Ken Coates

In the following viewpoint, Ken Coates argues that countries that are extremely impoverished and overwhelmed with national debt are at risk for war. Such economies are unstable, he contends, and their governments frequently disintegrate, resulting in social chaos and the breakdown of law and order. From there, Coates asserts, it is a short step to war, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. Coates is an English member of the European Parliament.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. How does poverty aggravate the destruction of the environment, according to Coates?
2. What is “capability poverty,” as defined by the author?
3. How should the world intervene when impoverished countries slide into wars or genocide, in the author’s opinion"

Only yesterday, it seems, the Berlin Wall was taken to pieces, and academic journals began to bubble with...