The Role of Environmental Factors in Preventing Mass Atrocities

Environmental factors— notably food and water scarcity, contested land rights, environmental degradation, and/or the manipulation of natural resources for political gain—can contribute stress in locations already at risk of mass atrocities. If we are to prevent mass atrocities, how do environmental factors figure into formulating policies directed toward mitigating structural risk factors? In what ways can multilateral and global institutions shift policy to incorporate environmental factors into atrocity prevention work? How and where do the fields of environmental security and atrocity prevention intersect, and how can the communities better interact?

At this event, we intend to capture perspectives from experts in environmental security and atrocity prevention to inform a policy analysis brief aimed at broadening the understanding of potential risk factors and strengthening atrocity prevention policy. This analysis will add to the Stanley Center’s work on genocide prevention that has focused on various levers—political, social, economic, and legal—to strengthen structural prevention of mass atrocities.