Estimating the Environmental Impact of Mass Violence

Kent State University, Kent OH

Investigators

Abstract

This project will focus on the interconnections of environmental degradation and mass violence after the cessation of armed conflict. The project will address specifically how programs designed to augment both water and food security in the aftermath of civil war may actually facilitate further conflict and violence. Water-management projects, including the intensification and expansion of irrigation schemes, well illustrate this dynamic. It is widely understood that water management issues have a bearing on post-conflict societies. However, much of the literature presumes that armed conflict contributes to the destruction of these schemes whereas peace-building efforts improve such schemes. This relationship is not so straightforward, in that many post-conflict practices may lead to renewed, but altered, forms of conflict and violence. This project therefore will provide insight into the complex dynamics of armed conflict, post-conflict rebuilding processes, and the impact on the environment. This has important implications in that resource scarcities, including that of water, are assumed to lead to more conflict in the future. Through the use of recent advances in geospatial technologies, coupled with archival research, this project provides an empirically-grounded, scientific approach to the interplay of conflict and the environment. Drawing on theoretical insights developed in environmental security studies, specifically water and food security studies, this project will advance basic knowledge on deforestation that results from the construction of irrigation schemes in a post-conflict setting. Investigators will focuses on the case study of Khmer Rouge irrigation projects that were developed during the Cambodian genocide. This study is important in that it provides a real-world empirical example from which to examine actual policies and their subsequent impact on the environment. Throughout the course of this project, two graduate students will obtain first-hand research experience working in a foreign setting.