HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor)

Responsible Department: International Relations

Semester: 1st Semester

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: אנו חיים עם הטבע, לצידו, בכפוף לו ובשליטה עליו. המין האנושי מנצל את הטבע לצרכיו, פעמים רבות תוך כדי התעלמות מוחלטת בבעיות השונות שנוצרות מכך, בפגיעה החמורה שניצול זה יוצר. יש לו לטבע דרכים משלו לומר לנו שהוא במצוקה: שריפות, הצפות, מגיפות. את חלקן אנו חשים בשנים האחרונות, עם אסונות טבע הולכים ותוכפים. כל התהליכים השונים הללו, מתבצעים כאשר המין האנושי מחולק ליחידות מדיניות שונות, שקשה להן לתאם פעולה משותפת, אור להעדפות, רגישויות ואינטרסים שונים. אור לכל זה, הטבע עומד במוקד של סכסוכים שונים, כמו גם בניסיונות לפתור סכסוכים. הטבע גם עומד במוקד של תהליכי ביטחוניזציה ובשנים האחרונות הוא הפך למושא ונושא של ביטחון.

בקורס הזה ניגע בחלק מהסוגיות העולות בממשק שבין סכסוכים וטבע, ונעשה זאת ממגוון של זוויות וגישות, לעתים תוך התמקדות במצוקות של הטבע עצמו, על יצוריו הצומחים והחיים.

Coordinator Email: pikiis@huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: Wednesday 1500-1600

Teaching Staff:
Prof Piki Ish-Shalom

Course/Module description:
We live in and with nature, we dominate it, and being dominated by it. We exploit natural resources, at times ignoring the problems we produce by exploitation. But nature has its way of showing us its distress: floods, fires, pandemics. Add to that the human organization into states, driven apart from each other due to different sensitivities, priorities, and interests, and we get a plethora of conflicts in and around nature. We will explore these issues, from different perspectives, and emphases.

Course/Module aims:
To identify the different interfaces between nature and conflicts, and the various ways in which these interfaces produce conflicts and/or allows their solutions. We will learn the different perspectives with which we approach we study these issues. ‏

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
To describe conflicts arising out of the human interface with nature

To explain the processes leading to those conflicts

To discuss modes of behaviors in those conflicts

To judge morally human behavior towards nature ‎

Attendance requirements(%):
80

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Discussions in class, guest lecturers and independent research

Course/Module Content:
Concepts

Climate Crisis and conflicts
- Securitization -

Borders, nature, and conflicts

Nature, opportunities and environmental diplomacy

Urban nature and conflicts

Environmental justice

Drainage of the Hula

Nature and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Animals, security and war

The war on nature

Required Reading:
Nils Petter Gleditsch, "Armed Conflict and the Environment: A Critique of the Literature." Journal of Peace Research 35, 3 (1998): 381-400.

Thomas F. Homer-Dixon, “On the Threshold: Environmental Changes as Causes of Acute Conflict.” International Security, 16, 2 (1991): 76–116.

Ragnhild Nordås and Nils Petter Gleditsch, “Climate change and conflict,” Political Geography 26, 6 (2007) 627-638.

Idean Salehyan, “From Climate Change to Conflict? No Consensus Yet,” Journal of Peace Research 45, 3 (2008): 315-326.

Jon Barnett, "Destabilizing the Environment-Conflict Thesis," Review of International Studies 26, 2 (2000): 271-88.

Jan Selby and Clemens Hoffmann, “Rethinking Climate Change, Conflict and Security,” Geopolitics 19, 4 (2014): 747-756.

Arnall, Alex, “Climate Change and Security Research: Conflict, Securitisation and Human Agency,” PLOS Climate 2, 3 (2023): 1-11.

McDonald, Matt, “Fit for Purpose? Climate Change, Security and IR,” International Relations 38, 3 (2024): 313-330.

Christopher Hobson, The Pandemic and our Place in the World, https://www.e-ir.info/2021/03/03/the-pandemic-and-our-place-in-the-world/

Buxton, Nick (2022), “The Armed Lifeboat: The Dangers of Militarising Climate Adaptation,” https://www.nickbuxton.info/the-armed-lifeboat-the-dangers-of-militarising-climate-adaptation/


Humphrey Q.P. Crick, “The Impact of Climate Change on Birds,” Ibis 146 (2004): 48-56.

Hughes, R.G., “Climate Change and Loss of Saltmarshes: Consequences for Birds,” Ibis, 146 (2004): 21-28.

Çağan H. Şekercioğlu, Richard B. Primack and Janice Wormworth, “The Effects of Climate Change on Tropical Birds,” Biological Conservation, 148, 1 (2021): 1-18.


McDonald, Matt (2021), Ecological Security: Climate Change and the Construction of Security. Cambridge University Press.

Matthew, Richard A., “Is Climate Change a National Security Issue?” Issues in Science and Technology 27, 3 (2011): 49–60.

Buxton, Nick (2022), “The Armed Lifeboat: The Dangers of Militarising Climate Adaptation,” https://www.nickbuxton.info/the-armed-lifeboat-the-dangers-of-militarising-climate-adaptation/





Kim, Eleana. “The Flight of Cranes: Militarized Nature at the North Korea–South
Korea Border.” In: “Asian Environments: Connections across Borders,
Landscapes, and Times,” edited by Ursula Münster, Shiho Satsuka, and
Gunnel Cederlöf, RCC Perspectives 2014, no. 3, 65–70.


Bill McClanahan, Tatiana Sanchez Parra and Avi Brisman, “Conflict, Environment and Transition: Colombia, Ecology and Tourism after Demobilisation,” International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 8, 3 (2019): 74 to 88.

Andrew Furman, “Birding the Border,” Ecotone, 5, 1 (2009): 66-81.

Mark A. Titley, Stuart H. M. Butchart, Victoria R. Jones, Mark J. Whittingham and Stephen G. Willis (2021), “Global inequities and political borders challenge nature conservation under climate change,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, 7 (2021): 1-8.

Johnson, Corey, Reece Jones, Anssi Paasi, Louise Amoore, Alison Mountz, Mark Salter, Chris Rumford (2011), “Interventions on rethinking ‘the border’ in border studies,” Political Geography 30, 2 (2011): 61-69.

Doug Weir, Sarah M. Durant, Henrike Schulte to Bühne, Michael Hoffmann,
Olesya Petrovych, Beth Sua Carvajal & Sara Fernandes Elizalde (17 October 2024), “Conservationists Must Address how War Affects Species and Ecosystems,” Nature Vol 634: 538-541.



Hanson T., Brooks T.M., Da Fonseca G.A., Hoffmann M., Lamoreux J.F., Machlis G., Mittermeier C.G., Mittermeier R.A., and J.D. Pilgrim, “Warfare in biodiversity hotspots,” Conservation Biology 23, 3 (2009): 578-87.


Nackoney, J., G. Molinario, P. Potapov, S. Turubanova, M.C. Hansen, and T. Furuichi, “Impacts of civil conflict on primary forest habitat in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1990-2010,” Biological Conservation 170 (2014): 321-328.





Roulin, Alexandre, Mansour Abu Rashid, Baruch Spiegel, Motti Charter, Amélie N. Dreiss, and Yossi Leshem, “‘Nature Knows No Boundaries’: The Role of Nature Conservation in Peacebuilding,” Trends in Ecology & Evolution 32, 5 (2017): 305-310.

Glausiusz, Josie, “Owls for Peace: How Conservation Science is Reaching Across Borders in the Middle East,” Nature. News for Feature. 30 January 2018. Available at https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-01388-5



Camprubí, Lino, “Birds Without Borders: Ecological Diplomacy and the WWF in Franco’s Spain,” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 50, 4 (2020): 433–455.

Hamblin, Jacob Darwin, "Environmentalism for the Atlantic Alliance: NATO's Experiment with the ‘Challenges of Modern Society’," Environmental History 15, 1 (2010): 54-75.

Macekura, Stephen, “The Limits of the Global Community: The Nixon
Administration and Global Environmental Politics,” Cold War History 11,4 (2011): 489-518.

Amster, Randall, "Toward a climate of peace," Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice 25,4 (2013): 473-479.

Conca, Ken, and Jennifer Wallace. "Environment and Peacebuilding in War-torn Societies: Lessons from the UN Environment Programme's Experience with Postconflict Assessment," Global Governance 15, 4 (2009): 485-504.

Barquet, Karina, “’Yes to Peace’? Environmental Peacemaking and Transboundary Conservation in Central America,” Geoforum 63 (2015): 14-24.


Tänzler, Dennis, Achim Maas and Alexander Carius (2010), “Climate Change Adaptation and Peace,” WIREs Climate Change 1, 5 (2010): 741-750.


Hunold, Christian, “Why Not the City? Urban Hawk Watching and the End of Nature,” Nature and Culture 12, 2 (2017): 115–136.

McKiernan, Shaun and Lesley Instone, “From Pest to Partner: Rethinking the Australian White Ibis in the More-than-Human City,” Cultural Geographies 25, 3 (2016): 475-494.

Hunold, Christian, “Urban Greening and Human–Wildlife Relations in Philadelphia: From Animal Control to Multispecies Coexistence?” Environmental Values 29, 1 (2020): 67-87.

Evans, K.L., Chamberlin, D.E., Hatchwell, B.J., Gregory, R.D. and K.J. Gaston, “What Makes an Urban Bird?” Global Change Biology 17 (2011): 32-44.

Kark, S., Iwaniuk, A., Schalimtzek, A. and E. Banker, “Living in the City: Can anyone become an ‘Urban Exploiter'?” Journal of Biogeography 34 (2007): 638-651.

Lee, Alan Tristram Kenneth, Ulf Ottosson, Colin Jackson, Sidney Shema and Chevonne Reynolds, “Urban areas have Lower Species Richness, but Maintain Functional Diversity: Insights from the African Bird Atlas Project,” Ostrich 92, 1 (2001): 1-15.

McPherson, Shane C., Petra Sumasgutner and Colleen T Downs, “South African Raptors in Urban Landscapes: A Review,” Ostrich 92, 1 (2001): 41-57.

Chamberlain, DE, DAW Henry, C Reynolds, E Caprio, and A Amar, “The Relationship between Wealth and Biodiversity: A Test of the Luxury Effect on Bird Species Richness in the Developing World,” Global Change Biology 25 (2019): 3045– 3055.

Fine, Gary Alan, and Lazaros Christoforides. “Dirty Birds, Filthy Immigrants, and the English Sparrow War: Metaphorical Linkage in Constructing Social Problems.” Symbolic Interaction 14, 4 (1991): 375–93.

Capoccia, Stella, Callie Boyle and Tedd Darnell, “Loved or Loathed, Feral Pigeons as Subjects in Ecological and Social Research, Journal of Urban Ecology 4, 1 (2018): 1-6.

Escobar, Maria Paula, “The Power of (Dis)Placement: Pigeons and Urban Regeneration in Trafalgar Square,” Cultural Geographies 21, 3 (2014): 363–88.

Jerolmack, Colin, “How Pigeons Became Rats: The Cultural-Spatial Logic of Problem Animals,” Social Problems 55, 1 (2008): 72–94.

Jerolmack, C., “Animal Archeology: Domestic Pigeons and the Nature-Culture Dialectic,” Qualitative Sociology Review 3, 1 (2007): 74-94.





Shue, Henry, “Historical Responsibility, Harm Prohibition, and Preservation Requirement: Core Practical Convergence on Climate Change," Moral Philosophy and Politics 2, 1 (2015): 7–31.

Byravan, Sujatha and Rajan, Sudhir Chella “The Ethical Implications of Sea-Level Rise Due to Climate Change,” Ethics & International Affairs, 24, 3 (2010): 239-260.

Schlosberg, David, “Climate Justice and Capabilities: A Framework for Adaptation Policy,” Ethics & International Affairs 26, 4 (2012): 445-461.

Wapner, Paul, “Climate Suffering,” Global Environmental Politics 14,2 (2014): 1–6.

Shelton, Dinha, “Human Rights, Environmental Rights, and the Right to Environment,” Stanford Journal of International Law 28 (1991): 103-138.

Caney, Simon, “Two Kinds of Climate Justice,” Journal of Political Philosophy 22, 3 (2014) :125-149.

Shue, Henry, “Global Environment and International Inequality,” International Affairs 75, 3 (1999): 531-545.

Schlosberg, David and Lisette B. Collins, “From Environmental to Climate Justice: Climate Change and the Discourse of Environmental Justice,” WIREs Climate Change, 5, 3 (2014): 359-374.

Schlosberg, David, Defining Environmental Justice: Theories, Movements, and Nature, Oxford University Press, 2007.




Inbar, Moshe (2002), “A Geomorphic and Environmental Evaluation of the Hula Drainage Project, Israel,” Australian Geographical Studies 40: 155-166.

Gorney, Edna (2007), “(Un)Natural Selection: The Drainage of The Hula
Wetlands, An Ecofeminist Reading,” International Feminist Journal of Politics 9 (4): 465-474.

Rabinowitz, Dan and Sliman Khawalde (2000), “Demilitarized, then Dispossessed: The Kirad Bedouins of the Hula Valley in the Context of Syrian-Israeli Relations,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 32(4): 511-530.

Cohen-Shacham, E., T. Dayan, E. Feitelson and R. S. de Groot (2011), “Ecosystem service trade-offs in wetland management: drainage and rehabilitation of the Hula, Israel,” Hydrological Sciences Journal 56 (8): 1582-1601.

Hambright, K.D. & T. Zohary (1998), “Lakes Hula and Agmon: destruction and creation of wetland ecosystems in northern Israel,” Wetlands Ecology and Management 6: 83–89.

Anton, Glenna (2008), “Blind Modernism and Zionist Waterscape: The Huleh Drainage Project,” Jerusalem Quarterly 35: 76-92.





Braverman, Irus, “Nof kdumim: Remaking the Ancient Landscape in East Jerusalem’s National Parks,” Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 4, 1 (2021): 109–134.

Braverman, Irus, “Wild Legalities: Animals and Settler Colonialism in Palestine/Israel,” PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 44, 1 (2021): 7-27.

Reynolds, Kyra, “Palestinian Agriculture and the Israeli Separation Barrier: The Mismatch of Biopolitics and Chronopolitics with the Environment and Human Survival,” International Journal of Environmental Studies 72, 2 (2015): 237-255.

Reynolds, Kyra Marie, “Unpacking the Complex Nature of Cooperative Interactions:
Case Studies of Israeli–Palestinian Environmental Cooperation in the Greater Bethlehem Area,” GeoJournal 82 (2017):701–719.





Leep, Matthew, “Toxic Entanglements: Multispecies Politics, White Phosphorus, and the Iraq War in Alaska,” Review of International Studies 49, 2 (2023): 258-277.

Leep, Mathew, “Stray Dogs, Post-Humanism and Cosmopolitan Belongingness: Interspecies Hospitality in Times of War,” Millennium 47, 1 (2018): 45-66.

Youatt, Rafi, “Interspecies Relations, International Relations: Rethinking Anthropocentric Politics,” Millennium, 43, 1 (2014): 207-223.


Wapner, Paul, “The Changing Nature of Nature: Environmental Politics in the Anthropocene,” Global Environmental Politics 2014; 14,4 (2014): 36–54.

Wapner, Paul, “Planetary Disasters: Wildness and the Perennial Struggle for Control,” Global Environmental Politics 21,1 (2021): 3–12.

Newell, Peter, “Back from the Dead: The Ecology of IR,” International Relations 38, 3 (2024): 331-348.

Additional Reading Material:

Grading Scheme :
Essay / Project / Final Assignment / Home Exam / Referat 100 %

Additional information:
Guest lectures and one documentary