Theories and Models of Climate-Security Interaction: Framework and Application to a Climate Hot Spot in North Africa

Abstract

In its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) addresses serious risks that could undermine the living conditions of people all over the world (IPCC 2007). Impacts on food and water availability, flood and storm disasters, and large-scale events such as loss of the monsoon, breakdown of the thermohaline circulation, polar ice melting, or sea level rise could affect a considerable fraction of the global population. After publication of this report a number of studies suggested that the struggle for food and water, the impact of natural disasters, and large-scale migration could pose security risks that would destabilize social systems and aggravate existing conflicts. These concerns inspired a debate on the securitization of climate change (Wæver 1995; Brauch 2009b). The IPCC reports did not focus on the links between climate change, security, and conflict (IPCC 2007; Nordås/ Gleditsch 2009), although statements by IPCC Chair Rajendra Pachauri upon acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize suggest such a linkage. In its planned fifth assessment report, the IPCC will include a chapter on the human security dimensions of climate change.