Resources

How to Deal with a Major League Ice Hole

August 29, 2000

When a Russian icebreaker arrived at the North Pole a few weeks ago carrying a load of tourists, it found a mile-wide patch of ice-free water. It seemed like an astonishing development: indeed, reporter John Noble Wilford wrote in a front page story in the New York Times that “the last time scientists can be certain the pole was awash in water was more than 50 million years ago.” Here, it appeared, was bold evidence that global warming is finally upon us.

The Environment and Violent Conflict: A Response to Gleditsch’s Critique and Suggestions for Future Research

June 21, 2000
Daniel Schwartz, Tom Deligiannis, and Thomas Homer-Dixon

with Daniel Schwartz and Tom Deligiannis | The environment, population, and conflict thesis remains central to current environment and security debates. During the 1990s, an explosion of scholarship and policy attention was devoted to unraveling the linkages among the three variables.

On the Razor’s Edge: Today’s Graduates Are Entering a Winner-Take-All World, And Most Are Painfully Aware They’ve Already Lost the Game

June 17, 2000

My heart sank. “Not again!” I said to myself. The student, sitting across the desk from me in my university office, couldn’t raise her eyes to meet mine.

Resource Scarcity and Innovation: Can Poor Countries Attain Endogenous Growth?

March 1, 1999
Edward Barbier and Thomas Homer-Dixon

Edward Barbier and Thomas Homer-Dixon | Endogenous growth models have revived the debate over the role of technological innovation in economic growth and development. The consensus view is that institutional and policy failures prevent poor countries from generating or using new technological ideas to reap greater economic opportunities. However, this view omits the important contribution of natural-resource degradation and depletion to institutional instability

The End of Pop-economics

September 2, 1998
Thomas Homer-Dixon and Robin Bienenstock

with Robin Bienenstock | The current crisis in international markets highlights inadequacies in the way economists and other analysts think about the global economy.

Environmental Scarcity and Violent Conflict: The Case of South Africa

May 1, 1998
Valerie Percival and Thomas Homer-Dixon

Valerie Percival and Thomas Homer-Dixon | The causal relationship between environmental scarcities – the scarcity of renewable resources – and the outbreak of violent conflict is complex. This article analyses the link between South Africa’s environmental scarcity and violent conflict.

Environmental Scarcity and Violent Conflict: The Case of Rwanda

September 1, 1996
Valerie Percival and Thomas Homer-Dixon

Valerie Percival and Thomas Homer-Dixon | On April 6, 1994, President Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane exploded in the skies above the Kigali region of Rwanda. Violence gripped the country. Between April and August of 1994, as many as 1 million people were killed and more than 2 million people became refugees.

How to Put a Brake on Currency Volatility

July 8, 1996

In an address at Princeton University in 1971, the economist James Tobin proposed that a small tax be imposed on international currency transactions in order to dampen currency volatility.

Environmental Scarcity and Violent Conflict: The Case of Pakistan

April 15, 1996
Peter Gizewski and Thomas Homer-Dixon

Peter Gizewski and Thomas Homer-Dixon | This paper examines the contribution of environmental scarcity to violent conflict in Pakistan. It argues that scarcity is never the sole cause of Pakistan’s social conflict.

What to Do with a “Soft” Degree in a Hard Job Market

April 1, 1996

Every year the students in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto organize a “career night” for the 60-odd undergraduates in the program. The evening aims to answer the question: What can one “do” with a B.A. in this field?

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