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401. Diamonds and War: State, Capital, and Labor in British Ruled Palestine

Author:
David De Vries
Publication Date:
04-2010
Content Type:
Book
Institution:
Berghahn Books
Abstract:
The mining of diamonds, their trading mechanisms, their financial institutions, and, not least, their cultural expressions as luxury items have engaged the work of historians, economists, social scientists, and international relations experts. Based on previously unexamined historical documents found in archives in Belgium, England, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United States, this book is the first in English to tell the story of the formation of one of the world’s main strongholds of diamond production and trade in Palestine during the 1930s and 1940s. The history of the diamond-cutting industry, characterized by a long-standing Jewish presence, is discussed as a social history embedded in the international political economy of its times; the genesis of the industry in Palestine is placed on a broad continuum within the geographic and economic dislocations of Dutch, Belgian, and German diamond-cutting centers. In providing a micro-historical and interdisciplinary perspective, the story of the diamond industry in Mandate Palestine proposes a more nuanced picture of the uncritical approach to the strict boundaries of ethnic-based occupational communities. This book unravels the Middle-eastern pattern of state intervention in the empowerment of private capital and recasts this craft culture’s inseparability from international politics during a period of war and transformation of empire.
Topic:
War, Military Strategy, Natural Resources, Labor Issues, State Violence, and Mining
Political Geography:
Britain, United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, and Palestine

402. Sustainable Water Systems: Step One - Redefining the Nation's Infrastructure Challenge

Author:
David Monsma, Regan Nelson, and Ray Bolger
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
During the past 150 years, a complex water infrastructure has been built throughout the U.S. to supply homes and businesses with clean water, collect and treat wastewater and manage stormwater – and an equally complex regulatory system has evolved alongside it. A generation of progress has been made under the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. However, serious challenges still exist for the nation's freshwater resources, including insufficient progress in achieving water quality goals, overuse of water resources, and looming challenges associated with global climate change, including droughts, heavy storm events and flooding. Meanwhile, water and wastewater utilities are struggling with aged infrastructure that requires upgrades or replacement. Control of urban storm water and rural runoff will require large new investments. Appropriate sources of funding and affordability of these investments also requires attention.
Topic:
Natural Resources, Water, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
United States

403. Crossing the Natural Gas Bridge

Author:
Matthew Frank, Jenna Goodward, Sarah Ladislaw, and Kate Zyla
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Abstract:
While natural gas can play a critical role during the transition to a secure, low-carbon economy, there are both climate and energy security risks associated with a dramatic shift to natural gas. This paper explores the current role of natural gas in the United States' energy mix, reasons that climate change and energy security policies might increase demand for natural gas, and the implications of such a shift. It concludes with several recommendations for policymakers looking to craft a rational role for natural gas in the U.S. energy sector.
Topic:
Economics, Energy Policy, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
United States

404. Suffering the Science: Climate change, people, and poverty

Author:
Alex Renton
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Climate change is a reality and its effects are apparent right now. The scientific predictions are shifting continually – they almost always look bleaker. But Oxfam's experience in nearly 100 countries is definitive: hundreds of millions of people are already suffering damage from a rapidly changing climate, which is frustrating their efforts to escape poverty. This paper is the story of the 'affected'.
Topic:
Climate Change, Poverty, Natural Resources, Food, and Famine

405. Underdevelopment, Resource Scarcity, and Environmental Degradation

Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
Underdevelopment, resource scarcity, and environmental degradation are cardinal, even existential, threats to human security. These challenges not only threaten human life and well-being, but also impact the global geopolitical and economic landscape. Chronic underdevelopment condemns more than 1 billion people to lives of poverty, illness, and poor political and economic prospects. Long-term goals of economic and human development are undermined by scarce, unreliable, or unaffordable supplies of vital resources such as food, water, and energy. Climate change threatens to exacerbate the effects of environmental degradation, putting land and livelihoods at grave risk.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Environment, Poverty, and Natural Resources

406. Water challenges in Central-South Asia

Author:
Michael Renner
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution
Abstract:
Water issues play a crucial role in Central-South Asia, both in the quantity of water available and its quality. Access to clean drinking water is a major, though largely unmet, objective. While much of the region is experiencing water shortages, poor water management lies at the heart of many problems. Climate change — in the form of glacier melt, drought, rising temperatures, and changes to the monsoon cycle — will increasingly exacerbate water scarcity. Although the region's water challenges do not necessarily or inevitably lead to armed conflict, they increasingly threaten to undermine human security. Cooperation will be critical for the region to meet its water challenges in the years and decades ahead.
Topic:
Climate Change and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
South Asia, Central Asia, and Asia

407. A Vision for the Centennial of Our Republic

Author:
Şadi Ergüvenç
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Global Political Trends Center
Abstract:
There are now less than fifteen years left before we celebrate the centennial of the Republic of Turkey. Taking into consideration the fact that we, the humans, managed to squeeze into the last century two or three world wars and worn out several ideologies, even raising the Earth's temperature whilst exhausting its natural resources, no doubt we will be living in a much different world than the present one, in fifteen years from now... Moreover, the pace of change has increased such that it is incomparable with that of the past and the possibility of unforeseen technological and societal change has dramatically improved. The way the latest financial crisis erupted is the manifestation of such a potential. Since no one yet can predict the eventual outcome of the crises that suddenly shook the financial markets and economies like an earthquake, an attempt to foresee the first quarter of the 21st century might seem like a futile effort.
Topic:
Natural Resources and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Turkey

408. Enhancing Enforcement on Poaching of Turtles by Foreign Fishing Vessels: The Way Forward for Malaysia

Author:
Cheryl Rita Kaur
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Maritime Institute of Malaysia
Abstract:
Turtles are vital for the health of the marine and coastal ecosystems. Where green turtles graze on seagrass and algae, the sea bottom habitat is healthier and more productive, hence commercially important species such as shrimps, lobster, and fish thrive. This translates to better sea harvest, boosting the income of the fishing industry. Besides that, by depositing their eggs on the shore, turtles transport vital nutrients from the ocean to nutrient-poor coastal and inshore areas.
Topic:
Environment, International Trade and Finance, Maritime Commerce, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
Malaysia and Southeast Asia

409. A Roadmap for U.S.-China Collaboration on Carbon Capture and Sequestration

Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
Global greenhouse gas emissions are fast approaching unsustainable and alarming levels . There is broad consensus that these emissions, caused primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, have led to global warming. it is increasingly evident that maintaining the current trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions poses wide-ranging and potentially catastrophic risks to natural systems and human welfare . it is also clear that an unprecedented level of global cooperation will be necessary to successfully confront the immense challenge of reversing the effects of climate change.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Energy Policy, Environment, Bilateral Relations, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
United States and China

410. An assessment of crime related risks in the Sahel

Author:
Laurence Ammour
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
The Sahel, a vast belt of land covering nine million square kilometers and encompassing ten countries, has always been a transit area for constant flows of people, trade, finance and religious groups. For the past twenty years, organized crime has had ample opportunity to develop here, either by using traditional networks or by taking over areas where there is no state control. It is also a region afflicted by perennial crises and weakened states, notwithstanding its undeniable strategic importance arising from its natural resources: oil, gold, phosphates, diamonds, copper, iron, coal, nickel, zinc, bauxite, uranium, plutonium, manganese, cobalt, silver, chrome and precious timbers.
Topic:
Crime, Economics, Natural Resources, and Fragile/Failed State
Political Geography:
Africa