A Hot Conflict Growing Ever Hotter: How Climate Change Provokes Instances of Violence in South Sudan
Researcher ORCID Identifier
0000-0002-4024-1322
Graduation Year
2022
Date of Submission
12-2021
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Government
Reader 1
Peter Uvin
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
©2021MadisonCMenard
Abstract
In South Sudan, people are not engaging in violent altercations because of climate change. People are not deciding to kill other people because the average temperature of the world has risen 1 degree celsius, or harming their neighbor because of irregular rain patterns. Alas the link from climate change to violence is not as direct as that. Rather, climate change has played a non-direct role in the South Sudanese conflict. Within the political marketplace it has subtly altered conditions which later spark or intensify outbreaks of violence. Climate change in this sense should be viewed as a stressor of sorts rather than a direct cause of violence. As will be described in the first section, climate change places increased stress on the security of food, health, shelter, and the economy. The increased lack of accessibility combined with the preexisting political and ethnic tensions that exist in South Sudan’s political marketplace has led to an exacerbation of violence in the region; this is unlikely to end given the hopeless outlook for both climate change resolutions and the deeply rooted predisposition to violence which South Sudan has had since its birth as a nation.
Recommended Citation
Menard, Madison, "A Hot Conflict Growing Ever Hotter: How Climate Change Provokes Instances of Violence in South Sudan" (2022). CMC Senior Theses. 2904.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2904
Included in
Environmental Studies Commons, Food Security Commons, International Relations Commons, Political Theory Commons
