Pakistan is about to play a pivotal role in global politics. Serving as a gateway to the Middle East and a conduit to Central and South Asia, it will be a crucial partner as the United States contends with China’s rise as an emerging global superpower and seeks to maintain its hegemony in the region. The problem is, for many people in the West, Pakistan is somewhat of a black box, with few Westerners understanding the country’s complex history and current political reality. The Political Ecology of Pakistan aims to change this by outlining the geopolitical history of Pakistan since the country gained independence in 1947, focusing in particular on the military’s ongoing role in state affairs and the struggle for democracy to take root in the region. In addition, this book outlines Pakistan’s improved economy, internal security, religious harmony, equality of opportunity, corruption-free society, and growing transparency and accountability, all of which will make the country a vital partner in securing and maintaining peace in the region. This information will be of interest to policymakers as well as those who are seeking to understand Pakistan’s geopolitical significance.

Pakistan is about to play a pivotal role in global politics. Serving as a gateway to the Middle East and a conduit to Central and South Asia, it will be a crucial partner as the United States contends with China’s rise as an emerging global superpower and seeks to maintain its hegemony in the region. The problem is, for many people in the West, Pakistan is somewhat of a black box, with few Westerners understanding the country’s complex history and current political reality. The Political Ecology of Pakistan aims to change this by outlining the geopolitical history of Pakistan since the country gained independence in 1947, focusing in particular on the military’s ongoing role in state affairs and the struggle for democracy to take root in the region. In addition, this book outlines Pakistan’s improved economy, internal security, religious harmony, equality of opportunity, corruption-free society, and growing transparency and accountability, all of which will make the country a vital partner in securing and maintaining peace in the region. This information will be of interest to policymakers as well as those who are seeking to understand Pakistan’s geopolitical significance.

This book provides the first systematic critique of the concept of climate change adaptation within the field of international development. Drawing on a reworked political ecology framework, it argues that climate is not something ‘out there’ that we adapt to. Instead, it is part of the social and biophysical forces through which our lived environments are actively yet unevenly produced. From this original foundation, the book challenges us to rethink the concepts of climate change, vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity in transformed ways. With case studies drawn from Pakistan, India and Mongolia, it demonstrates concretely how climatic change emerges as a dynamic force in the ongoing transformation of contested rural landscapes. In crafting this synthesis, the book recalibrates the frameworks we use to envisage climatic change in the context of contemporary debates over development, livelihoods and poverty. With its unique theoretical contribution and case study material, this book will appeal to researchers and students in environmental studies, sociology, geography, politics and development studies.

Environmental issues have become increasingly prominent in local struggles, national debates, and international policies. In response, scholars are paying more attention to conventional politics and to more broadly defined relations of power and difference in the interactions between human groups and their biophysical environments. Such issues are at the heart of the relatively new interdisciplinary field of political ecology, forged at the intersection of political economy and cultural ecology. This volume provides a toolkit of vital concepts and a set of research models and analytic frameworks for researchers at all levels. The two opening chapters trace rich traditions of thought and practice that inform current approaches to political ecology. They point to the entangled relationship between humans, politics, economies, and environments at the dawn of the twenty-first century and address challenges that scholars face in navigating the blurring boundaries among relevant fields of enquiry. The twelve case studies that follow demonstrate ways that culture and politics serve to mediate human-environmental relationships in specific ecological and geographical contexts. Taken together, they describe uses of and conflicts over resources including land, water, soil, trees, biodiversity, money, knowledge, and information; they exemplify wide-ranging ecological settings including deserts, coasts, rainforests, high mountains, and modern cities; and they explore sites located around the world, from Canada to Tonga and cyberspace.

Malaria remains one of the main causes of mortality and morbidity in sub-Saharan Africa. Matian van Soest looks at the malaria epidemic in the peri-urban zones of Uganda's capital Kampala against the backdrop of recent socio-ecological transformations. Based on long-term ethnographic research, the book provides a holistic picture of the malaria epidemic in central Uganda, revealing the highly localized character of an epidemic that once spanned across almost the entire globe. Understanding, and ultimately tackling the disease, requires an appreciation of the social, political, as well as ecological circumstances that frame this epidemic.