Thomas F. Homer-Dixon, Director, Peace and Conflict Studies Program, University of Toronto

Marc Levy, Vice President, CIESIN
David Dessler, Professor of Political Science, College of William and Mary

Richard Matthew, Professor, School of Ecology, UC, Irvine

Geoffrey Dabelko, Director, Environmental Change and Security Project

Co-sponsored by the Environmental Change and Security Project and the UC-Irvine Global Environmental Change and Human Security Project

March 19, 2000 - Funded by a grant from the International Studies Association (ISA), this one-day meeting was an opportunity to bring together notable scholars studying the links between environment, population, and conflict in a meeting directly following the annual ISA convention, held in Los Angeles this year. Co-sponsored by ECSP and the UC-Irvine Global Environmental Change and Human Security Project, it was held at the University of California, Irvine, School of Social Ecology's Beckman Center.

Participants included the leading researchers discussing findings, methodology, and future research trends of the field. Thomas Homer-Dixon presented the findings, thus far, in the emerging field, while Marc Levy discussed the successes and challenges of the current methodology. Finally, David Dessler offered some avenues for further research, including adopting new methodologies to counter some of the current difficulties in research and data collection.

In a continuing effort to broaden ECSP's activities and audience, this was a unique opportunity to gather notable scholars in one room for a full-day session on the direction that environment and conflict research is taking. Geoffrey Dabelko and Richard Matthew will co-author a rapporteur's report on the findings of this workshop in the next issue of the Environmental Change and Security Project Report, due out summer 2000.

For more about the ISA and its activities in the Environmental Studies Section, please visit its website at: http://www.isanet.org/.