(Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Free State, 2014-06) Solomon, Hussein
Although the notion of environmental security is a relatively new dimension of international relations,
and of politics in general, it would be inane to assume that problems of environmental change are in
any way novel. Environmental security is a phenomenon that is distinctively associated with the end of
the Cold War. Much attention has been paid in both the scholarly literature and the policy community
to the potential for conflict to arise as a result of environmental degradation. The aim of this article
is to examine the nexus between environmental degradation and the potential for violent conflict by
specifically referring to the potential for conflict to arise out of fresh water disputes by utilising the Nile
River and Okavango River Basins as case studies.