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The 1994 Rwandan Genocide

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The Environment-Conflict Nexus

Part of the book series: Advances in Military Geosciences ((AMG))

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Abstract

Links between human factors, governance, and environmental degradation have the potential to trigger internecine conflict, such as the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Evidence suggests that this trend will persist in the near term because climate change and the adverse effects of the environment will continue to stress marginal environments in places with inherently weak governance. This has led to a greater acceptance of the environment as an emerging factor on the national security landscape. This analysis uses a framework that encompasses natural and anthropogenic factors to enable a comprehensive analysis of issues that contribute to environmentally triggered conflict. In the case of the 1994 Rwandan civil war, factors of population, economic decline, drought, and unstainable agricultural practices exacerbated latent ethic conflict to spark one of the worst human disasters of the last century.

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Correspondence to Amy K. Richmond .

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Richmond, A.K., Galgano, F.A. (2019). The 1994 Rwandan Genocide. In: Galgano, F. (eds) The Environment-Conflict Nexus. Advances in Military Geosciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90975-2_10

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