Green IR Theory and Domestic Wars: Revisiting Environmental Conflicts in Africa

Abstract

Recent outbreak of environmental conflicts in African countries is a threat to peaceful human co existence. This is opposed to the rather decline in warfare on the international arena. This work therefore explored other possible means of tackling domestic conflicts by employing the Green International Relations (IR) theory in explaining the cause(s) and possible solutions to environmental conflicts in Africa. The methodology used in this study is mainly the analysis of secondary data from journals, literatures, documentaries, while also examining a couple of case studies as an empirical basis. The findings in this study revealed that environmental change is unlikely to be a an independent cause of domestic wars that are related to environmental scarcity in Africa, hence, sought relevance of other factors like economy and politics. It recommended that in order to avoid conflicts arising from environmental change, the state and non-state actors must consider the health of the ecosystem as paramount, adopt legal approaches to protecting the environment, take environmental consciousness as a moral duty, work for improved economy and a make the society relatively prosperous, and most importantly should opt for non-violent alternatives in the face of resource scarcity.

Keywords: Conflicts, Environment, International Relations, Domestic Wars, Africa, Climate Change