Land, Water, People -- Conflict? Reported by Justine A.
Kwiatkowski Political scientist Samuel Huntington has famously
prophesied a clash of civilizations in the wake of the Cold War.
But for a group of environmental thinkers, the ending of the
Cold War opened up the possibility of battles far more
primordial than those fought along ethnic lines -- namely,
disputes over land, water, and other scarce resources. These
environmental researchers would prefer less money be spent on
tanks and automatic weapons and more on solutions to the
problems of population growth, environmental degradation, and
inequitable distribution of wealth that, they say, are provoking
political strife around the world. The documentary film Land,
Water, People, and Conflict explores the plausibility of
associating a nation's security with a healthy environment.
Screened on March 22 at the Wilson Center on behalf of the
Environmental Film Festival, the film belongs to an American
Defense Monitor series critiquing the American military's r