Can the Environment be a Peacemaking and State-building Tool?
Half a world away, Erika Weinthal was keeping a watchful eye on the Palestinian election returns from her home and book-strewn office in Durham, N.C. An associate professor of environmental sciences and policy at the Nicholas School, Weinthal is a political scientist who specializes in the role environmental issues play in peacemaking and state building, especially in new and emerging governments in Central Asia. Much of Weinthal’s research has focused on conflict and cooperation over transboundary water issues in the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. But working with Vengosh, her husband since 2000, she has co-authored numerous papers on water issues and their policy implications across the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean, including in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Vengosh handles the science; Weinthal parses the policy. Both share a conviction that the environment can play a crucial role in peacemaking and state building in the contentious region—if gi
