Exploiting Natural Resources: Growth, Instability, and Conflict in the Middle East and Asia presents views on the unsustainable exploitation of three key natural resources – forests, water, and extractable minerals – from the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia. The regional experts and Stimson analysts discuss the current patterns of resources exploitation in the form of forest clearing, hydropower dams, and mining operations that have implications for domestic and regional stability and human security.

Stimson’s Regional Voices: Transnational Challenges project is devoted to enhancing the information and analysis available to policymakers about emerging transnational security challenges in the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Africa. For more information on the project, please visit stimson.org/programs/regional-voices.

ISBN: 978-0-9821935-0-1

Cover photos: Open cast iron mine, India © 2006 Robert Harding/Robert Harding World Imagery/Corbis;

Illegal logs on truck, Vietnam © 2002 Tim Page/Corbis