Environmental security and the resource curse

The idea that increased demands on the natural environment due to economic activities of humans lead to social breakdown and ultimately violent conflict has gained widespread acceptance among popular audiences and within scholarly circles.¹ The growing belief that the natural environment and peace are connected is reflected in the recent Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to such personalities as Wangari Maathai and Albert Gore.² The latter also won an Oscar for his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” that paints a dramatic picture of the security implications emanating from global warming. Contrary to this often called neo-Malthusian³ view on environmental conflict, this chapter aims to demonstrate that poverty and conflict are part of a natural resource trap, where relative abundance of resources explains socio-economic breakdown. It is argued that armed conflict, whether between or within states, results largely from policy failure associated with “the paradox of plenty”.⁴ The idea is that it is the relative abundance of natural wealth as opposed to resource scarcity that affects economic and governance outcomes; this is often called the “resource curse”.