Conflict and Environmental Security in Somalia

Scientific Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Africa grade: A+ course: Environmental Security language: English abstract: The contemporary era of international relations is characterised by increased political and economic interconnectedness and interdependence between states and non-state actors. Globalising and managing trade and commerce processes through institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank promoted global industry big businesses and multinational corporations that depend heavily and more than ever before on the exploitation of natural resources such as oil gas and minerals and compete over securing their fair share of power-generating resources whether they are hydel thermal or nuclear. In the developed world overuse of natural resources coupled with the disposal of massive amounts of industrial wastes in dump sites can have long-lasting detrimental repercussions on human health as well as the natural environment. Whereas the industrialised countries of the Global North are attempting to find new ways of recycling industrial wastes and developing alternative sources of energy through the use of advanced technology developing and underdeveloped countries in Africa such as Somalia Mali and Ethiopia struggle to maintain the few and scarce natural resource available to them for current as well as for the future generations. Inter or intra-state conflicts in such countries worsen the severity of environmental issues chiefly droughts. Often the scarcity of natural resources in these countries becomes an environmental issue with social economic and political dimensions hence threatening the stability of the state and acting as Pandora's Box by causing crises of different kinds to emerge and impact populations locally and regionally. Somalia as an underdeveloped African country represents a quintessential example of how a correlative relationship between po