Climate change and security research: Conflict, securitisation and human agency

Abstract

Climate change has increasingly been understood as a security problem by researchers, policymakers and media commentators. This paper reviews two strands of work that have been central to the development of this understanding–namely 1) the links between global heating and violent conflict and 2) the securitisation of climate change–before outlining an agency-oriented perspective on the climate-security nexus. While providing sophisticated analyses of the connections between climate change and security, both the conflict and securitisation strands have encountered several epistemological challenges. I argue that the climate security concept can be revitalised in a progressive manner if a more dynamic, relational approach to understanding security is taken. Such an approach recognises people’s everyday capacities in managing their own safety as well as the security challenges involved in responding to a continually evolving threat such as climate change.