Climate change

Climate change is high on both domestic and international political agendas as countries face up to the huge environmental challenges the world now faces. Whilst this attention is welcome, less energy is being focused on the inevitable impact climate change will have on security issues. The well-documented physical effects of climate change will have knock-on socio-economic impacts, such as loss of infrastructure, resource scarcity and the mass displacement of peoples. These in turn could produce serious security consequences that will present new challenges to governments trying to maintain stability.

Climate science: a peace studies lesson

Paul Rogers | openDemocracy | March 2010

Issue:Climate change

The doubters of global warming are emboldened by their new ability - as in the “climategate” affair - to put climate researchers on the defensive. But the experience of comparable assaults on the discipline of peace studies in the 1980s suggests that hostile scrutiny can have longer-term benefits for the target.

Photo courtesy of tellytom.

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New US Intelligence Report Highlights the Risks of Climate Change for Regional Instability

Issue:Climate change

A new report from the US Directo of National Intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, for the House of Permanent Selct Committee on Intelligence has highlighted the regional impacts of climate change in his assessment of threats to US national security. In his public statement, Blair states that global climate change will have a wide-ranging implications for US national security interests over the next 20 years because it will aggrabate existing world problems-such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership, and weal political institutions- that threaten state stability.

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Global Warring

Issues:Climate change, Competition over resources

In Global Warring: how environmental, economic and political crises will redraw the world map, Cleo Paskal combines climate research and interviews with geopolitical strategists and military planners, to identify the environmental problems that are most likely to start wars, destroy economies and create failed states.  Read more »

Himalayan Sub-regional Cooperation for Water Security

Issues:Climate change, Competition over resources

Trans-boundary collaboration over the issue of shared water is critical since water is scarce in most areas. Today, the Himalayan region is facing severe water stresses. To overcome the challenge, there is a need to promote Himalayan Sub-Regional cooperation to ensure water security and a climate of peace and progress. Read more »

Copenhagen: the challenge ahead

Paul Rogers | Oxford Research Group | December 2009

Issue:Climate change

Copenhagen failed dismally to set firm targets either for greenhouse gas reductions and the aid offered to poorer countries to counter the impact of climate change was minimal. Scarcely anything was achieved other than most states accepting that the global temperature increase must be kept below 2ºC. In this article, Paul Rogers, looks at at what should have been the result of the climate change negotiations and why it failed, before turning his attention to where we go from here.

Photo: Julie Grath 

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Climate change, conflict and fragility: understanding the linkages, shaping balanced responses

Issues:Climate change, Competition over resources

ORG Exclusive

In this recent article, Janani Vivekananda, International Alert's Senior Climate Policy Advisor on climate change and security, turns her attention to the negotiations in  Copenhagen. She argues that any global agreement must address the links between climate, conflict, governance and development; yet issues three cautions in doing so.

Photograph: Opening Ceremony of UN Climate Change Conference, Miguel Villagran/Getty Images

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