The disappearance of Lake Chad. A Humanitarian and Natural Disaster
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2018-06-29
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en
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Abstract
The humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad region is one of world’s largest and most complex humanitarian disasters. The prevailing view has been that this crisis is a security problem, particularly emanating from the Boko Haram insurgency. However, more recently, environmental problems are increasingly being recognized as drivers of the violent conflicts and humanitarian crisis. This indicates a securitization of environmental issues. Therefore, this thesis set out to explore how environmental issues in the Lake Chad region are being securitized with the specific purpose to identify the role of the United Nations in this process. In doing this, it drew on the securitization approach and used content analysis and process tracing to determine how environmental issues in the Lake Chad region are being securitized. Speech acts by the United Nations provided evidence that it securitizes the shrinking of Lake Chad, which subsequently legitimizes the employment of emergency measures. Besides, it established that the securitization of environmental issues is ongoing and future academic research is to determine its success and effects. Finally, the findings point towards the potential risks and opportunities of the securitization approach and identify new avenues for future research.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen