insurgency, ethnic clashes, terrorism, and genocide in poor countries (citations 7, 16 and 17 in current Wiki article). This research culminated in his book Environment, Scarcity, and Violence, which won the Caldwell Prize of the American Political Science Association. Social innovation and the ‘ingenuity gap’ (suggested new subsection and subsection title) In the mid-1990s, Homer-Dixon worked on the determinants of successful social innovation in response to key threats and challenges like climate change. He coined the term “ingenuity gap,” and his work resulted in the book The Ingenuity Gap. The book was published in six countries and won the 2001 Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction in Canada. Societal breakdown and renewal (suggested new subsection and subsection title) In the 2000s, Homer-Dixon studied the links between major crisis and societal renewal—a phenomenon he called “catagenesis.” Using the Roman Empire as a case study, he focused especially on the relationship between energy inputs, social complexity, and social crisis. This work led to the book The Upside of Down (book) which won the 2007 National Business Book Award. The book introduced the concept of “synchronous failure,” which was further developed in a co-authored 2015 article in Ecology and Society. The role of hope (suggested new subsection and subsection title) After 2010, Homer-Dixon’s work became more prescriptive, focusing on how humanity might address its crises, and in particular on the essential role of the emotion hope. These ideas were brought together in the book Commanding Hope: The Power We Have to Renew a World in Peril. Views In an opinion piece published in The New York Times in April 2013, Homer-Dixon stated that Alberta's oil sands industry "is undermining Canadian democracy" and that "tar sands influence reaches deep into the federal cabinet." Homer-Dixon also said that "Canada is beginning to exhibit the economic and political characteristics of a petro-state" and that the oil sands industry "is relentlessly twisting our society into something we don't like." In 2022, Homer-Dixon expressed the belief that the United States could be ruled by a right-wing dictator before 2030. Bibliography See also List of University of Waterloo people References External links 1956 births Living people Canadian ecologists Canadian political scientists Carleton University alumni Governor General's Award-winning non-fiction writers Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Non-fiction environmental writers Sustainability advocates University of Toronto faculty Writers from British Columbia