Understanding the co-existence of conflict and cooperation

Transboundary ecosystem management in the Virunga Massif

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3916634
AutoresAdrian Martins (0000-0003-2916-7712, University of East Anglia, autor de correspondencia), Adrian Martin (0000-0002-7964-8453, University of East Anglia), Eugene Rutagarama (International Gorilla Conservation Programme), Ana Cascão (Stockholm International Water Institute), Ana Elisa Cascão (0000-0002-5771-9951, Stockholm International Water Institute), Maryke Gray (International Gorilla Conservation Programme), Vasudha Chhotray (0000-0002-3593-7480, University of East Anglia)
Año2011
Volumen48
Número5
Páginas621-635
Fecha de publicación2011-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Peace Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022343311412410
OpenAlexW1998744142
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas22
Referencias citadas45

This article contributes to our understanding of transboundary environmental management regimes through the application of an analytical framework that facilitates an exploration of the co-existence of conflict and cooperation. Rather than framing conflict and cooperation as mutually exclusive states at opposite ends of a spectrum, we seek to understand the ways in which cooperation can exist at the same time as conflict. We apply this framework to a study of conservation management in a transboundary area at the intersection of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. We identify two actual and one hypothetical phase of conflict-cooperation relations, in a landscape notorious for some of the worst violence of the last two decades. We map the evolution of phases of transboundary protected area management against the evolving security context, and we find that this approach has greater explanatory power than previous approaches that polarize conflict and cooperation. In particular, it helps us to understand the drivers of environmental cooperation, including the evolving characteristics of that cooperation. This new way of understanding the relationship between environmental management and security also enables us to reconsider the potential for environmental management to be instrumental in working towards interstate security objectives, for example through peace parks. We don't find that the 'low politics' of environmental management should be seen as a predictable and manageable determinant of international relations. But an understanding of the coexistence of conflict and cooperation does also point to a more complex, non-linear relationship between low and high politics

Conflict management · Context (archaeology) · Economics · Environmental resource management · Environmental security · Framing (construction) · Geography · Political science · Politics · Hydropower, Displacement, Environmental Impact · Law · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Transboundary Water Resource Management