Climate Change, Conflict, and Underdevelopment

Free 10-Week Online Seminar Fall 2023

Hosted on Zoom – Register for Link

Register Here

Every Tuesday, October 3 – December 5, 2023

9:30 – 11:00 AM EDT

Course Description: This 10-week seminar is focused on the multifaceted and complex interrelationships between climate change, conflict, and poverty (under-development) in developing countries. The course will familiarize students with key concepts, theories, and approaches to studying poverty, inequality, and conflict; dimensions and recurrence of conflicts; security-development nexus; natural resources and conflict; climate change and migration; environment and sustainable development.

Seminar Co-Leaders:

Dr. Mulu Gebreyohannes

Dr. Mulu G. Gebreyohannes is a Development Economist with over seventeen years of post-doctoral research experience. He has published more than 50 scholarly articles and led more than seventeen research projects. He has also engaged extensively in policy advice and international consultancies. Gebreyohannes holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Dr. Sied Mohamed

Dr. Sied Mohamed is currently a researcher at Cadmus Group in Virginia. He previously worked as a senior research fellow at the Ethiopian Policy Institute and was an assistant professor at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and Whitman College. His research focuses on household and enterprise energy consumption, efficiency, and access issues in developing countries. Dr. Mohamed holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

More Information:

Participants who attend at least 8 complete seminar sessions will receive a certificate of satisfactory completion from the Dean of The New School for Social Research. In order to obtain the certificate, participants must register and log in with the same email address each week.

Registration will remain open for the duration of the seminar. Registrants will receive a reminder email with the Zoom link each week. The seminar sessions will be recorded and available to registrants on Vimeo the following week.

Weekly Readings:

Week 1, October 3: The Concept of Development: Meaning, Dimensions, Values, and Measures

  • Main reading
    • Ketie Willis (2005). Theories and Practices of Development Routledge 2005. [Chapter 1: What do we mean by development?].
  • Additional readings
    • Thomas, A. (2000) “Meanings and Views of Development” in Allen, T. & Thomas, A. Poverty and Development into the 21st Century, Oxford, Oxford University Press, Chapter 2. pp 25-48

Week 2, October 10: Sustainable Development

  • Main reading
    • Mensah, J. (2019). Sustainable Development: Meaning, History, Principles, Pillars, and Implications for Human Action: Literature Review. Cogent Social Sciences, 5, Article ID: 1653531. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2019.1653531
  • Additional readings

Week 3, October 17: Concepts of Violence and Global Recurrence of Conflicts

  • Main reading
    • Sen, Amartya (2008): “Violence, Identity and Poverty” in Journal of Peace Research, Vol 45, No.5, pp 5-16.
  • Additional readings
    • Obermeier, Anna Marie & Siri Aas Rustad (2023). Conflict Trends: A Global Overview, 1946–2022, PRIO Paper. Oslo: PRIO.
    • Galtung, Johan (1990): “Cultural Violence” in Journal of Peace Research, August, Vol 27, No.3, pp 291-305.

Week 4, October 24: The Relationship Between (Under)Development and (In)Security

  • Main Readings
    • Stewart, F. 2004. “Development and security”, Conflict, Security & Development, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 261-288.
  • Additional Readings

Week 5, October 31: Why States Fail? Poverty, Natural Resources, Conflict, and Governance

  • Main reading
    • The bottom billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it. by Paul Collier 2007 [The four traps pp. 17-71]
  • Additional readings
    • Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, first published in 2012, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. [Chapter 12. The Vicious Circle; Chapter 13. Why Nations Fail Today: Institutions, institutions, institutions]

Week 6, November 7: Introduction to Environment, Natural Resources, and Economy

  • Main Readings
    • Environmental Economics: An Introduction, Barry C. Field and Martha K. Field, McGraw-Hill, Irwin 7th edition (Henceforth, referred to as Field.) Ch-1 and Ch-2
  • Additional Reading
    • Environmental and Natural Resource Economics: A Contemporary Approach, Second Edition by Jonathan M. Harris, Houghton Mifflin (2006)( Henceforth, referred to as Harris)
    • Perman, R., Ma, Yue, Common, M., Maddison D., McGilvary, J..Natural Resource and Environmental Economics, 4th edition (ch-2)

Week 7, November 14: Ethics, Economics, and the Environment

  • Main Reading
    • Perman, R., Ma, Yue, Common, M., Maddison D., McGilvary, J..Natural Resource and Environmental Economics, 4th edition (ch-2)
  • Additional Readings
    • “How Economists See the Environment” Don Fullerton and Robert Stavins, Chapter 1 of Economics of the Environment: Selected Readings, edited by Robert Stavins (p.3-8).

Week 8, November 21: Natural Resources and Conflict: Theory and Evidences of Resource Curse

  • Main Reading
    • Michael L. Rose(2013) The Politics of Resource Course: Review
  • Additional Readings
    • Vesc, P. , Dasgupta, S. De Cian, E. Carraro, C.(2020).Natural resources and conflict: A meta-analysis of the empirical literature. Ecological Economics

Week 9, November 28: Climate Change, Temperature Variation, Economy, and Conflict

  • Main Readings
    • Mabaye, A., Signe, L.(2022) Climate Change, Development, Conflict Fragility Nexus in the Sahel, Brookings Global Working paper 169. Africa Growth Initiative at Brookings
  • Additional Reading
    • Burke M., Hsiang, S.M., Miguel, E. Climate and Conflict(2015). Annu.Rev.Econ.7:577–617
    • Dell, Melissa, Benjamin F. Jones, and Benjamin A. Olken. (2012). Temperature Shocks and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Last Half Century. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 4 (3): 66-95

Week 10, December 5: Climate Change and Migration

  • Main Reading
    • Nielsen,S.L.P, Batting, M.B., Imboden (2008).Exploring the link between climate change and migration. Climate Change 91, PP.375-393
  • Additional Reading
    • Waldinger, M. and Fankhauser, S. (2015). Climate change and migration in developing countries: evidence and implications for PRISE countries, Policy Paper. Center for Climate Change Economics and Policy

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