Joint Norwegian-Indian activity project on water-related security challenges on the Indian subcontinent (henceforth referred to as INDSEC).
The political discourse about links between climate change, water resources, and conflict has run ahead of the scientific community, and assessments and recommendations are often based on unsubstantiated assumptions and narratives of single events. There is a glaring lack of systematic, rigorous analyses, notably at the subnational level, and policy reports repeatedly call for more research on the social implications of climate change. INDSEC seeks to answer this call by promising high-quality academic research on various aspects of water security, involving key experts with area competence on perhaps the world’s most challenging region in this context: South Asia.
The primary function of INDSEC will be to organize two academic workshops and associated project meetings (held in November June and November 2011, respectively). Formally hosted by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), the project builds on an existing MFA-sponsored bilateral collaboration between PRIO and the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) in New Delhi. The workshops and meetings will bring together a diverse group of scholars from PRIO, IDSA and other Indian institutions, and Columbia University, NY.
Ultimately, our ambition is to exploit the momentum generated through these activities to develop a full-scale researcher project proposal in anticipation of a future call for applications from the INDNOR programme or another suitable sponsor.
