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IFPA has conducted two projects that examine ways for communities threatened by environmental degradation or disaster to deal with these challenges.
In support of General Anthony C. Zinni, USMC, commander in chief, U.S. Central Command, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, IFPA affiliate National Security Planning Associates (NSPA) organized a senior-level conference entitled "Responding to Environmental Challenges on the Arabian Peninsula: A Demanding Mission for the Region's Militaries." The two-day meeting held in Muscat, Oman, on April 16-17, 2000, examined a series of significant issues related to environmental emergencies and the potential roles that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and U.S. military forces might play in responding to them. The goal of the meeting was to identify the most likely environmental challenges that could occur in the GCC states and adjacent waters, and to determine what contingency planning, specialized training, and regional agreements to cooperate might be needed to improve overall response capabilities.
U.S. participants were drawn from both the governmental sector and from the broader non-governmental policy community. GCC panelists and participants included GCC chiefs of Defense Staff, service chiefs, and the senior-level military officials responsible for handling environmental crises, disaster response, and related national security efforts.
In 1995, the Institute initiated a multi-year study of the complex and diverse relationships between environmental threats and issues of ethnicity, ethnic tension, and potential ethnic conflict.
The study arose from the recognition that many environmental issues appear to have an ethnic dimension and that regions where ethnic tensions run high are rife with environmental problems that cross national and/or ethnic boundaries. Along with examining issues related to environmental degradation and ethnic tension, the study sought to determine whether, in those regions where ethnic cleavages and environmental problems coincide, collaborative efforts to address threats to the environment could reduce the prospect of ethnic conflict.
The project focused on the Slovak Republic and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, with two working-group meetings held, respectively, in Slovakia and Lithuania. At each meeting, convened in collaboration with local organizations, specific cases were examined where environmental problems were or were likely to be prominent, and possible solutions were explored.
A summary report was issued after each meeting, describing the findings. Other outcomes of these meetings included the following:
- A detailed inventory of environmental issues in the countries studied and potential remedies.
- A database of ethnic conflicts in the region, and how they relate to various environmental threats. In its work on Slovakia, for example, the Institute commissioned the first detailed cartographic survey overlaying the distribution and concentration of various Slovak ethnic groups throughout the country on a map showing the sites of critical environmental threats.
- The basis for joint ventures among a range of NGOs, official agencies, and majority and minority ethnic communities, directed at addressing common environmental threats.
Strategies for applying the lessons learned from the work in Slovakia and the Baltics to other areas, such as Southwest and Southeast Asia, where rapid economic development have fostered alarming patterns of environmental degradation and, with them, the potential for political instability and inter-communal violence.