News Archive
Professor Dannenmaier Chairs Workshop Session in Geneva on Resolving International Development Conflicts
09/21/2009
Professor Eric Dannenmaier facilitated discussion of mitigating violent disputes over natural resources during a workshop on “Environmental Security: Sources of Conflict and Prospects for Peacemaking” at the United Nations’ Maison Internationale de l’Environnement in Geneva on October 1, 2009. The Workshop was co-sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the University for Peace, and the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability. Professor Eric Dannenmaier chaired a session devoted to modeling how international organizations and national leaders can mitigate violent conflict where foreign investors and local communities clash over resource development and property rights in the face of scarcity. Dannenmaier led participants through a simulated dispute over a proposed mining concession in a developing country – drawing on a recent report about conflict potential over mining operations in the Philippines.
Professor Dannenmaier has been working on environmental security issues since the late 1990s, with his research focused on the influence of public access to environmental decision-making as a factor in mitigating the potential for violence and conflict escalation.
More information about the Geneva program can be found at http://www.upeace.org/esc/UNEP-UPeace-FESS%20Agenda_draft%201%20_4_.pdf.
More information about environmental security and conflict can be found in the article at http://www.ehponline.org/members/2004/112-3/focus.html.
A policy paper Dannenmaier wrote on the subject for the 2001 Presidential Summit of the Americas can be found at www.ssrn.com/abstract=1078283
