poverty and environmental insecurity, including introducing the role of development economics in strategies to address environmental insecurity. The course will then focus on linkages between environmental insecurity and conflict including: typologies of environmental conflict, including differing approaches to considering conflict over renewable vs non-renewable resources; conditions under which environmental stress may contribute to the emergence or intensification of conflict; factors that influence the intensity and extent of environmentally related conflicts; and livelihood insecurity as a link between poverty, environmental degradation and conflict. Relationships between exploitation of natural resource abundance and conflict, including greed versus grievance debates, will also be introduced. Finally, the potential for environmental insecurity to catalyze peace-building and environmental cooperation will be highlighted. Throughout this course, the practical relevance of the theoretical and analytic considerations will be illustrated through case studies of existing and emerging critical environmental security issues, from various geographical regions and at different scales from global, (sub-)regional, national, to local.

ESP-6020 Research Methods I (2 Credits)
This course will develop students’ theoretical knowledge and applied skills in conducting qualitative, quantitative and participatory research in the social sciences. This component of the course will address, inter alia : epistemology; critical theory; research ethics; and project development and grant writing. The course will also serve to prepare students for the design and writing of the major research project required by their degree through the development of their abilities to formulate research problems and proposals and to conduct research. Students will explore quantitative and qualitative techniques for undertaking baseline scientific assessments of the state of the environment at different scales, including the development and interpretation of indicators, the use of relevant meta-databases and useful statistical tools.

ESP-6050 Land, Forests, Insecurity and Conflict (3 Credits)
This course will examine ways in which land degradation and deforestation may contribute to insecurity and conflict, including by adversely impacting food security, rural livelihoods and biodiversity, and by triggering or exacerbating disputes over ownership and use of land and forest resources. The course will open with a historical overview that will introduce students to the complex socio-economic and political drivers of land degradation and deforestation, including the influences of land distribution policies and market economies on different stakeholders’ natural resource use decisions. This will lead into a discussion of ethical dimensions of the management of conflict and insecurity related to land degradation and deforestation. A special focus will be cases of desertification in arid areas, where deforestation, overgrazing, and poor irrigation practices undermine the land's productivity and exacerbate chronic problems of water scarcity, famine, migration, and social breakdown. Linkages to conflict dynamics and violence will be explored through sub-regional and national case studies including: Southeast Asia, North Asia, West Africa, Rwanda and Brazil. The course will also deepen analysis of the impact on land use of demographic change, including that related to HIV-Aids, and the impacts of conflict on land use and productivity. Throughout the course, students will be introduced to approaches, methodologies and technologies that are being utilized successfully to prevent and reverse land degradation and deforestation and to promote sustainable agricultural, land and forest management, including indigenous approaches.

ESP-6071 Urban Environmental Security (2 credit)
This course will examine human and ecological security problems stemming from trends towards increasing urbanization, including contaminated drinking water supplies, poor air quality, land subsidence, inadequate housing, transportation and sanitation, and overload of waste management facilities due to accelerated consumption, among others. A special focus will be the heightened vulnerability of urban poor. The course will also explore innovative municipal strategies to strengthen environmental security, including programmes aimed at greening transport, building employment skills and opportunities through environmental initiatives, achieving zero waste, minimizing environmental hazards and preserving biodiversity. The course will be structured around case studies of mega-cities, such as Bangkok, Mexico City and Los Angeles, and also smaller urban centers, such as Curitiba (Brazil). This case study approach will emphasize the interdependence of urban systems and the value of inter-disciplinary and participatory approaches to urban planning and management.

ESP-6060 Water, Security and Peace (3 credits)
This first part of this course will explore conflict, insecurity and collaboration in relation to scarcity, poor quality, and variability of freshwater resources. An overview will be provided of current and projected future state of freshwater resources and marine ecosystems, focusing on critical sub-regional and sub-national concerns. Students will examine disputes and conflict over access to fresh water resources and rivers, including dam construction. A special focus will be case studies in which insecurity over transboundary freshwater resources has fostered peace building through cooperative co-management. The second part of the course will focus on the peace and security implications of: competing interests over exploitation and management of marine resources, especially fisheries; pollution of the oceans, including their use as repositories for waste; and offshore exploitation of petroleum and mineral resources.  Finally, students will examine the impact of coastal development, degradation of coastal ecosystems, and the special vulnerability of coastal communities to disasters. Throughout the course, mechanisms and instruments will be introduced to assist the resolution and prevention of water-related conflict and insecurity including: international law; institutional arrangements; policy reform; dispute resolution; track-two dialogues; environmental monitoring systems; early warning systems; and ethical frameworks, among others. Students will also examine examples of successful approaches to sustainable water and coastal management, including indigenous approaches.
ESP-6090 Hunger, Famine and Food Security (3 credits)
In this course, students will be encouraged to explore from a household and community perspective the causative agents of hunger, starvation, malnutrition, and famine and their subsequent impact on people’s ability to survive and thrive. Students will examine the underlying issues that shape rural and urban food systems in terms of food supply and food entitlement (i.e. access to food and distribution of food). This will include not only looking at the dependence of household and community food supply on agricultural production and population growth etc, but also on the policy and institutional environment that constrain people’s options for dealing with periodic food shortages, and fluctuations in food prices and food entitlements etc. The course will also explore the importance and synergy of rural-urban links in enabling households to achieve sustainable livelihoods and an acceptable level of food security and well-being. Students will be introduced to methodologies and technologies to assist the prevention of household and community food insecurity crises, including Emergency Systems, Food Information Systems, Famine Early Warning Systems, as well as Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems. Associated with the examination of emergency systems will be a brief exploration of the nature of food aid and the critical importance of how it is delivered on whether it will alleviate or exacerbate food insecurity. Students will be exposed to some practical methods for assessing poverty and food security at household and community level, with special regards to the problems of identifying the poor, marginalized and food insecure. Finally, it is important to note that gender issues in dealing with food security will be covered at various points in the course because of the major role women play in household and community food security.

ESP-6100 Environmental Security Assessment (3 credits)
This course focuses on the principles and practices that underlie environmental security assessments. Environmental security assessments combine field research and analysis of secondary data in order to identify environmental risks and vulnerabilities that have the potential for adversely affecting security or promoting instability and conflict. They provide tools that enable policymakers to develop more effective strategies for crisis prevention and mitigation.

ESP-6040 Demographic Change, Migration and Conflict (2 credits)
This course will analyze the relationship between natural resources, demographic change, and human security. It will provide an overview of population dynamics and demographic transition in relation to development trajectories and environmental stress. Students will be introduced to Malthusian and Cornucopian perspectives on the impact of population growth on resource scarcity and ecological sustainability as well as critiques of linkages between demographic change and resource scarcity. The course will examine debates surrounding strategies, policies and practices of national population programs, the United Nations Population Fund, and civil society organizations in support of sustainable development, including issues related to reproductive rights, gender equity and gender empowerment. Students will also explore the impacts of HIV-AIDS on rural development and environmental management. The course will then critically consider the notion of ‘environmental refugees’ by investigating cases in which environmental degradation has contributed to migratory movements, particularly cases in which these population movements have resulted in conflict or other insecurity.

ESP-6140 Environmental Conflict Management and Peace Building (3 credits)
The initial part of this course will deepen understanding of the relationship between environmental insecurity and conflict, including debate over the linkages between environmental stress, competition for resources and violent conflict. Students will also examine historical cases of peace building through transboundary collaboration and cooperation following tensions over threats to environmental security, and explore prospects for similar approaches in relation to contemporary transboundary conflicts. The course will then focus on the politics and theory of, and skills and techniques engaged in, environmental conflict analysis and resolution. The implications of differences in the empowerment of different stakeholders will be explored, including conflicts involving: local communities vs. corporations; indigenous communities vs. government agencies; and powerful vs. less powerful states (e.g. small island developing states and LDCs). The concept of environmental justice will be explored, as well as debates over the role of scientific expertise. Environmental litigation will be contrasted with alternative methods of dispute resolution, including negotiation and mediation. Consensus-based processes will be explored, including policy dialogues, as well as global environmental diplomacy. Where possible, students will participate in facilitated field visits to communities that are party to an environmental conflict. A special focus will be examining the potential for community-based resource management of common property and private property resources to overcome resource conflicts. [NB – Systems thinking now taught as part of peace studies course].

ESP-6020 Research Methods II (1 Credits)
This course complements the first part of the research methods course taught in the first semester. At the end of the second part, the students have to produce a complete research proposal for their thesis.

ESP-6120 Human Vulnerability and Climate Change (2 credits)
This course opens with an examination of historical and projected future energy demands and their relationship to industrial and sustainable development strategies. Through concrete case studies, students will examine the environmental security dimensions of coal, gas, oil, nuclear, and wood energy, particularly in terms of atmospheric pollution. The major role and the attitudes of the major international energy corporations will be examined identifying their principal strategic and economic implications. The course will also explore the implications and potential of the expansion of renewable energy systems, including hydrogen, biomass, solar, and wind turbine. The second part of the course will review the debate over the nature, causes and politics of climate change and will focus on environmental security in the context of the emerging and projected impacts of global warming, including decreases in agricultural productivity and aquaculture due to heat and water stress, increased surface and groundwater pollution, decreased soil fertility, sea-level rise, and increases in the frequency and magnitude of floods, droughts, and cyclones. Dimensions that will be considered include: food security; the spread of infectious diseases; vulnerability to natural disasters; loss of livelihood; biodiversity loss; inundation of low-level island states; and the potential for migration and the implications for conflict. Throughout the course, students will examine the ethical dimensions of the issues, relevant international law, including the Kyoto Protocol, the political implications of the positions of different States and groups of states, national policy options, and scientific collaboration, including the IPCC, for minimizing insecurity and preventing and resolving conflicts related to energy and climate change.

ESP-6150 Local Governance for Environmental Security (1 credit)
This course focuses on the capacity of local communities and society to develop creative practical solutions to environmental problems. The course provides an overview of developments in thinking regarding effective local governance for environmental security particularly since the Rio Earth Summit, i.e. the role of democracy, public awareness, participation and partnerships in advancing environmental responsibility and security. This will include exploring: the implications of commitments to interdisciplinary, integrated and participatory approaches; the differing roles and responsibilities of governments, private sector and civil society in contributing to effective governance. Specific aspects to be analized are:  Alternative future visioning individual-local-global environmental ethic; the Earth Charter creation process; new actors in governance: civil society, business, women; the global environmental governance debate: emphasis on North-South issues and South perspectives; South-South mechanisms, Alternative Forum; a special study of IUCN as a case. Although considered as an independent course, it is actually closely linked, and a complement, to the ESP-6151 that is being taught immediately thereafter.

ESP-6151 International Governance for Environmental Security (3 credits)
This course aims to deepen understanding of the governance aspects that influence the capacity of the global community of nations to minimize vulnerability to environmental stresses, to develop creative practical solutions to environmental problems, and to adapt to scarcities of natural resources. Students will draw on their analyses in previous courses of the different institutions and organizations responsible for the management of different environmental issues, with a view to evaluating the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of these institutions and developing recommendations for improved environmental governance in the future. In this context, the course will examine ingenuity in terms of new and reformed institutional arrangements, legal frameworks, decision-making processes, and policymaking processes for environmental security. The course will provide an overview of developments in thinking regarding effective global, regional and national governance for environmental security particularly since the Rio Earth Summit, including the effectiveness of existing international and regional institutional and legal frameworks for environmental security. The course will also review the policies and aims of the major States, groups of States and institutions on the key issues relevant to environmental security and, through role-playing exercises, will encourage the students to consider and evaluate potential future outcomes and consequences. Throughout this course, national and regional case studies will be used to focus the discussions on concrete and practical concerns.

ESP-7100 Independent Study (7 credits)
Each student must complete a written dissertation of 14,000 to 16,000 words on an approved topic related to environmental security and peace. In Term 1, each student will be assigned an Independent Study Supervisor, who will act as a guide and resource in the preparation of their research project. Students will be encouraged to focus their research on an environmental security problem or issue from their own country or region.

ESP-7200 Internship (7 credits)
The students may choose to carry out either a 330 hours internship or an Independent Study. The internship provides an opportunity for students to connect their learning to grounded practice through participation in analysis and/or management of concrete environmental or development concerns. The internship make be undertaken with an appropriate public, private sector or non-profit organization working on a environmental security topic relevant to the student’s specific thematic or sectoral interests. The supervised internship involves several phases of preparation, execution and evaluation (terms of reference; research of background information before getting into the field; an intensive interaction with the host organization that includes both general support and activities that are the direct responsibility of the intern; midterm and final technical reports that are shared with the host organization; host organization and intern evaluation).

Other course descriptions appear in the NRSD MA program LINK

Faculty

Resident faculty

Rolain Borel Head of Department. Doctor of Technical Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Jan Breitling Instructor. MSc. Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands.

Ronnie De Camino Professor. Doctor in Natural Resources, Albert Ludwig University, Germany.

Mahmoud El Zain Hamid Assistant Professor. Ph.D. Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands.

David Hoffman Assistant Professor. Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the Department of Anthropology. University of Colorado, Boulder.

Mohit Mukherjee Director of the UPEACE Centre for Executive and Professional Education and a faculty member at UPEACE. MA Harvard Graduate School of Education

Mirian Vilela Director, Earth Charter Center for Education for Sustainable Development at UPEACE. Master degree in Public Administration and Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Visiting faculty

Michael Brklacich Ph.D. in Geography. Head and Professor, Department of Geography & Environmental Studies. Carleton University.

Max Castro Associate director of research and studies at the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability. PhD (sociology) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Tom Deligiannis Ph.D. candidate, Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. Master’s Degree in History, Focus in International Relations History, University of Toronto.

Mersie Ejidu Senior fellow at FESS and president, founder, and chief executive officer of Partnership for African Environmental Sustainability (PAES). M.A. in Economics.

Reginald Noble Ph.D. in Ecology. Lecturer in Community Development, Livelihoods, and Food Security. Knowledge Development Centre / Ryerson University.

Jeffrey Stark Director of Research and Studies, Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability.

Peter Stoett Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Concordia University in Montréal. PhD in Political Studies from Queen’s University.