Erika Weinthal

Professor of Environmental and Public Policy
Duke University

Jun 5, 2018

Erika Weinthal is a political scientist and the Lee Hill Snowdon Professor of Environmental Policy at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. She is also a Founding Vice President of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association. As an undergraduate, she studied Government and Environmental Studies at Oberlin College. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University in Political Science, and completed post-doctoral fellowships at the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University and the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. She joined Duke University in 2005, where she teaches courses on global environmental politics and environment, conflict, and peacebuilding. In recognition of her pioneering work on global environmental politics, governance, and the role of water in post-conflict peacebuilding, she received the 2017 “Women Peacebuilders for Water” Award.

Erika’s work focuses on the linkages between peace, water, and security. She is currently exploring the long-term effects of conflict on environmental infrastructure in the Middle East for human security, and how the targeting of critical infrastructure affects the ways in which humanitarian actors deliver assistance. Erika and her collaborators are building a database that compiles data on the targeting of infrastructure (e.g., water, energy, sanitation) in the new Middle Eastern wars as well as protracted wars. The project brings together research and practice, and aims to illuminate both the prevalence of targeting of environmental infrastructure, and the ways that protecting this infrastructure can help to foster lasting peace and protect civilians.

Erika’s work on the linkages between water and peace grew out of her early international relations work in the former Soviet Union, particularly in the Aral Sea Basin. This work focused on how Soviet successor states negotiated new water sharing agreements when the Soviet Union dissolved, examining the relationship between water quality and conflict, and the conditions under which states share their water resources. In this context, she contributed to a landmark book on environmental peacebuilding, Environmental Peacemaking (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), edited by Ken Conca and Geoffrey Dabelko. Erika’s work has evolved from looking primarily at what happens directly after conflict to encompass a more holistic examination of the linkages between international actors and natural resources (especially water) across the conflict lifecycle, with a particular emphasis on the peacemaking potential of resources.

Erika explains, “Environmental peacebuilding provides that nexus for connecting people who look at environmental sustainability, resilience, and access to water; those who are interested in human rights, environmental justice, and ensuring people have access to resources; and those who are interested in peace and security within different political contexts.” Erika sees the Association as a way to bring together scholars and practitioners so that they can speak with each other. This exchange helps scholars and practitioners to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to develop new innovative solutions for improving the daily security and livelihoods of people.