Environmental Security and Sustaining Peace

The course describes natural resources and the environment as a vehicle for peace. It is conducted by the SDG Academy and made available through edX, an online education platform. The SDG Academy is an initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

This 8-week course on Environmental Security and Sustaining Peace provides an in-depth introduction to the multiple roles that natural resources and the environment play in the onset, escalation, and resolution of, and recovery from, violent conflicts. Many of the considerations and approaches in this course are also relevant to understanding and addressing social conflicts around natural resources and the environment.

Some of the questions addressed in the course are:

• How natural resources and the environment impact conflict?
• How conflict harms natural resources and the environment?
• How natural resources and the environment support peace building?
• How to assess and address the relationship between natural resources and conflict?