Climate Change, Peace and Security: Transforming Global Politics at a time of Multiple Crises

This course engages with the growing body of research and global agendas seeking to interrogate the nexus of climate change, peace and security. It departs from dominant approaches that treat climate change as a distinct national or militarised security issue and one that can be treated as a separate 'issue area' from the work involved in peacebuilding, disaster management, and economic post-crisis recovery. The course aims to generate knowledge of contemporary and historical debates regarding the interdependence of the environment and the drivers of conflict and instability. A wide array of evidence and case studies from the most crisis-affected regions especially Asia and the Pacific will be employed to make visible how conflicts, disasters and humanitarian emergencies are occurring in ways that challenge prevailing models of peacebuilding and sustainable development. Bringing in diverse and multiple perspectives to peace, this course seeks to present how and why climate change – along with its various causes and consequences – is the defining issue for transforming global politics. Crucially, this course invites students to rethink global peace and security in terms of people and planet.