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Stability and Sustainability in Peace Building: Priority Area for Warfare Ecology

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Abstract

The chapter aims to highlight the importance of efficient management of the environment in providing stable and sustainable peace to a post-conflict society. An attempt has been made to give selected cases where sustainable economic development is neglected and short-term, situational development is favored in post-conflict peacebuilding systems. The negative outcome of this approach has been the pollution of the environment, and also, in some instances creating further conflicts and insecurity in the society. In order to avoid these negative consequences, three policy recommendations – good governance, inter-state cooperation and early warning systems – have been elaborated for how to address and successfully overcome the environmental threats to sustainable peace – hence, how sustained stability can be brought into post-conflict systems.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Machlis and Hanson have provided an illuminating taxonomy of this debate and provided a novel starting point by bringing an ecological perspective into the debate [16].

  2. 2.

    The number for Syria is a government estimate. Other sources, including the UNHCR, speak of alone 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria [15].

  3. 3.

    Salehyan discusses the different pathways from environmental stress over migration to conflict [26].

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Correspondence to Ashok Swain .

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Swain, A., Krampe, F. (2011). Stability and Sustainability in Peace Building: Priority Area for Warfare Ecology. In: Machlis, G., Hanson, T., Špirić, Z., McKendry, J. (eds) Warfare Ecology. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1214-0_14

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