Environmental Peacebuilding

Abstract

For international and domestic actors, postconflict situations constitute one of the most difficult policy arenas to understand and operate within. In this context, the sustainable management of natural resources to prevent conflict and build peace—before, during, or after conflict—has received increasing scholarly attention over the past three decades. Emphasizing the potential for environmental cooperation to support peace and stability, researchers have focused on the ecological foundations for a socially, economically, and politically resilient peace. This chapter takes stock of the current state of the art on environmental peacebuilding, providing a summary of the most common definitions before looking back at the development of environmental peacebuilding along the two most noticeable perspectives and the remaining challenges and pathways for future research.