Environmental Scarcities, State Capacity and Civil Violence

Directed by then-CISS member Thomas Homer-Dixon (University of Toronto), this project examined the ramifications of renewable resource depletion and environmental degradation for social stability and civil violence. In particular, the project examined the ability of India, China, and Indonesia to marshal the necessary technical, financial, and political resources to adapt to what could be severe environmental stresses (the result of accelerating losses of water, topsoil, forests, and fisheries) in the coming years.

Case study reports were published on China and Indonesia. The project also published a study on the African state of Malawi that investigates the seeming absence of conflict in a country experiencing severe environmental degradation. In January 1999, Princeton University Press published Homer-Dixon’s Environment, Scarcity, and Violence.

The Academy collaborated on this project with the Peace and Conflict Studies Program of the University of Toronto.

Funding was provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Pew Global Stewardship Initiative, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.