Environmental Crises in Central Asia
Environmental Crises in Central Asia

Author: Eric Freedman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-10-23

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 131783609X

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Environmental conditions do not exist in a vacuum. They are influenced by science, politics, history, public policy, culture, economics, public attitudes, and competing priorities, as well as past human decisions. In the case of Central Asia, such Soviet-era decisions include irrigation systems and physical infrastructure that are now crumbling, mine tailings that leach pollutants into soil and groundwater, and abandoned factories that are physically decrepit and contaminated with toxic chemicals. Environmental Crises in Central Asia highlights major environmental challenges confronting the region’s former Soviet republics: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. They include threats to the Caspian and Aral seas, the impact of climate change on glaciers, desertification, deforestation, destruction of habitat and biodiversity, radioactive and hazardous wastes, water quality and supply, energy exploration and development, pesticides and food security, and environmental health. The ramifications of these challenges cross national borders and may affect economic, political, and cultural relationships on a vast geographic scale. At the same time, the region’s five governments have demonstrated little resolve to address these complex challenges. This book is a valuable multi-disciplinary resource for academics, scholars, and policymakers in environmental sciences, geography, political science, natural resources, mass communications, public health, and economics.

Environmental Change and Human Security: Recognizing and Acting on Hazard Impacts
Environmental Change and Human Security: Recognizing and Acting on Hazard Impacts

Author: Peter H. Liotta

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2008-07-31

Total Pages: 483

ISBN-13: 1402085516

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Environmental and Human Security: Then and Now 1 2 ALAN D. HECHT AND P. H. LIOTTA * 1 U. S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development 2 Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy Salve Regina University 1. Nontraditional Threats to Security The events of September 11, 2001 have sharpened the debate over the meaning of being secure. Before 9/11 there were warnings in all parts of the world that social and environmental changes were occurring. While there was prosperity in North America and Western Europe, there was also increasing recognition that local and global effects of ecosystem degradation posed a serious threat. Trekking from Cairo to Cape Town thirty years after living in Africa as a young teacher, for example, travel writer Paul Theroux concluded that development in sub-Saharan Africa had failed to improve the quality of life for 300 million people: “Africa is materially more decrepit than it was when I first knew it—hungrier, poorer, less educated, more pessimistic, more corrupt, and you can’t tell the politicians from the witch-doctors” (2002). While scholars and historians will debate the causes of 9/11 for some time, one message is clear: An often dizzying array of nontraditional threats and complex vulnerabilities define security today. We must understand them, and deal with them, or suffer the consequences. Environmental security has always required att- tion to nontraditional threats linked closely with social and economic well-being.

Central Asian Security
Central Asian Security

Author: Roy Allison

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 9780815701057

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This volume is the first comprehensive scholarly analysis of the strategic reconfiguration of Central Asia as Russia has become more disengaged from the nations in the region and as these nations have developed new relations to the south, east, and west. The international implications are enormous because of the rich energy sources —oil and natural gas —located in the Caspian Sea area.The authors assess a variety of internal security policy challenges confronting these states —for example, the potential for conflict arising from such factors as a mixed ethnic population, resource scarcity, particularly in relation to water management, and an Islamic revival. They also examine the security policy content of relations between the Central Asian states and regional and international powers —specifically the stakes, interests, and policies of Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, and the United States.These internal challenges and the evolution of relations with external powers may result in new cooperative relationships, but they may also lead to destabilizing rivalry and interstate enmity in Central Asia. It is important to identify new patterns of relevance for future security cooperation in the region, but the potential for a new security system or for new institutions to manage security in the region remains uncertain. These issues are explored by a team of prominent specialists from Western Europe, the United States, Russia and China.

Central Asia Atlas of Natural Resources
Central Asia Atlas of Natural Resources

Author: Asian Development Bank

Publisher: Asian Development Bank

Published: 2010-04-01

Total Pages: 578

ISBN-13: 9292547593

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This atlas brings together a wealth of information related to living and nonliving natural resources in the five countries of Central Asia---Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It contains an array of maps based on geographic information systems and remote sensing images, numerous photographs, tabulations of important data, and extensive descriptive text that together illustrate and describe the region's bountiful natural resources, its diversity of peoples, and their progress toward sustainable development. Highlights include geographic and climatic features; environmental, economic, and social profiles; energy, minerals, and water resources; ecoregions and ecosystems; major fauna and flora; agriculture and fisheries; peoples and cultural traditions; and economic and social statistics.

Environmental Peacemaking
Environmental Peacemaking

Author: Ken Conca

Publisher: Woodrow Wilson Center Press

Published: 2002-11-13

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780801871931

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Eight contributions written by professors of political science, government, and politics as well as researchers and program directors for environmental change, energy, and security projects provide insight into the process of environmental peacemaking, based on their experiences in a variety of international regions. An initial chapter makes a case for the process; successive chapters address the Baltic, South Asia, the Aral Sea basin, southern Africa, the Caspian Sea, and the US-Mexican border. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Achieving Energy Security In Asia: Diversification, Integration And Policy Implications
Achieving Energy Security In Asia: Diversification, Integration And Policy Implications

Author: Farhad Taghizadeh-hesary

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2019-09-24

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 9811204225

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This book presents a critical review of the status of energy security in Asia and suggests how a country or a region collectively can achieve energy security in two broad aspects. First, it analyzes how regional cooperation and energy trade can enhance energy security in the region. Second, it reviews how energy security can be ensured in national and regional general contexts. From the reviews and analyses, this book asserts that diversification and integration are key to ensuring energy security. It presents policy implications for enhancing energy security, especially in resource-rich as well as resource-poor developing countries in Asia.

Environmental Security and Global Stability
Environmental Security and Global Stability

Author: Max G. Manwaring

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9780739104477

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Environmental Security and Global Stability places environmental security at the center of the new, complex global security debate. By meshing strategic and operational expertise with academic and policy research the work demonstrates the imperative need to move theoretical and moral environmental protection programs from the state of study and rhetoric to the realm of action. The essays highlight--through case study discussions of environmental flash points in Asia, Africa, and Latin America--the clear linkages between environmental degradation, population growth, ethnic tension, economic distress, and political instability. Offering a theoretical framework from which to approach environmental security policy as well as suggesting practical preventative and mitigatory measures for its implementation, this volume is an invaluable resource for scholars and policymakers alike.

The Development of Civil Society in Central Asia
The Development of Civil Society in Central Asia

Author: Janice Giffen

Publisher:

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 9781897748756

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This book considers the applicability and use of civil society, both as a concept and in practice, in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The volume examines whether civil society organisations (CSOs) are a progressive force for change, or a safety net. Various forms of CSOs are investigated: NGOs and community based organisations, trade unions, political parties and religious groups, as well as more long-standing soviet and traditional institutions and practices. The book contains lessons and perspectives about civil society growth across time, and considers future directions.