Teacher: Bart Klem

Time: 13:15 - 15:00

Place: 305

Today's slides for slides click here.

Building one yesterday's class, where we took issue with overly sweeping interpretations of scarcity/resource-induced conflicts and environmental determinism, we explore alternative perspectives today. It may be too simplistic to claim any particular conflict is simply about environmental scarcity (depletion, erosion, climate change, etc), but at the same time, there are environmental dimensions to virtually every form of violent conflict. How then do we come to grips with these complex linkages: how can we rethink war in ecological terms?

In today's class we will explore the Sri Lankan case. The island's ethno-national conflict around Tamil separatism is not normally seen as a 'green war', but as with any other conflict, environmental issues become entangled with the social and political dynamics of conflict.

Mandatory readings:

All students should read:
- Richards, Paul (2001) 'Are "Forest" Wars in Africa Resource Conflicts? The Case of Sierra Leone' in Nancy Pelosu and Michael Watts (eds)(2001) Violent environments, pp. 65-82. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

In addition:
- Group A: Klem, Bart and Thiruni Kelegama (2020) ‘Marginal Placeholders: Peasants, Paddy and Ethnic Space in Sri Lanka’s Post-war Frontier’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 47(2): 346-365.
- Group B: Korf, Benedikt and Hartmut Fünfgeld (2006) “War and the commons: Assessing the changing politics of violence, access and entitlements in Sri Lanka”, Geoforum, 37: 391-403.

Recommended readings:

DeVotta, Neil (2021) “Buddhist Majoritarianism and Ethnocracy in Sri Lanka” Sociological Bulletin 70(4): 453–466.

Frerks, Georg and Bart Klem (2011) ‘Muddling the Peace Process: The Political Dynamics of the Tsunami, Aid and Conflict’, in Jonathan Goodhand, Benedikt Korf and Jonathan Spencer (eds) Conflict and Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka: Caught in the Peace Trap? pp. 168-182. London: Routledge.

Fonseka, Bhavani, Luwie Ganeshathasan, and Asanga Welikala (2021) “Sri Lanka: Pandemic-Catalyzed Democratic Backsliding” In Covid-19 in Asia: Law and Policy Contexts Victor Ramraj (ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Klem, Bart (2014) ‘The Political Geography of War’s End: Territorialisation, Circulation, and Moral Anxiety in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka’, Political Geography, 38(1): 33-45.

Klem, Bart (2018) “The Problem of Peace and the Meaning of ‘Post-war’”, Conflict, Security & Development, 18(3): 233-255.

Klem, Bart and Sidharthan Maunaguru (2017) ‘Insurgent Rule as Sovereign Mimicry and Mutation: Governance, Kingship and Violence in Civil Wars’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 59(3): 629-656.

Rogers, John (1994) “Post-Orientalism and the Interpretation of Premodern and Modern Political Identities: The Case of Sri Lanka” Journal of Asian Studies 53(1): 10–23.

Korf, Benedikt (2011) “Resources, Violence and the Telluric Geographies of Small Wars”, Progress in Human Geography, 35(6): 733–756.

Ruwanpura, Kanchana (2016) “Post-War Sri Lanka: State, Capital and Labour, and the Politics of Reconciliation” Contemporary South Asia 24(4): 351–359.

Spencer, Jonathan (2016) “Securitization and its Discontents: The End of Sri Lanka's Long Post-War?” Contemporary South Asia 24(1): 94–108.

Venugopal, Rajesh (2018) Nationalism, Development and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wickramasinghe, Nira (2006) Sri Lanka in the Modern Age. A History of Contested Identities. London: Hurst.