Wars over Resources: A Persistent Driver of Security and Conflict

Jan 19, 2026 | Michał Zgórzak
View Original

From the perspective of security studies, wars rarely originate in abstract ideas or ideological declarations. More often, they emerge from material constraints: shortages of water, arable land, food or energy. Before the emergence of organised states, standing armies and political doctrines, human communities operated at the limits of environmental capacity. In such conditions, conflict was not a matter of choice but of survival.