Jeremy Allouche | Institute of Development Studies (original) (raw)

Papers by Jeremy Allouche

This article examines how discourses of water nationalism are used to justify and legitimise a st... more This article examines how discourses of water nationalism are used to justify and legitimise a state’s water policy both domestically and internationally and how that discourse constitutes a battleground of ideas and power in transboundary water interactions. Most literature on hydropolitics takes the social construct of the nation state as a given but the construct reveals a certain degree of fragility. For this reason, legitimacy, both domestic and global, is a crucial factor in understanding these transboundary water disputes. Water-related slogans and landscape symbols can be used to reinforce the legitimising effects of these discourses and are employed as an ideology for consolidating hegemony at the transboundary level. These discourses, however, are also contested both domestically and globally. This paper uses three specific case studies around dam building projects – the Merowe Dam in Sudan, the Rogun Dam in Tajikistan and the Southeastern Anatolia Project in Turkey – to i...

L'analyse des relations internationales nous révèle l'importance grandissante de l'ea... more L'analyse des relations internationales nous révèle l'importance grandissante de l'eau, nécessaire aux besoins des populations, du domaine domestique et agricole aux industries. En traversant les frontières nationales, l'eau enchaîne les États riverains dans une situation d'interdépendance. Cette dépendance mutuelle est, parfois, aggravée par l'imbrication des facteurs hydrologiques avec des considérations d'ordre stratégique, économique et politique. Multidimensionnelle, la problématique du partage des eaux a de fortes répercussions sur le plan international, que ce soit par les rumeurs de guerre, l'exacerbation des rapports de force, la consolidation ou la fragilisation des alliances. Les thèmes suivants seront donc abordés dans ce numéro spécial sur l'hydropolitique, à savoir :-La re-définition (ou non) de l'hydropolitique en relations internationales: les concepts, normes et institutions ;-La définition et l'évaluation de la coopératio...

Flows and Practices, 2017

How did the idea of IWRM emerge at the global level? Why has IWRM become so popular and so resili... more How did the idea of IWRM emerge at the global level? Why has IWRM become so popular and so resilient, at least in discourse and policy? What has caused IWRM policies to diffuse across time and space? The principal goal of this article is to identify a set of concepts and mechanisms to study the global diffusion and translation of IWRM through coercion, cooperation, or learning from the ground. The article will also highlight the extent to which this global diffusion was contested and translated into different meanings in terms of policy orientation. Overall, IWRM was a mindset of a particular period where the water policy paradigm was evolving in the same direction as sustainable development and other related paradigms in a post-Rio moment. There were no clear alternatives at the time but now IWRM is being questioned. This IWRM fatigue is leading to other framings and discourses around the water-food-energy nexus and the green economy.

IDS is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England (No. 877338). The IDS ... more IDS is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England (No. 877338). The IDS programme on Strengthening Evidence-based Policy works across seven key themes. Each theme works with partner institutions to co-construct policy-relevant knowledge and engage in policy-influencing processes. This material has been developed under the Addressing and Mitigating Violence theme. The production of this report would not have been possible without guidance and feedback from Jeremy Lind and Robin Luckham. The material has been funded by UK aid from the UK Government, however the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK Government's official policies. AG Level 2 Output ID: 702 Contents Abbreviations Executive summary 1 Introduction 2 Methodology 2.1 Case selection 2.2 Analytic approach 2.3 Data sources 2.4 Key terms and concepts 2.5 Structure of the report 3 Trajectories of violence in Kenya and Uganda: identity, land and statemaking 3.1 State-making and trajectories of conflict in Kenya 3.2 State-making and trajectories of conflict in Uganda 3.3 Conclusions 4 Trajectories of violence in Ghana and Ivory Coast: shared characteristics and divergent development trajectories 4.1 State-making and trajectories of conflict in Ghana 4.2 State-making and trajectories of conflict in Ivory Coast 4.3 Conclusions 5 Contemporary geographies and dynamics of violent conflict in East and West Africa 5.1 The landscape of violent conflict in Kenya and Uganda 5.2 The landscape of violent conflict in Ghana and Ivory Coast 6 Cross-regional trends in violence dynamics and peace-building 6.1 Peace-building and violence mitigation in Kenya and Uganda 6.2 Peace-building and violence mitigation in Ghana and Ivory Coast 7 Conclusions 7.1 A contextual approach to understanding and reducing violence 7.2 Historical legacies of state-making contribute to contemporary landscapes of violence when they justify systematic exclusions 7.3 State and non-state actors play important and often complex roles in violence dynamics 7.4 It is critical to understand how hyper-localised conflict systems and horizontal inequalities feed into broader national and international geographies of violence 7.5 Gender-informed strategies for building inclusion will benefit the safety, health and wellbeing of men, women, boys and girls in conflict-affected settings 7.6 Election cycles are flashpoints for violence, revealing the failure of formal democratic institutions to ensure inclusion 7.7 Towards violence reduction: investing in knowledge and setting an inclusive agenda References Boxes Box 3.1 Political legacies of British colonial rule in East Africa Box 5.1 Complexities of multi-stakeholder political violence in the 2007-08 postelection crisis Box 7.1 SDG 16 select targets ACLED

This working paper aims to situate our research project within the various debates around resilie... more This working paper aims to situate our research project within the various debates around resilience. It advocates a historical, cultural and plural approach to understanding how communities develop and share resilient practices in contexts of multiple and protracted crises. A focus on ‘vernacular’ resilience, as embedded in social practices and cultural repertoires, is important since conventional approaches to resilience seem to have overlooked how locally embedded forms of resilience are socially constructed historically. Our approach results from a combination of two observations. Firstly, conventional approaches to resilience in development, humanitarian and peace studies carry the limitations of their own epistemic assumptions – notably the fact that they have generic conceptions of what constitutes resilience. Secondly, these approaches are often ahistorical and neglect the temporal and intergenerational dimensions of repertoires of resilience. In addition to observable socia...

Energy Research & Social Science, 2020

Support to energy, particularly hydropower, has formed an important element of many donor program... more Support to energy, particularly hydropower, has formed an important element of many donor programmes. How have such interventions shaped the emergence of particular energy imaginaries in the countries engaged with? 'Energy imaginaries' can be understood as the set of institutions, logics, values, and visions that spur ideas around what sources of energy and forms of energy governance best foster development. Adopting a historical and comparative perspective and drawing on the notion of 'transnational assemblages', we explore the nature of energy aid interventions and the dynamic shifts of specific actors and discourses in bilateral relations. We focus on Norway, a leading player in energy support, and two of its long-term partner countries, Nepal and Tanzania. Through document analysis and interviews with key actors, we trace how Norwegian energy transnational assemblages have formed part of evolving energy imaginaries in Nepal and Tanzania in radically diverging ways. In Nepal, dominated by an energy imaginary of hydropower as 'white gold', efforts to foster a bottom-up-driven indigent energy sector were eclipsed by an emphasis on facilitating privatisation, resulting in a chaotic fragmentation of the energy landscape. In Tanzania, the donor-state energy imaginaries were centred on grandiose projects of hydropowered industrialisation bound for failure, but later revived as part of an authoritarian project. The study untangles a history of changing and partially conflicting discourses, offering a richer and more nuanced understanding than studies focused on single projects or policies. We highlight how the idea of transnational assemblages can be useful in understanding shifting imaginaries of energy development.

Afrique contemporaine, 2017

Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour De Boeck Supérieur. © De Boeck Supérieur. Tous droits r... more Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour De Boeck Supérieur. © De Boeck Supérieur. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit.

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, 2020

Peacebuilding, 2018

This article examines the issue of peace and restraint within ongoing conflicts. While the vast m... more This article examines the issue of peace and restraint within ongoing conflicts. While the vast majority of the literature on civil wars in Africa concentrates on drivers of conflict and instances of violence, there are zones of peace where locally peace processes have developed despite conflicts around them. These spaces have been neglected in both the academic literature and the major datasets on conflict and war, which mostly focuses on the belligerent, or sometimes the victims. The literature that does exist is concentrated in Latin America (especially Colombia) rather than Africa. This paper records six different episodes in Côte d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone and seeks to understand the reasons why these spaces were able to maintain some level of peace. The paper discusses the practicalities of exercising peace on the ground and the implications for subsequent peacebuilding, along with drawing conclusions about differences in the nature of warfare regionally.

Human Rights Documents Online

Security and social justice have a crucial role to play in the newly proposed Sustainable Develop... more Security and social justice have a crucial role to play in the newly proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals, which aim to establish a safe, sustainable and just society for all, require a truly transformative approach, one that places inclusivity, safety, equity and justice at the centre of a global pursuit for sustainable development. However, some United Nations (UN) member states are reluctant to securitise the sustainability agenda, and are advocating against their inclusion in the SDGs. The reality is that insecurity and inequality are at the crossroad of security and sustainability, making them significant issues to overcome. This Policy Briefing argues that a reframing of security and justice around a social justice lens would create space to address the interlinkages between sustainability and security and justice.

Human Rights Documents Online

Water Alternatives

Ethiopia has embarked upon a rapid growth and development trajectory aiming to become a middleinc... more Ethiopia has embarked upon a rapid growth and development trajectory aiming to become a middleincome country by 2025. To achieve this goal, an agricultural development led industrialization strategy is being implemented which aims to intensify and transform agriculture, thereby boosting yields and, subsequently, economic returns. At the same time, the energy use which currently consists of more than 90% traditional biomass use is shifting towards increasing electricity production predominantly from large-scale hydropower plants, with the aim to improve access to modern energy sources. While the targets are commendable it is not clear that either all direct impacts or potential conflicts between goals have been considered. In this paper we evaluate and compare the impacts of alternative development trajectories pertaining to agriculture, energy and environment for a case-study location, the Lake Tana Subbasin, with a focus on current national plans and accounting for cross-sector interlinkages and competing resource use: the food-energy-environment nexus. Applying a nexus toolkit (WEAP and LEAP) in participatory scenario development we compare and evaluate three different future scenarios. We conclude that the two processes-agricultural transformation and energy transition-are interdependent and could be partly competitive. As agriculture becomes increasingly intensified, it relies on more energy. At the same time, the energy system will, at least in the foreseeable future, continue to be largely supported by biomass, partly originating from croplands. Two outstanding dilemmas pertaining to resources scarcity were identified. Water needed for energy and agricultural production, and to sustain ecosystem services, sometimes exceeds water availability. Moreover, the region seems to be hitting a biomass ceiling where the annual increments in biomass from all terrestrial ecosystems are in the same order of magnitude as biomass needs for food, fodder and fuel. We propose that a stakeholder-driven nexus approach, underpinned by quantitative and spatially explicit scenario and planning tools, can help to resolve these outstanding dilemmas and can support more consistent policy and decision making, towards improved resource productivities, lower environmental pressures and enhanced human securities.

This article maps the rise of the water-energy-food 'nexus' as a research, policy and project age... more This article maps the rise of the water-energy-food 'nexus' as a research, policy and project agenda in mainland Southeast Asia. We argue that introducing the concept of environmental justice into the nexus, especially where narratives, trade-offs and outcomes are contested, could make better use of how the nexus is framed, understood and acted upon. With funding from high-income country donors, it is found to have diffused from a global policy arena into a regional one that includes international and regional organisations, academic networks, and civil society, and national politicians and government officials. The nexus is yet to be extensively grounded, however, into national policies and practices, and broad-based local demand for nexus-framed policies is currently limited. The article contends that if the nexus is to support stated aspirations for sustainable development and poverty reduction, then it should engage more directly in identifying winners and losers in natural resource decision-making, the politics involved, and ultimately with the issue of justice. In order to do so, it links the nexus to the concept of environmental justice via boundary concepts, namely: sustainable development; the green economy; scarcity and addressing of trade-offs; and governance at, and across, the local, national and transnational scale.

The nexus is still very much an immature concept. Although it is difficult to disagree with a vis... more The nexus is still very much an immature concept. Although it is difficult to disagree with a vision of integration between water, food and energy systems, there are fewer consensuses about what it means in reality. While some consider its framing to be too restrictive (excluding climate change and nature), particular actors see it as linked to green economy and poverty reduction, while others emphasise global scarcity and value chain management. The nexus debates, however, mask a bigger debate on resource inequality and access, contributing to social instability. Indeed, the market-technical framing of the nexus by the World Economic Forum, located in international business imperatives and global neoliberal policy hides political issues such as inequality, the manufacture of scarcity and international political economy and geopolitics. By addressing these, we then propose a new framing of the nexus.

In post-conflict contexts, political settlements are viewed as instrumental in establishing secur... more In post-conflict contexts, political settlements are viewed as instrumental in establishing security and stability. Political settlements are ongoing political processes, which can emerge from one-off events, such as elite pacts and peace agreements; but they can also take the form of dynamic and fluid processes of bargaining, negotiation and compromises between elites that shape the nature of the post-conflict state. Peacebuilding experts and practitioners consider that elite alliances and coalitions, and processes of bargaining and compromise between them, are more stable and less violence-prone if former rebels and contending political elites also have access to national wealth and power. In the case of Sierra Leone, the question of the governance and ownership of natural resources, especially diamonds, was a major factor in the sharing of wealth between contending elites.

A history of cross-border dynamics between Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia 2.1 Cross-border history, co... more A history of cross-border dynamics between Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia 2.1 Cross-border history, conflict and cooperation 2.2 Border flows during the 2010 Ivorian election crisis 3 Security incidents 4 Reviewing the policy responses to the Ivorian-Liberian border tensions 4.1 Militarisation 4.2 Improving civil-military/police relations in cross-border regions 4.3 Enhancing the capacity of justice and security services 4.4 Regional response to security and peace 4.5 Côte d'Ivoire: incentives for non-violence 4.6 Policy meetings and cooperation 5 Some challenges to cross-border security 5.

This article examines how discourses of water nationalism are used to justify and legitimise a st... more This article examines how discourses of water nationalism are used to justify and legitimise a state’s water policy both domestically and internationally and how that discourse constitutes a battleground of ideas and power in transboundary water interactions. Most literature on hydropolitics takes the social construct of the nation state as a given but the construct reveals a certain degree of fragility. For this reason, legitimacy, both domestic and global, is a crucial factor in understanding these transboundary water disputes. Water-related slogans and landscape symbols can be used to reinforce the legitimising effects of these discourses and are employed as an ideology for consolidating hegemony at the transboundary level. These discourses, however, are also contested both domestically and globally. This paper uses three specific case studies around dam building projects – the Merowe Dam in Sudan, the Rogun Dam in Tajikistan and the Southeastern Anatolia Project in Turkey – to i...

L'analyse des relations internationales nous révèle l'importance grandissante de l'ea... more L'analyse des relations internationales nous révèle l'importance grandissante de l'eau, nécessaire aux besoins des populations, du domaine domestique et agricole aux industries. En traversant les frontières nationales, l'eau enchaîne les États riverains dans une situation d'interdépendance. Cette dépendance mutuelle est, parfois, aggravée par l'imbrication des facteurs hydrologiques avec des considérations d'ordre stratégique, économique et politique. Multidimensionnelle, la problématique du partage des eaux a de fortes répercussions sur le plan international, que ce soit par les rumeurs de guerre, l'exacerbation des rapports de force, la consolidation ou la fragilisation des alliances. Les thèmes suivants seront donc abordés dans ce numéro spécial sur l'hydropolitique, à savoir :-La re-définition (ou non) de l'hydropolitique en relations internationales: les concepts, normes et institutions ;-La définition et l'évaluation de la coopératio...

Flows and Practices, 2017

How did the idea of IWRM emerge at the global level? Why has IWRM become so popular and so resili... more How did the idea of IWRM emerge at the global level? Why has IWRM become so popular and so resilient, at least in discourse and policy? What has caused IWRM policies to diffuse across time and space? The principal goal of this article is to identify a set of concepts and mechanisms to study the global diffusion and translation of IWRM through coercion, cooperation, or learning from the ground. The article will also highlight the extent to which this global diffusion was contested and translated into different meanings in terms of policy orientation. Overall, IWRM was a mindset of a particular period where the water policy paradigm was evolving in the same direction as sustainable development and other related paradigms in a post-Rio moment. There were no clear alternatives at the time but now IWRM is being questioned. This IWRM fatigue is leading to other framings and discourses around the water-food-energy nexus and the green economy.

IDS is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England (No. 877338). The IDS ... more IDS is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England (No. 877338). The IDS programme on Strengthening Evidence-based Policy works across seven key themes. Each theme works with partner institutions to co-construct policy-relevant knowledge and engage in policy-influencing processes. This material has been developed under the Addressing and Mitigating Violence theme. The production of this report would not have been possible without guidance and feedback from Jeremy Lind and Robin Luckham. The material has been funded by UK aid from the UK Government, however the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the UK Government's official policies. AG Level 2 Output ID: 702 Contents Abbreviations Executive summary 1 Introduction 2 Methodology 2.1 Case selection 2.2 Analytic approach 2.3 Data sources 2.4 Key terms and concepts 2.5 Structure of the report 3 Trajectories of violence in Kenya and Uganda: identity, land and statemaking 3.1 State-making and trajectories of conflict in Kenya 3.2 State-making and trajectories of conflict in Uganda 3.3 Conclusions 4 Trajectories of violence in Ghana and Ivory Coast: shared characteristics and divergent development trajectories 4.1 State-making and trajectories of conflict in Ghana 4.2 State-making and trajectories of conflict in Ivory Coast 4.3 Conclusions 5 Contemporary geographies and dynamics of violent conflict in East and West Africa 5.1 The landscape of violent conflict in Kenya and Uganda 5.2 The landscape of violent conflict in Ghana and Ivory Coast 6 Cross-regional trends in violence dynamics and peace-building 6.1 Peace-building and violence mitigation in Kenya and Uganda 6.2 Peace-building and violence mitigation in Ghana and Ivory Coast 7 Conclusions 7.1 A contextual approach to understanding and reducing violence 7.2 Historical legacies of state-making contribute to contemporary landscapes of violence when they justify systematic exclusions 7.3 State and non-state actors play important and often complex roles in violence dynamics 7.4 It is critical to understand how hyper-localised conflict systems and horizontal inequalities feed into broader national and international geographies of violence 7.5 Gender-informed strategies for building inclusion will benefit the safety, health and wellbeing of men, women, boys and girls in conflict-affected settings 7.6 Election cycles are flashpoints for violence, revealing the failure of formal democratic institutions to ensure inclusion 7.7 Towards violence reduction: investing in knowledge and setting an inclusive agenda References Boxes Box 3.1 Political legacies of British colonial rule in East Africa Box 5.1 Complexities of multi-stakeholder political violence in the 2007-08 postelection crisis Box 7.1 SDG 16 select targets ACLED

This working paper aims to situate our research project within the various debates around resilie... more This working paper aims to situate our research project within the various debates around resilience. It advocates a historical, cultural and plural approach to understanding how communities develop and share resilient practices in contexts of multiple and protracted crises. A focus on ‘vernacular’ resilience, as embedded in social practices and cultural repertoires, is important since conventional approaches to resilience seem to have overlooked how locally embedded forms of resilience are socially constructed historically. Our approach results from a combination of two observations. Firstly, conventional approaches to resilience in development, humanitarian and peace studies carry the limitations of their own epistemic assumptions – notably the fact that they have generic conceptions of what constitutes resilience. Secondly, these approaches are often ahistorical and neglect the temporal and intergenerational dimensions of repertoires of resilience. In addition to observable socia...

Energy Research & Social Science, 2020

Support to energy, particularly hydropower, has formed an important element of many donor program... more Support to energy, particularly hydropower, has formed an important element of many donor programmes. How have such interventions shaped the emergence of particular energy imaginaries in the countries engaged with? 'Energy imaginaries' can be understood as the set of institutions, logics, values, and visions that spur ideas around what sources of energy and forms of energy governance best foster development. Adopting a historical and comparative perspective and drawing on the notion of 'transnational assemblages', we explore the nature of energy aid interventions and the dynamic shifts of specific actors and discourses in bilateral relations. We focus on Norway, a leading player in energy support, and two of its long-term partner countries, Nepal and Tanzania. Through document analysis and interviews with key actors, we trace how Norwegian energy transnational assemblages have formed part of evolving energy imaginaries in Nepal and Tanzania in radically diverging ways. In Nepal, dominated by an energy imaginary of hydropower as 'white gold', efforts to foster a bottom-up-driven indigent energy sector were eclipsed by an emphasis on facilitating privatisation, resulting in a chaotic fragmentation of the energy landscape. In Tanzania, the donor-state energy imaginaries were centred on grandiose projects of hydropowered industrialisation bound for failure, but later revived as part of an authoritarian project. The study untangles a history of changing and partially conflicting discourses, offering a richer and more nuanced understanding than studies focused on single projects or policies. We highlight how the idea of transnational assemblages can be useful in understanding shifting imaginaries of energy development.

Afrique contemporaine, 2017

Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour De Boeck Supérieur. © De Boeck Supérieur. Tous droits r... more Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour De Boeck Supérieur. © De Boeck Supérieur. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit.

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, 2020

Peacebuilding, 2018

This article examines the issue of peace and restraint within ongoing conflicts. While the vast m... more This article examines the issue of peace and restraint within ongoing conflicts. While the vast majority of the literature on civil wars in Africa concentrates on drivers of conflict and instances of violence, there are zones of peace where locally peace processes have developed despite conflicts around them. These spaces have been neglected in both the academic literature and the major datasets on conflict and war, which mostly focuses on the belligerent, or sometimes the victims. The literature that does exist is concentrated in Latin America (especially Colombia) rather than Africa. This paper records six different episodes in Côte d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone and seeks to understand the reasons why these spaces were able to maintain some level of peace. The paper discusses the practicalities of exercising peace on the ground and the implications for subsequent peacebuilding, along with drawing conclusions about differences in the nature of warfare regionally.

Human Rights Documents Online

Security and social justice have a crucial role to play in the newly proposed Sustainable Develop... more Security and social justice have a crucial role to play in the newly proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals, which aim to establish a safe, sustainable and just society for all, require a truly transformative approach, one that places inclusivity, safety, equity and justice at the centre of a global pursuit for sustainable development. However, some United Nations (UN) member states are reluctant to securitise the sustainability agenda, and are advocating against their inclusion in the SDGs. The reality is that insecurity and inequality are at the crossroad of security and sustainability, making them significant issues to overcome. This Policy Briefing argues that a reframing of security and justice around a social justice lens would create space to address the interlinkages between sustainability and security and justice.

Human Rights Documents Online

Water Alternatives

Ethiopia has embarked upon a rapid growth and development trajectory aiming to become a middleinc... more Ethiopia has embarked upon a rapid growth and development trajectory aiming to become a middleincome country by 2025. To achieve this goal, an agricultural development led industrialization strategy is being implemented which aims to intensify and transform agriculture, thereby boosting yields and, subsequently, economic returns. At the same time, the energy use which currently consists of more than 90% traditional biomass use is shifting towards increasing electricity production predominantly from large-scale hydropower plants, with the aim to improve access to modern energy sources. While the targets are commendable it is not clear that either all direct impacts or potential conflicts between goals have been considered. In this paper we evaluate and compare the impacts of alternative development trajectories pertaining to agriculture, energy and environment for a case-study location, the Lake Tana Subbasin, with a focus on current national plans and accounting for cross-sector interlinkages and competing resource use: the food-energy-environment nexus. Applying a nexus toolkit (WEAP and LEAP) in participatory scenario development we compare and evaluate three different future scenarios. We conclude that the two processes-agricultural transformation and energy transition-are interdependent and could be partly competitive. As agriculture becomes increasingly intensified, it relies on more energy. At the same time, the energy system will, at least in the foreseeable future, continue to be largely supported by biomass, partly originating from croplands. Two outstanding dilemmas pertaining to resources scarcity were identified. Water needed for energy and agricultural production, and to sustain ecosystem services, sometimes exceeds water availability. Moreover, the region seems to be hitting a biomass ceiling where the annual increments in biomass from all terrestrial ecosystems are in the same order of magnitude as biomass needs for food, fodder and fuel. We propose that a stakeholder-driven nexus approach, underpinned by quantitative and spatially explicit scenario and planning tools, can help to resolve these outstanding dilemmas and can support more consistent policy and decision making, towards improved resource productivities, lower environmental pressures and enhanced human securities.

This article maps the rise of the water-energy-food 'nexus' as a research, policy and project age... more This article maps the rise of the water-energy-food 'nexus' as a research, policy and project agenda in mainland Southeast Asia. We argue that introducing the concept of environmental justice into the nexus, especially where narratives, trade-offs and outcomes are contested, could make better use of how the nexus is framed, understood and acted upon. With funding from high-income country donors, it is found to have diffused from a global policy arena into a regional one that includes international and regional organisations, academic networks, and civil society, and national politicians and government officials. The nexus is yet to be extensively grounded, however, into national policies and practices, and broad-based local demand for nexus-framed policies is currently limited. The article contends that if the nexus is to support stated aspirations for sustainable development and poverty reduction, then it should engage more directly in identifying winners and losers in natural resource decision-making, the politics involved, and ultimately with the issue of justice. In order to do so, it links the nexus to the concept of environmental justice via boundary concepts, namely: sustainable development; the green economy; scarcity and addressing of trade-offs; and governance at, and across, the local, national and transnational scale.

The nexus is still very much an immature concept. Although it is difficult to disagree with a vis... more The nexus is still very much an immature concept. Although it is difficult to disagree with a vision of integration between water, food and energy systems, there are fewer consensuses about what it means in reality. While some consider its framing to be too restrictive (excluding climate change and nature), particular actors see it as linked to green economy and poverty reduction, while others emphasise global scarcity and value chain management. The nexus debates, however, mask a bigger debate on resource inequality and access, contributing to social instability. Indeed, the market-technical framing of the nexus by the World Economic Forum, located in international business imperatives and global neoliberal policy hides political issues such as inequality, the manufacture of scarcity and international political economy and geopolitics. By addressing these, we then propose a new framing of the nexus.

In post-conflict contexts, political settlements are viewed as instrumental in establishing secur... more In post-conflict contexts, political settlements are viewed as instrumental in establishing security and stability. Political settlements are ongoing political processes, which can emerge from one-off events, such as elite pacts and peace agreements; but they can also take the form of dynamic and fluid processes of bargaining, negotiation and compromises between elites that shape the nature of the post-conflict state. Peacebuilding experts and practitioners consider that elite alliances and coalitions, and processes of bargaining and compromise between them, are more stable and less violence-prone if former rebels and contending political elites also have access to national wealth and power. In the case of Sierra Leone, the question of the governance and ownership of natural resources, especially diamonds, was a major factor in the sharing of wealth between contending elites.

A history of cross-border dynamics between Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia 2.1 Cross-border history, co... more A history of cross-border dynamics between Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia 2.1 Cross-border history, conflict and cooperation 2.2 Border flows during the 2010 Ivorian election crisis 3 Security incidents 4 Reviewing the policy responses to the Ivorian-Liberian border tensions 4.1 Militarisation 4.2 Improving civil-military/police relations in cross-border regions 4.3 Enhancing the capacity of justice and security services 4.4 Regional response to security and peace 4.5 Côte d'Ivoire: incentives for non-violence 4.6 Policy meetings and cooperation 5 Some challenges to cross-border security 5.