ABSTRACT
Most environmental security experts agree that population growth alone is rarely the cause of violent conflict. Civil strife tends to be rooted in social disruptions, such as poverty, hunger, ethno political tensions, and government breakdown. Today, disputes between rural populations over a shared natural resource are increasingly common in areas as diverse as Central America and southern Africa. Population growth has been implicated as an aggravating force in many modern conflicts, ranging from the soccer war in Central America in 1969 to present-day battles in central Africa. It is increasingly clear that population-induced conflicts can quickly spill beyond a nation's borders in many well-known though unpredictable ways, such as massive outflows of refugees, creation of humanitarian emergencies, and seizure of border areas by warring parties. Whether induced by population growth or unfair distribution, resource scarcity currently affects a majority of the population in many developing countries.
