Abstract
This concluding chapter summarizes and reflects upon the findings from the book, Climate Security in the Anthropocene – Exploring the Approaches of United Nations Security Council Member-States. It lays out the empirical data found in the book chapters and presents the book’s three central conclusions: (1) climate change is a contested and political concept; (2) different states perceive different climate security threats; (3) different states employ different responses to climate security threats. The overriding conclusion is that human security perceptions and human security-informed policies have largely characterized state responses to climate security to date. However, this may in fact be changing as new sectors, such as national armed forces begin to occupy more space and exert more influence on the discussions. The chapter then reflects on the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, arguing that it is vital to clearly communicate how one understands the term climate security before advocating for one set of policy prescriptions over another. The chapter concludes with a commentary on the potential future pathways that climate security discussions might take as it reaches its current crossroads.
Judith Nora Hardt, Centre Marc Bloch, Friedrichstr. 191, 10117, Berlin, Germany; Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy University Hamburg, and Research Group CLISEC, Hamburg University, Hamburg, Germany; e-mail: judith.hardt@cmb.hu-berlin.de, judith.hardt@posteo.de.
Cameron Harrington, Durham University, Durham DH1 3DE, Durham, UK; e-mail: cameron.harrington@durham.ac.uk.
Franziskus von Lucke, University of Tübingen, Melanchthonstraße 36, 72074, Tübingen, Germany; e-mail: franziskus.von-lucke@uni-tuebingen.de
Adrien Estève, Sciences Po, Rue Jacob 56, 75006, Paris, France; e-mail: adrien.esteve@sciencespo.fr
Nicholas P. Simpson, University of Cape Town, Upper Campus 1, 7745, Cape Town, South Africa; e-mail: nick.simpson@uct.ac.za.
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Notes
- 1.
We refer here either to climate security or the climate-security nexus.
- 2.
The following UNSC member states descriptions and the comparison between them are based on the corresponding chapters of this book: Belgium (Orsini, this volume), China (Vuori, this volume), Dominican Republic (Ovalle, this volume), Estonia (Loik and Jürgensen, this volume), France (Estève, this volume); Germany (von Lucke, this volume), Indonesia (Wicaksana and Santoso, this volume), Niger (Kalilou, this volume), Russia (Stepanov, this volume), South Africa (Ouweneel and Simpson, this volume), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Smith, this volume), Tunisia (Estève and Personat, this volume), the UK (Harrington, this volume), the US (Briggs, this volume) and Vietnam (Vo Dao Chi, this volume). The chapter authors are referred to only the first time mentioned.
- 3.
The US case is peculiar as it showcases to an extreme degree how much impact the Presidential administration (Obama-Trump-Biden) has on its UNSC position. This position is unique among the other case studies.
- 4.
- 5.
The resolutions that include references to climate change are focused on the Lake Chad Basin Region (Resolution 2349), Darfur (Sudan) (UNAMID, Resolution 2429), Somalia (UNSOM, Resolution 2461), Central Africa (MINUSCA, Resolution 2499), Mali (MINUSMA, Resolution 2480) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO, Resolution 2502). Some new geographic regions have been included through the Iraq Resolution 2576 (2021) and the Cyprus Resolution 2587 (2021), although these last two reference climate change but do not clearly name the links to security.
- 6.
Translated from Ana Ovalle (see the chapter on Dominican Republic, this volume).
- 7.
Translated by Franziskus von Lucke (see the chapter on Germany, this volume).
- 8.
Translated from Juha Vuori (see the chapter on China, this volume).
- 9.
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 25, 2019; at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/25/our-house-is-on-fire-greta-thunberg16-urges-leaders-to-act-on-climate (15 October 2022).
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Hardt, J.N., Harrington, C., von Lucke, F., Estève, A., Simpson, N.P. (2023). Climate Security at a Crossroads: The Evolution and Future of Climate Security in the United Nations Security Council and its Member States. In: Hardt, J.N., Harrington, C., von Lucke, F., Estève, A., Simpson, N.P. (eds) Climate Security in the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—Science, vol 33. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26014-8_17
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