"Humanity has squandered opportunities to manage environmental problems in ways that build trust and peace between parties in conflict. Environmental security has been recognized to have a complementary off-shoot, environmental peacemaking, a diverse set of arguments about the connections among the environment, conflict, and state and human security. Conflict sensitive environmental management can help overcome political tensions by promoting interaction, confidence building, and technical cooperation for mutual benefit; fostering collaborating in place of competition.

This course will focus on environmental peacemaking opportunities as a tool for international diplomacy, cross border conservation and conflict sensitive, community driven sustainable development capitalizing on the dynamics of environmental interdependence.

Using the framework of Transboundary Peace & Conflict Impact Assessments (PCIA) we will discuss environmental pathways to peace at different stages of conflict as: 1) conflict prevention; 2) a lifeline during conflict; 3) part of the solution to end conflict; and 4) a foundation for a long term framework for regional stability and cooperation.

Looking through the PCIA lens at cases drawn from a variety of geographic regions and political, economic and social contexts, we will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches along the conflict continuum; and work to develop new strategies to apply Environmental Peacebuilding to some of the world's conflict hotspots."