Environmental Cooperation as the Instrument of Conflict Transformation in East Asia
Publisher: Journal of Comparative Politics
Author(s): Cabada Ladislav and Sarka Waisova
Date: 2018
Topics: Assessment, Cooperation, Monitoring and Evaluation, Programming
Countries: Cambodia, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand
East Asia is an area with high number of political militarized conflicts, but also with high biodiversity and fast environmental degradation. A decade ago there emerged the idea that environmental cooperation is able to initiate and sustain a dialogue between the parties of a conflict and facilitates conflict transformation and peace building. This article tests on the three case studies from East Asia two hypotheses and asks one question to find out more about the origin and functioning of environmental cooperation in areas of political conflicts. The article shows that environmental cooperation can emerge even during a political conflict, but only at a time when the intensity of the violence is low. The emergence and development of environmental cooperative projects also depends on the support of external actors. We conclude that the intensity of environmental cooperation in conflict-prone areas remains weak even after many years and even when the process is strongly supported by many external actors.