Environment, politics and conflicts in theMiddle East: resources, strategies and humanitarian emergences

30 June – 4 July 2025

Climate change, wars and humanitarian emergencies have accelerated the process of environment degradation in the Middle East and North Africa. The region suffers from a chronic lack of strong policies of environment protection, largely due to authoritarian regimes which, over the years, have privileged the development of intense urbanization and reckless extractive activities. Despite some initiatives, the lack of investment in renewable energies has not led to the setting of a synergic environment protection agenda. In addition, as the recent devastating destruction of the Gaza Strip by Israel shows, wars also have a significant impact on the environment causing often permanent damages, particular when weapons like white phosphorous bombs are used. Such weaponry destroys arable lands, halting cultivation and life for many years.

While the absence of environmental concerns on the part of government might superficially point to the lack of interest in these matters within MENA societies, the question of environmental protection has been at the centre of civil society activism for quite some time. Using protests, sit-ins and media campaigns, local committees, clubs and trade unions have drawn attention to environmental degradation and exploitation, proposing strategies and measures designed to counter the effects of deleterious state policies and/or the absence of a clear strategy of environmental protection.

The 11th edition of the summer school “Understanding the Middle East” will critically engage with environmental issues in the Middle East and North Africa and their connections to activism, state and non-state actors’ policies, as well as their international dimension. How and to what extent is environment at the core of the political agenda of MENA leaders? In what ways do capitalist accumulation, neoliberal policies and foreign intrusion impact the environment in the MENA? How do civil society activists try to politicise environmental issues? How have conflicts affected the environment and the populations involved? How is the presence of vast energy resources in the region influencing state policies on environmental protection?

The objective of the summer school is to offer useful tools of analysis to better understand the complexity of environmental politics in the Middle East and North Africa and, at the same time, to put forth thoughtful explanations rather than oversimplifications.