The Human Dimensions of Environmental Insecurity: Some Insights from South Asia
![ECSP Report 9: Official Statements](/sites/default/files/styles/publication/public/media/images/publication/covewr.jpg)
![ECSP Report 9: Official Statements](/sites/default/files/styles/publication/public/media/images/publication/covewr.jpg)
This article focuses on what the South Asian experience can contribute to the larger literature on environment and security and, more particularly, to the literature on human security and sustainable development. It argues that chronic and structural impoverishment—rather than resource scarcity alone— forges the connection between environmental degradation and conflict. It also suggests that poverty and weak institutions of governance are the more immediate triggers of environmental insecurity. As such, analyses of environment and security need to focus more at societal levels and on evidence of social disruption, even where that disruption might not entail violent conflict.
About the Author
Environmental Change and Security Program
The Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) explores the connections between environmental change, health, and population dynamics and their links to conflict, human insecurity, and foreign policy. Read more