Climate Change and Water-Related Security Challenges on the Indian Subcontinent

The current 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 , in lack of more systematic, rigorous research. INDSEC seeks to help rectifying this unfortunate trend by promising high-quality academic research on various aspects of water security, involving key experts with area competence on perhaps the world's mos t 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 2010 and April 2011, respectively). Formally hosted by the Peace Research Institu te 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 PR IO, 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 call for applications from the INDNOR programme or another suitable sponsor in the spring of 2011.