Global Environmental Scarcity and the Politics of Esteem
Publisher: Politeia
Author(s): Pierre du Troit
Date: 2008
Topics: Cooperation
This review article weighs the arguments presented in a selected set of books that deal with global resource scarcity (Diamond), identity politics (Huntington), resource conflicts that are entangled with identity politics (Chua), and global domination by the USA, the world's largest consumer of scarce resources (Ferguson).
The main argument is that Diamond has an inadequate understanding of the political nature of the conflict over natural resources described in the cases presented in his work. His work is under-theorised, relying implicitly on a rational-choice theory of action, which leaves him unable to fully appreciate the social-psychological implications of the data he presents to his reader. The review then deploys a framework drawn from Social Identity Theory to re-interpret the significance of his findings. The proposition that emerges is that resource conflicts are embedded in wider conflicts over relative group status, in which the collective esteem of antagonists is the most valued commodity, even under conditions of acute resource scarcity. When Diamond extrapolates from his cases to contemporary resource conflicts at the global level, the same shortcomings follow from his analysis. By drawing the work of Huntington, Ferguson and Chua into the debate, the central argument is elaborated.
The review concludes by presenting a framework built around the central concept of parity of esteem, within which to search for a very different set of remedies for global environmental conflict.