Climate Change and Environmental Security: For Whom the Discourse Shifts

This article explores the implications of the April 2007 United Nations Security debate on the security dimensions of a changing climate for international climate change politics. Specifically, our analysis focuses on whether and how security concerns have been addressed in past international political debates on climate change and considers whether the Security Council debate, which emphasized the threat of climate-related conflict, reflects a discursive shift. We elaborate on two general discourses on the relationship between environment and security, which we call environmental conflict and environmental security . Using content and discourse analysis, we demonstrate that both the historical climate change debate and the more recent Security Council debate have been informed by the environmental security discourse, meaning that a discursive shift has not taken place. We conclude by considering the possibility of a future discursive shift to the environmental conflict perspective and argue that such a shift would be counterproductive to the search for an effective global response to climate change.     

Who Cares about the Weather?: Climate Change and U.S. National Security

Is climate change a national security threat to the United States? This question remains a subject of debate in academia and has received renewed emphasis in the policy community. Even taking a narrow definition of national security, climate change already constitutes a national security threat to the United States, both in terms of direct threats to the country as well as its broader extraterritorial interests. While some of these purported threats—abrupt climate change and sea-level rise—have been overstated by advocates, several concerns, mostly related to the effects of extreme weather events on the United States and its strategic interests overseas, are sufficient enough that they already constitute security threats. That climate change potentially poses a direct threat to the U.S. homeland and its overseas interests suggests the subject warrants serious attention.     

安全观与东盟气候变化认知及政策

东南亚是世界上最易受到气候变化影响的地区之一。作为东南亚重要的地区一体化组织,东盟应对气候变化的政策受到越来越多的关注。作为对基于物质条件与能力的解释的补充,从观念的影响出发可以为理解东盟气候变化安全认知与应对政策提供一个新的视角。由于地理暴露度与社会经济脆弱性,东盟面临着高度的气候变化风险。而东盟如何认知与应对气候变化风险带来的安全威胁,除了受到客观条件的影响外,还受到其综合安全观的框定作用。在综合安全现的影响下,东盟对气候变化安全的认知与应对表现出三个特征,即将气候变化安全诠释为实现可持续发展问题、采取多领域综合性应对措施以及鼓励多元化主体参与。目前,东盟的主导安全观是以国家为中心的综合安全观,但随着"人的安全"思想影响的增强,东盟气候变化认知与应对正在发生微妙变化。     

Food Security in the Context of Global Climate Change

The issue of food security is a complex one,and,with the advancement of globalization,it is becoming ever more urgent.And as climate change rises to the top of the international agenda,the securitization of food issues is growing more complex.It has turned the spotlight on the issue of food security and introduces new challenges to every nation.Historically,China has been an agricultural country,and thus has always been concerned about food security,enacting various measures and policies over the years to protect its food supply.However,there are inherent uncertainties and many challenges in this area.To deal with the problem of food security caused by global climate change,China and other nations should rethink how they deal with food security,and establish a comprehensive food security strategy which engages with other strategies in economic development,agriculture and rural development,energy,water security and social development.     

From discourse to policy: US policy communities’ perceptions of and approaches to climate change and security

ABSTRACT

Increasingly, a diverse set of policy communities, including those with defence, development and environmental mandates, frame climate change as a security threat. Most often this discursive formation labels climate change as a ‘threat multiplier’. This framing, however, is vague, linear and leaves many questions unanswered regarding how institutions can develop and implement policy that addresses the joint challenges of climate change, conflict and security. Utilising a mixed-methods approach, and grounding data collection in US policy communities, this article examines how policy actors and institutions integrate climate-security discourses into policy processes. The objective of this research is to provide direct insight into how the discourses and technical understandings of climate-security transition into policy priorities and implementation realities. This research identified three common approaches to climate-security: (1) A challenge of adaptation and resilience; (2) A potent political argument; and (3) An issue of limited importance and feasibility. These approaches, however, are inconsistent across sectors and within organisations, suggesting a lack of cohesion and considerable challenges in identifying and responding to climate change as a ‘threat multiplier’.     

Global climate security governance: a case of institutional and ideational fragmentation

In recent years climate change has become integrated into pre-existing, but fragmented structures of global security governance. In this article I argue that while institutional fragmentation of global climate security governance is not automatically problematic, the phenomenon of ideational fragmentation that often goes with it is highly disadvantageous to achieving climate security for people. This is because the preferences of a diverse group of security organisations/actors (in this article the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the European Union and the United States/Pentagon) are often vastly removed from the global agenda set by the United Nations and its expressed preference for understanding climate security in terms of human security. I suggest that the first step towards overcoming ideational fragmentation would have to be the advancement of a universal definition of climate security by an authoritative source, however, given that security is for many actors a matter of perception the chances of overcoming ideational fragmentation are slim.     

Security and governance in an uncertain world

This special issue has its origins in series of discussions within the Governance Research Centre, University of Bristol concerning the changing nature of conflict, security and development and debates about different conceptual lenses for explaining and understanding these changes. Our interest is in the relevance and the extent to which the multifaceted concept of governance explains security challenges in a world in which many previous certainties appear far less certain. Following a call for papers in 2003, we held a two-day workshop in December 2004 sponsored by NATO Public Diplomacy Programme and the International Policy Institute, King's College London to present and debate drafts of the papers, which were peer reviewed and revised for this special issue.     

Hand in hand against climate change: cultural human rights and the protection of cultural heritage

Within the debate on climate change and human rights, the field of culture, or cultural heritage in particular, plays a marginal role. At first glance, this seems reasonable, given the range of more concrete challenges people face in the context of climate change. However, the protection of cultural heritage is an important goal in its own right, even against the backdrop of other seemingly more pressing tasks. A human-rights-based approach to the debate on cultural heritage and climate change, it is argued, reinforces the international community's obligations to take necessary mitigation activities. Cultural rights and the corresponding duties, especially those under Article 15(1)(a) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, have the potential to provide an effective additional normative basis for the protection of cultural heritage from the adverse consequences of climate change.     

国际气候安全与气候技术合作困境与对策

全球气候变化正在带来严重的国际安全风险，气候问题已经与国家安全深度绑定。气候安全的治理能否成功，很大程度上取决于气候技术的选择及其全球普及程度。当前，国际社会积极利用先进气候技术实现气候安全面临着多重困难。文章对国际气候技术合作存在的障碍、未来合作方向和机制建设进行梳理，并以中美气候技术合作为例，探讨克服气候技术合作障碍的可能路径。解决气候技术合作难题，需要知识产权保护制度的改革和行业技术规范的供给。中美作为全球最大的两个经济体和碳排放国，宜进一步加强气候技术合作，履行大国责任，向发展中国家积极转让清洁能源技术，并借此契机重塑彼此互信，扩大科技领域的合作空间。     

新安全视角下美国政府的气候政策

"人类安全"逐渐成为一种新的安全理念,环境气候问题等各种影响人类安全和福祉的非传统安全问题日益引起广泛关注。全球性安全威胁的严重程度则取决于治理框架的反应能力。包括气候政策、法律和机构在内的气候环境治理框架能够最大限度地削弱全球化冲突的根源,避免影响的发生或减缓其进程。奥巴马上任以来美国新政府能源、环境和应对气候变化政策出现较大调整,大力推动新能源法案来减缓气候变化。这一政策转向具有深刻的历史动因和政治基础,并将给美国经济复苏和美国企业的国际竞争力带来压力,加剧美国对外贸易摩擦和削弱其在国际气候环境合作中的领导地位。     

Pakistan,India, China,and the United States: Energy,Climate Change,and National Security

This article focuses on the interplay of energy, climate change, and national security issues in Southwest Asia, using the newer definition of “national security” to include energy security, economic development, and climate change, as well as traditional security focusing on the military aspects.     

东南亚国家应对气候变化合作现状

气候变化作为一个全球性问题，不仅需要单个国家和地区采取行动，更需要国际社会的共同努力来缓解和适应气候变化给人类社会带来影响。本文则着重探讨东南亚地区为应对全球气候变化问题采取的行动，以及加强区域气候合作为达成更广泛的国际合作协议做出自身的努力，指出东南亚气候合作中存在的问题及前景。     

试析当前全球气候变化新特点及其对国际社会的影响

一、全球气候变化问题的特点 (一)全球气候变化问题的政治性 "全球气候变化问题并非一开始就是一个国际政治性问题,国际政治也并非一开始就涉及气候变化问题,气候变化问题政治化有一个过程"①.随着人类大工业的发展,气候变化给人类带来的威胁日益加重,国际社会对这一问题的关注程度也在逐步加深.     

美国气候战略及中美气候合作北大核心

当前全球气候危机加速演进,气候变化与国际战略深度融合,全球气候治理进入大变局和秩序重塑的关键时期。美国拜登政府重启气候新议程,将气候变化议题提升至美国国家安全与外交政策的中心地位,其战略目标是在全球气候权力重组、气候安全体系重构、气候治理秩序重塑中争夺主导权,拜登政府的气候战略框架已基本成型。统筹应对美国气候战略竞争风险和深入推进COP26后中美气候外交,关系到国际安全体系与全球气候治理新秩序的构建。中美唯有良性互动、拓展合作空间才能维护国际安全及人类在21世纪的可持续发展。     

A recurring anarchy? The emergence of climate change as a threat to international peace and security

Robert Kaplan's 1994 article, ‘The Coming Anarchy’ was a milestone in the literature on the links between environmental change and security. The article predicted that disease, corruption, overpopulation, scarce resources and climate change would plunge West Africa into pervasive conflict. Nearly a decade and a half—and several civil wars—later this article returns to West Africa to see to what extent Kaplan's predictions have come to pass. While West Africa may not have followed exactly the trajectory that Kaplan foresaw, he did correctly predict that climate change would be recognised as a threat to international security. This paper reviews in greater detail the development of conceptualisations of environment and security that influence current discussions over the potential impacts of climate change on security, paying particular attention to the ways in which West Africa is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.     

European diplomatic practices: contemporary challenges and innovative approaches

Abstract

As the aim of this special issue is to show practice approaches at work in the case of European diplomacy, this introduction provides readers with a hands-on sense of where the conversation about practices and European diplomacy currently stands. By introducing the key terms and overviewing the literature, the article contextualises the guiding questions of the special issue. It starts by reviewing how practice approaches have evolved in IR debates. It then describes European diplomacy’s nuts and bolts in a post-Lisbon setting. It continues by focusing on specific practices and analytical mechanisms that contribute to understand European diplomacy’s transformations and the role of security. While the debate about practices goes beyond the case of diplomacy, the latter has become a showcase for the former and this special issue continues the debate on practices and diplomacy by zooming in on the European Union.     

Governing migration from a distance: interactions between climate,migration, and security in the South Mediterranean

Links between security and migration are well established and are associated with the meaning, status, and practice of borders in the international political system. This article assesses how and with what effects the effects of environmental and climate change have entered this relationship between migration and security. It does so by assessing the EU’s external governance of migration in “South Mediterranean Partner Countries” (SMPCs): Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia. It is argued that a focus on promoting “adaptation” and building “resilience” has developed that is consistent with the logic of governing migration from a distance. However, the article challenges ideas that environmental/climate change act as simple migration “triggers” and instead explores implications of movement towards and not away from risk, as well as the potential for populations to be trapped in areas that expose them to risk. It is shown that both have important implications for the relationship between migration, environmental/climate change, and security in SMPCs.     

吉林省粮食安全政策选择

2010年我国的粮食产量达到54 641万吨,增产2.9%。[1]尽管如此,我国的粮食安全问题仍然是十分重要的大问题,全球的粮食安全问题仍然很严重,粮价维稳已成为各国的头等大事,2010年全球玉米价格暴涨了52%,小麦上涨了49%,黄豆上涨了28%。[2]有些问题是自然灾害造成的,有些问题是人为造成的,这使全球经济陷入一种十分不稳定的状态。当今全球社会十分害怕粮食价格上涨,有些人把这些问题摆在与金融危机同一个位置上。     

The Impending Water Crisis in the MENA Region

In many respects the worsening water scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa has become an object-lesson in the water crisis facing the wider world as climate change becomes a reality. Although northern and southern temperate zones are likely to see increases in precipitation, the equatorial region will face increasing desertification as access to water declines in the face of continuing demographic growth. Competition over increasingly scarce resources will have major geopolitical and security implications and the Middle Eastern and North Africa region will act as a paradigm of what happens in a biome of water scarcity.     

The potentials and limits of China–EU cooperation on climate change and energy security

Due to economic interdependency through trade and investment, economies of scale, and economic complementarities, China and the European Union (EU) have a huge potential for cooperation. Already many things have happened so far. Since 2004, the cooperation on climate change has been a key issue on the political agenda of China–EU summits. In 2005, the EU and China even endorsed a “Joint Declaration on Climate Change” which emphasizes reducing the cost of clean energy key technologies for China, first and foremost through the development and deployment of near-to-zero-emission CCS technology. Letting China gain access to clean energy technology is the key issue of climate change cooperation. Despite great efforts and potential mutual benefits, this is still a field of conflicting interests. The authors argue that currently, cooperation on the transfer of clean energy technology is very limited due to rational interests of the actors and the insecurities involved in cooperation. Professor Zhang’s research focus is on environmental issues and international organizations.