Summary
Communal disputes over local issues such as land use, cattle herding, and access to scarce resources are a leading cause of conflict around the world. Over the coming decades, climate change, forced migration, and violent extremism will exacerbate such disputes in places that are ill equipped to handle them. UN peacekeeping operations are the international community’s primary tool for managing conflict.
Patrolling the Commons
Peacekeeping and Conflict in a Climate-Changed World
(With Patrick Hunnicutt)
Summary
Climate change poses an existential threat to the human well-being around the world. This is especially true for populations residing in fragile and conflict-affected settings. Nations emerging from or actively experiencing violent conflict make up one-third of the world’s most climate-sensitive countries and – because violent conflict frequently erodes the economic, political, and social institutions required for effective governance – one-half of the countries least prepared to engage in climate adaptation.
