Ecoviolence: Links Among Environment, Population, and Security

Ecoviolence explores links between environmental scarcities of key renewable resources-such as cropland, fresh water, and forests-and violent rebellions, insurgencies, and ethnic clashes in developing countries. Detailed contemporary studies of civil violence in Chiapas, Gaza, South Africa, Pakistan, and Rwanda show how environmental scarcity has played a limited to significant role in causing social instability in each of these contexts.

Thomas Homer-Dixon is associate professor of political science and director of the peace and conflict studies program at the University of Toronto. Jessica Blitt is an M.A. candidate at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs in Ottawa and an honors graduate of and former research assistant for the peace and conflict studies program at the University of Toronto.