Middle East

Climate Change and War: the origins of the Syrian Conflict

April 17, 2015 / climate change, environment / , , ,

Climatologists and social scientists have been debating whether a severe drought in the MIddle East may have led to the outbreak of war in that country for at least two years. I discussed this topic in a blog post published in 2013. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is now receiving a lot of attention for its detailed study of the question. So far, the best coverage that I have seen of the topic has been Andrew Freeman’s article, “The Seeds of War,” which combines text with photographs and graphics. I highly recommend this piece. You can also read the abstract for the original article here. Of course,  few questions are trickier than the causation of a war, which are multi-factorial. The anniversary of the outbreak of World War One last year led to a plethora of academic studies about that war’s causation. By its nature, it’s almost impossible to do counter-factual history; that is, to demonstrate what would have happened if something had not taken place. Nonetheless, the causal link in Syria between the collapse of the agricultural economy, the explosive growth of urban populations, and the breaking of social bonds, is a persuasive one. …

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People not to Forget

April 17, 2015 / United Nations / ,
Syrian Civil War map from Wikipedia Commons at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Syrian_civil_war.png
Syrian Civil War map from Wikipedia Commons at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Syrian_civil_war.png

World events frequently cause flows of people that are unanticipated. Both between nations and within nations, people are displaced for political, religious, and environmental reasons. Refugee Status Determination (RSD) has been the purview of both the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and governments around the world. University of Law professor Michael Kagan has suggested that the UNHCR now lacks the capacity to adequately identify potential refugees. Further, he suggests that individual governments also lack this capacity. He directs an on-line forum presenting position papers and shorter discussions of refugee issues at the University of Michigan. In a recent posting, he called for the UNHCR to seriously address its capacity to engage in RSD asking: …

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New Map of MERS

November 11, 2014 / Uncategorized / , , ,
European Centre for Disease and Infection Control map of MERS, November 2014
European Centre for Disease and Infection Control map of MERS, November 2014

I’ve discussed MERS before in this blog, but this virus has faded from public attention as Ebola has become a major health crisis in West Africa. This recent map by the European Centre for Disease and Infection Control, however, makes clear why MERS remains a global health challenge.

Shawn Smallman, Portland State University

Water and War in the Middle East

April 17, 2015 / environment, security / , ,
Canal by Evgeni Dinev courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
Canal by Evgeni Dinev courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Kim Brown and I have started to work on a second edition of our Introduction to International and Global Studies textbook, which will be published in 2015. We are trying to not only make conceptual changes to the work, but also to reflect the many global events that have taken place since the first edition: in North America, fracking has changed the energy picture, in Europe, the financial crisis is changing perceptions of economic and political globalization, and around the world people are struck by the fact that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere has passed 400 parts per million. Although there is a great deal of material to address in the next edition, one key issue has to be water, as drought is leading to crises and conflict in many regions, but particularly in the Middle East. …

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