In "Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict," Thomas F. Homer-Dixon writes about the possible conflicts that are caused by environmental scarcities, using three different hypotheses's to do so. I found the first hypothesis to be most compelling because I feel it is the most prevalent in the world today. The first hypothesis in "Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict" states that environmental scarcity causes simple-scarcity conflicts between states . I selected "Lust for diamonds kills thousands in African wars," which I found on the web page www.cnn.com, to test this hypothesis. Homer-Dixon's hypothesis that environmental scarcity causes simple-scarcity conflicts between states is a valuable one and I feel that some conflicts such as the one involving diamond wars in Africa give this hypothesis merit although the wars in Africa cannot be solely based on it.

Although Homer-Dixon concludes that the first hypothesis lacks empirical support, I feel that it is more interesting and easier to draw conclusions from it then the other two because of its simplicity. Unlike the other two hypothesis which are inter-woven with several elaborate ideas that all mu

st coincide in order to justify it, the first hypothesis relies on the simple fact that a lack of resources and states quest for these resources drive the possibility of conflict and violence. I also like the examples used to support it such as Japan's strategy during World War II to obtain resources from China and the Persian Gulf War, which the United States was involved in. I lived through the Gulf War and believe that the war was almost solely based on the importance of obtaining oil from the Middle East. Contrary to what the United States wanted people to perceive, they where not simply helping out a weaker country like Kuwait in time of need but rather looking out for their own well being which meant controlling a situation that involved our most sought after natural resource, oil. This type of evidence can still be seen in conflicts around the world today.

& Reuters http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/africa/01/12/africa.diamonds/index.html

The wars have gone on for several years and unfortunately will continue to, as the attempts to stop these wars have been almost futile. Reading Homer Dixon's article, "Environmental Scarcity and Violent Conflict" and the article "Lust for diamonds kills thousands in African wars," has lead me to believe that the wars that have been taking place in Africa are a combination of conflict from environmental scarcity and lust for wealth. If there the diamonds where not so scarce perhaps these wars wo

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Approximate Word count = 977
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)