Post-war countries are among the most difficult policy arenas for international and domestic actors. The challenge is not only to stop violence and prevent violence from rekindling, but moreover to help countries reset their internal relations on a peaceful path. The indirect, long-term effects of wars further exaggerate this challenge. Many of these relate to political and social aspects of post-war countries. Lasting impressions of human rights abuses committed during wars continue to shape the relations among members of societies for decades to come. Both, socio-economic impacts and political impacts challenge the stability of post-war countries for many years. The challenges to public health have been found to be especially severe and affect disproportionately the civilian population of post-war countries. Environmental and climate change exposes post-war populations further to new risks, exaggerating the human costs of war long after active combat has ceased. These challenges are not new. The problem, however, is that in practice all these elements are simultaneously happening in today’s peacebuilding interventions. Yet, practitioners as well as researchers remain settled in a silo mentality, focusing only on one aspect at a time. As such they are unaware of the unintended consequences that their focus has on other important processes. The four essays that lie at the heart of this dissertation provide new insight into the linkages between the social, political and ecological processes in post-war societies and how the interactions of different groups of actors are shaping the prospects for peace. The argument drawn out in this dissertation is that to build peace we need to acknowledge and understand this long-term interplay of social, political, and ecological processes in post-war countries. It will be crucial to understand the potential and dynamics of natural resources and environmental issues in this context. As the essays in this dissertation show, the interactions of these processes divisively shape the post-war landscape. It is therefore essential to build a peace that is ecologically sensitive, while equally socially and politically relevant and desirable. I call this sustainable peace.

A growing body of scholarship has explored the link between climate change, natural resources and conflict. While considerable interest has been shown in examining how and under what circumstances climate change may increase a country’s risks of conflict, research exploring climate change response initiatives in fragile and conflict-affected contexts remains limited. Drawing from political ecology and ecological security literature, I understand climate resilience to be an intrinsic part of peace. This study explores and empirically tests if climate funding, through natural resource management practices, contributes to social cohesion and reduced environmental stress and, hence, peace. By doing a quantitative subnational analysis based on Colombia, I use a Fixed Effects regression model to test two hypotheses. While statistical evidence shows a positive and statistically significant relationship between climate change funding and negative peace, not enough evidence is found to support the second hypothesis linking it to environmental sustainability (as indicator of positive peace).

Trotz ihrer zunehmenden wissenschaftlichen und praktischen Bedeutung sind die Zusammenhänge zwischen Umwelt und Friedenskonsolidierung (engl. peacebuilding) noch wenig erforscht. Während in der Forschungsliteratur mehrere Möglichkeiten identifiziert werden, wie gemeinsam genutzte natürliche Ressourcen als Katalysatoren für den Frieden zwischen Konfliktparteien fungieren können, gibt es kaum empirische Belege für eine direkte Verbindung zwischen Umweltkooperation und nachhaltigem Frieden. Diese Dissertation untersucht umweltbezogene Friedenskonsolidierung (engl. environmental peacebuilding) und vertieft das theoretische Verständnis des Phänomens durch eine systematische Übersicht des Forschungsstands sowie zwei empirische Fallstudien. Auf diese Weise trägt die vorliegende Arbeit zur dringend benötigten konzeptionellen Schärfung und gleichzeitig zu einem empirisch fundierten Verständnis von Environmental Peacebuilding bei. Die Dissertation ist kumulativ aufgebaut und besteht aus drei Forschungsarbeiten. Das erste Paper befasst sich mit den Bausteinen des Environmental Peacebuilding und nimmt eine Bestandsaufnahme des Phänomens vor. Es schlägt Wege und Möglichkeiten vor, wie der Fokus von Umweltkonflikten auf Umweltkooperation und Frieden verlagert werden kann. Die beiden Fallstudien basieren auf qualitativen Methoden und untersuchen, wie Environmental Peacebuilding in zwei unterschiedlichen Kontexten, dem Nahen Osten und Westafrika, abläuft. Mit diesen beiden Arbeiten leistet die Dissertation einen empirischen Beitrag zur Environmental-Peacebuilding-Forschung und schließt eklatante Forschungslücken insbesondere hinsichtlich der Rolle von lokalen Gemeinschaften und privaten Akteuren im Environmental Peacebuilding. / Despite their increasing prominence in both research and practice, the interlinkages between the biophysical environment and peacebuilding remain under-researched. While the literature identifies several mechanisms through which shared natural resources can function as catalysts for peace between conflicting parties, empirical evidence asserting a direct link between environmental cooperation and sustainable peace remains scarce. This dissertation examines environmental peacebuilding. It does so by providing a better theoretical understanding of the phenomenon through a literature review and two empirical case studies. In so doing, this dissertation provides much needed conceptual clarity as well as empirical evidence on environmental peacebuilding. This dissertation is cumulative and consists of three research papers. The first paper deals with the building blocks of environmental peacebuilding and takes stock of the phenomenon. It proposes a coherent framework through which focus can be shifted from environmental conflicts to environmental cooperation and peace thereby also adding to the ‘how’ of environmental peacebuilding. The two case studies are based on qualitative methods. They explore how environmental peacebuilding unrolls in two different contexts, the Middle East and West Africa. With these two papers, this dissertation contributes empirical evidence to the environmental peacebuilding literature and fills gaps in the research, especially concerning the role of local communities and private actors in environmental peacebuilding processes.

This thesis examines the role of ENGOs in inter-Korean environmental cooperation and how together with experts, they rely on scientific knowledge to influence South Korea’s policies towards North Korea. More specifically, the empirical focus is on how ENGOs contribute to the reconciliation and peacebuilding process in the Korean Peninsula. In contrast to previous scholarship, this thesis approaches the topic through a constructivist lens. Thus, to explore What is the role of environmental non-governmental organisations in the peacebuilding process and reconciliation of inter-Korean relations?, this study applies Quantitative Content Analysis to selected NGO publications and on the whitepapers of the South Korean Ministry of Unification, and finds evidence of the complementary effects of environmental cooperation to humanitarian cooperation and a deepened cooperation of the South Korean government with NGOs on humanitarian and environmental issues. Moreover, the study demonstrates the significance of activities supporting reconciliation and international integration and cooperation in environmental cooperation that enable the spill-over effects to other areas and thus nullify the possible side effects, such as costs for the economy in the long run.

High-value, lootable natural resources drive, finance and sustain armed conflicts around the world. At the same time, these resources are crucial for livelihoods through artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in the very same contexts. Yet, little is known regarding how these resources should be managed in the wake of conflict to contribute to peacebuilding and prevent conflict recurrence. Drawing on the environmental peacebuilding and informal economies literature, this study argues that ASM formalization improves the quality and sustainability of livelihoods by empowering ASM communities. Using the method of structured focused comparison, the hypothesis is tested on two mining municipalities in Antioquia, Colombia. Data was gathered through interviews and secondary sources. The main finding is that while ASM formalization under certain conditions can contributeto sustainable livelihoods, this is only partly through community empowerment. Furthermore, the practice remains inaccessible to most artisanal and small-scale miners and can make them dependent on the goodwill of large-scale multinational mining companies. Thereby it ends up marginalizing many of the people it is meant to benefit.

This thesis aims to explain how post-conflict environmental initiatives affect women’s empowerment within natural resource management in the short term. It argues that the lack of causal effect between the variables can be explained by the robustness of patriarchal institutions. Gender-sensitive environmental peacebuilding lacks the strength to counter traditional and well-established formal and informal societal structures. Using a structured focused comparison on Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo the analysis shows that UNEP Country Recovery Programmes, which are used as an example of the post-conflict environmental initiatives, were unable to change women’s position within natural resource management in the first five years of the establishment. Even though presented theoretical frameworks partially explain the results, more research is needed to draw informed and conclusive inferences.

Comment concevoir la sécurité et le conflit violent d’aujourd’hui ? Cette étude traite de la pertinence de l’étude des questions environnementales au champ de la gouvernance de la sécurité dans le cadre de la consolidation de la paix. Ainsi, nous cherchons à décrire les liens entre les enjeux environnementaux, la sécurité et le conflit violent, à étudier le potentiel des projets environnementaux pour la gouvernance de la sécurité, de présenter les recommandations pour améliorer la durabilité de ces interventions, tout en considérant la question des écophilosophies. Nous avons opté pour des données de type qualitatif, soit sept entrevues semi-directives réalisées avec des professionnels du domaine des opérations de paix, quatre webémissions et neuf documents écrits. Toutes ont été traitées selon les directives de la théorie ancrée. Notre analyse démontre une interdépendance entre la détérioration environnementale, la sécurité et la dynamique des conflits armés. À l’instar de cette interaction, la « coopération environnementale » et la gestion des ressources naturelles serviraient à établir un dialogue entre les belligérants dans un objectif de bâtir la confiance, mais aussi à promouvoir le développement durable. La participation citoyenne constituerait un facteur incontournable pour développer la résilience des populations et des institutions face aux changements environnementaux et sociaux rapides et par conséquent favoriserait une sécurité humaine plus stable. Or, les réformes de gouvernance de la sécurité demandent une plus grande intégration de la population. Pour conclure, nous avons produit un modèle d’intégration des questions environnementales dans le but d’améliorer la gouvernance de la sécurité dans le cadre de consolidation de la paix en milieux postconflits. Sous forme de six énoncés pratiques, nous expliquons l’importance d’imbriquer les concepts de sécurité humaine et environnementale, d’exploiter les opportunités que présentent les situations d’interdépendances, de considérer davantage les interventions locales, d’adopter une approche participative, d’utiliser la coopération environnementale et de privilégier les approches stratégiques amenant à des solutions gagnantes pour tous. / How to perceive security and violent conflict of today? This study analyses the relevance of environmental issues for security governance in a peacebuilding framework. We attempted to describe the link between environmental issues, security and violent conflict, to study the potential of environmental based projects for security governance purposes, to draw recommendations to improve the sustainability of those initiatives, and to analyse the eco-philosophies. Using Grounded Theory approach, our data collection comprised qualitative data; i.e. seven interviews conducted with professionals having experiences in environment and peacebuilding, as well as four webcasts and nine written documents. Our results indicate a reciprocal influence between environmental deterioration, security and armed conflict dynamics. Moreover, environmental cooperation and natural resource management are used primarily to establish dialogues between belligerents for confidence building, but also to improve sustainable development. Furthermore, building resilience for communities and institutions using public participation approach to deal with rapid environmental and social changes would help to improve sustainable human security. Therefore, security and governance reforms should engage in greater civic integration. In conclusion, we attempted to produce a model for integrating environmental issues in order to improve governance of security for postconflict peacebuilding purposes. In the form of six practical statements, we explain the importance of integrating the concepts of human and environmental security, to take advantage of the opportunities around interdependent situations, to consider more local interventions, to adopt participatory approaches and the usefulness of environmental cooperation and, finally, to favor strategic approaches in order to establish win-win solutions.

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