Conflict Prevention by Countering the Effects of Climate Change and Over-Population

Why Let History End?

Conflict Prevention by Countering the Effects of Climate Change and Over-population

The end of the world is upon us! Geopolitical strategists must consider human ingenuity in the equation of how future climate change and the interactions of its populations as a result of these changes. Robert Kaplan graphically describes a vision for the degradation of the human race into anarchy in the near future in his article "The Coming Anarchy". He presents a strategic situation that he describes in his chapter The Environment as a Hostile Power in which he says "It is time to understand ‘the environment' for what it is: the national security issue of the early twenty-first century. The political and strategic impact of surging populations, spreading disease, deforestation and soil erosion, water depletion, air pollution, and possibly, rising sea levels in critical, overcrowded regions like the Nile Delta and Bangladesh- developments that will prompt mass migrations and, in turn, incite group conflicts-will be the core foreign policy challenge from which most others will ultimately emanate, arousing the public and uniting assorted interests left over from the Cold War" (Kaplan, 79). This vision does not address the ends, ways and means by which this future can be avoided such as new regional policies that address populations, innovative science and technology to counter the effects of global climate change, and investment in renewable resources that reduce dependence on depleting resources can mitigate the global effects of these problems on stable states.

Resource Wars

Struggle for resources caused by surging populations in West Africa highlights the need for policies the world community to help contain them in these regions. This article takes the reader on a trip to global political anarchy through a discussion of West African countries as a microcosm of how this decline of human society will begin and spread across the globe. Resource starved, over-crowded cities in lands where trans-national nations are more relevant in providing perceived solutions to the problems of the masses than the states whose boundaries these groups of humanity overlap. He states that "Africa may be as relevant to the future character of world politics as the Balkans were a hundred years ago, prior to the two Balkan wars and the First World War" (Kaplan, 78). However, as Davidson R. Gwatkin states in his article Policies Affecting Population in West Africa, countries such as Ghana and Nigeria are seeking population control measures that can reduce the destabilizing effects of over-population in the decades ahead. These policies will be implemented through a mix of education and family planning programs designed to see more women graduate from secondary schooling as a method of ensuring