Greeny News

Demand for resources has driven conflict throughout history. Now it 's time for a policy rethink on land and water

Let 's back to basics - historically and conceptually. The cornerstone of security for all civilizations before the industrial age was land and water without secure tenure based on the country, the life of one 's citizens, each ruler' s tenure was short-lived. Without water, agriculture and productive enterprise was impossible. Armies were fed either a 's own land and water, or take the property \ by someone else' s. ProtectTools

It was not 't all that different from the Age of Empires, by the end of the Second World War. It was still influence over territory, resources and habitat and geopolitical. It 's only in recent decades, military security is not following some of this, and gear motors more conflicts like the Cold War, and the current' Wars "on" terrorist 'and drugs.

Now there are all kinds of signals that safety concerns are beginning to once more on land and water - which is most tellingly in the growing furore over food security and the so-called "land grab 'around the world.

It 's almost a decade since the CIA first drew \ people's attention on China' s enthusiasm for the acquisition of land (through direct purchase or long-term lease) in Africa and other countries. Since then, many other countries (mainly from the Middle East) joined the party - specifically to meet their own nutritional needs. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, nearly 20 million hectares of arable land - almost half the size of all arable land in Europe - have been sold or had been negotiated for sale or lease in 2010.

Meanwhile, all that over-excited rhetoric about 'the peace dividend' that followed the end of the Cold War has pretty much evaporated; expenditure on arms reached an astonishing $1.62 trillion in 2010. A significant percentage of that is related (directly or indirectly) to the Middle East.