Christian Webersik
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Webersik has joined Columbia University’s Earth Institute in September 2005 to research links between drought and political violence. His general research interest is the role of natural resources in armed conflict, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa.
Before becoming an Earth Institute post-doctoral fellow Webersik worked as Assistant Professor of political science at Asmara University, Eritrea. He is holding a D.Phil. from Oxford University in political science where he studied the political economy of war and the role of natural resources in conflict in Somalia.
In the past, Webersik worked in a number of conflict situations with UNDP, the UNHCR and UN OCHA. He gained insights into the climate change regime working for the UN Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn (UNFCCC). He also temporarily worked for a German nation-wide newspaper, the Süddeutsche Zeitung. He continues to be interested in understanding in how humans interact with their environment, and to what extent environmental factors play a role in armed conflict.