The Impact of Political Instability on the Environment

Select one important sustainability issue of global significance and express this issue.

Much of the world seems to be on the edge of facing the issue of geopolitical instability. This include the relationship of the West with Russia and the relationship of the same with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This include the Syrian Civil War and the influx of the refugees in the country due to the war. During this the environmental degradation occurs like the natural resources gets depleted and an insecurity is caused during the instability (Agnew 2012).

The refugee crisis can also be stated as one of the leading factor of the geological instability. It is because of the wars that the country experiences extreme drought. The drought results in the unsustainable agricultural practices and poor resources management.

The issues related to the environment has played a major role I n the international stage that is related to the geopolitical instability. This include the water wars, drug wars, diamond wars, oil wars are known to have happened in the past that resulted in numerous environmental setbacks that would include deforestation, climate change and the most phenomenon observed in the recent world is over-population (Anderson 2014).

The geopolitical stability have given rise to many sweeping geographical as well as social changes. It has given rise to cold wars and it has disintegrated many states and it has given rise to many new states. The geopolitical primacy of the states have been challenged. The remarks on this are important as the remaking of the geopolitical space changes the conception of “us” and “them”. This influences the way the people view their collective interests (de Sá-Soares, Soares and Arnaud 2014).

It affects the factors of peace and space in the environment. There is an entire change in the geographical conceptions that reflect the shape and the social and the environmental outcomes. It changes the political and the geographical arrangements of a region that affects the social well-being of a region. This affects the factors whether the factors of new spaces of geopolitical significance that emerges around the access to water, oil or other resources? This is important to study of the factors that affects the local as well as the subnational ethnic divisions that undermines the traditional geopolitical arrangements (Doyle and Stiglitz 2014).

Power is considered to be the ability to influence the behaviour of the people. The execution of power is considered to be one of the most important effect of the geopolitical change. The execution of the force increases in case of wars in the environment. It gives rise to legitimate power, referent power, expert power, reward power and coercive power. It gives rise to few principles of interpersonal relationships. This include the concept of power as a perception, it can be stated as a relational concept, and it can be resource based.  The power is sometimes prerogative and it is dependent (Elyakova et al. 2016).

The Impact of Political Instability on the Economy

The Geopolitical instability threatens the future economic growth of the region. The tensions and the conflicts that arise due to the wars leaves a big mark on the future growth of the region. It has been observed in Asia that the economic integration and economic integration was threatened. Many geopolitical factors account for the inability for incomprehensive economic cooperation. One of the major issue for this is the political realm. Apart from this the social and cultural differences and the varying degrees economic development and the competition for resources among the countries also act as a contributing factor to the tension that affects the regional cooperation (Frias?Aceituno et al. 2014).

The most popular and accepted definition of political instability is the inclination of a government collapse either because of conflicts or unhealthy competition between various political parties. This has a direct relation with the economic condition of the region. They are deeply connected. The unstable political scenario might give rise to many financial loss related to the business of the organizations (Gemechu et al. 2016).

The poor economic performance of a nation leads to the collapse of the government and other administrative body. The political stability can be achieved through the oppression or through having a political party in place that does not have to compete to be re-elected. In this case the economic factors as well as the political factors acts as two sides of a single coin. A politically stable country might be seen as the region where there are high chances of investment. However it is fact that always the stable government does not lead to higher growth in the economy (Gemechu, Sonnemann and Young 2017).

the two major ethical problems that are related to the geopolitical aspects are:

Poverty

One of the major ethical issue faced during the geopolitical instability is poverty. It has been observed during the wars that many people lost their habitat and they even lost their shelter. It gave rise to huge level of poverty. The people went through a diasporic predicament due to this. Due to an instable political scenario the people lost their jobs and their livelihood. Many people were left homeless due to the instable political scenario. This is considered to be one of the most important ethical problem (Jonsson et al. 2015).

Scarcity of resources

The other ethical issue that can be considered is the scarcity of resources. While analysing this from the point of ethics it can be mentioned that the most severe consequence that can be witnessed during the war is the scarcity of health facilities. The issue of global health can be mentioned as the most important issue that is underlying. Apart from this due to the instable political situation there is an increase in the population as there is a rise in the number of refugees in any region. There was a constant increase of the want of the natural resources. The increasing pressure on the natural resources causes the depletion of the same (Katsanevakis et al. 2015).

Ethical Issues and Theories Related to Geopolitical Instability

The two ethical problems identified in part 5 drawing on relevant ethical theory:

One of the ethical theories that can be considered in this context is the theory of deontology. The deontological class of ethical theories includes the fact that the people should adhere to their obligations and duties when they are engaged in any kind of decision making process and when the ethics are in play. During any kind of political instability it is the responsibility of the persons who have the authority of making the decisions related to the state and the politics they must follow his or her own obligations compared to the other individuals of the society. The reason for this is upholding the duty of an individual or society. The reason for this is upholding the duty of an individual is considered to be ethically correct. The people who are the members of the governmental body are supposed to follow the deontological theory of ethics that will enable him to produce consistent decisions since they will be based on the set of duties of an individual. It contains many positive attributes. Apart from the positive aspects it has certain flaws. The primary criticism of the theory is that it has no practical basis. It is because of this reason that during the situation of political instability the responsible persons are unable to make constructive decisions. The consequences like poverty, wars scarcity of resources cannot be solved during that situation (Nowduri 2012).

The other theory of ethics is the utilitarian theory. It is based on the ability of an individual to predict the consequences of an action. According to this theory the choice or the decision of a person should be such that will be aimed towards the good of all individuals. There are two categories of this theory. The first theory is act utilitarianism and the other is the rule utilitarianism. The former one does not follow the laws and the person following this theory acts for the benefit of the individuals despite the fact that it might not be supported by the law. The later theory opines the fact that the person following this theory necessarily takes into account the law and is concerned with the fairness factor. It gives value to justice and it includes beneficence at the same time. In times of the political instability it is observed that the people ruling the government took the decisions that benefitted them. This is the reason they failed to establish the peace and stability in the country. In case the persons applied the ethical theory they failed to predict the outcomes of a situation. The predictions are not always accurate. During the unexpected results the decisions appears to be unethical as the choice made during that time does not benefit most of the people. The decision maker fails to compare the various types of consequences. If the consequences could have been analysed the conflicting rules could have been avoided (Rockström et al. 2013).

Impact on Multinational Businesses

The major business threats that are related to the geopolitical instability:

There has been an increasing risk in the multinational business due to the political instability. The most common reasons for those are the rising nationalism, the upcoming elections, and the concerns of the succession and the risk of terrorism. It hurts the profitability of the organization. A restrictive environment is created because of the political instability which is harmful for the global business. For example, when there is a change of political positions due to the election the local business of the area gets affected. The change in the government brings about a clear transition on the status of the company. As a result it affects the economy of the region (Sautron et al. 2015).

The major opportunities that are related to geopolitical instability:

A change in the government is sometimes a boon for the business organizations. The improved political scenario of a region attracts investment from the foreign countries. It improves the economic conditions of a region. The organizations that suffered from major loss can overcome the loss with the change in the governmental system. It enhances the business scenario of the global business. After the industrial revolution many countries were able to become the capital power and they were able to develop their political and legal support (Stead and Stead 2014).

Causes of unsustainability:

The sustainability of the resources is linked to the geopolitical instability. The first and most important resources in this context is the supply of the food. During an unstable political condition there is scarcity of food and water and other mineral resources. There are evidences of weak agricultural practices and there are conflict of resources. For example, during the wars and even after the wars there is an increased amount of population and epidemics. The unstable situation leads to the scarcity of food and the scarcity of health facilities (Stead and Stead 2014).

This can be solved by taking few effective measures in order to improve the financial barriers, technological as well as behavioural barriers (Guerci et al. 2015).

In order to improve the financial barriers raised during the situation of geopolitical instability, effective policies should be formulated and the state fund should be raised in order to bring the situation under control. The state fund of the region should be made utilized in this situation to deal the financial barrier (Saxena 2014).

Conclusion

In order to improve the technological barrier the alternative source of energy should be used. The scarcity of the resources are the common threat observed during this. New improved devices should be used to detect the wrong doings that might disturb the political stability of a region.

In order to eradicate the behavioural barriers, the issues that are responsible for the political unrest should be avoided. The major reasons of war and unethical practices should be avoided and a regular check should be kept on it

References

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