Climate Change and the U.S. Security Sector: The Securitization of Climate Change (original) (raw)
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The securitization of climate change and the power of conceptions of security
S+F, 2009
This paper looks at recent studies that have addressed climate change as a security issue. Posing climate change as a pro blem for security has provided it with a major boost in attention. However, it raises the potential of 'securitization', i.e. that the issue is primarily addressed via traditional means of security policy. The paper analyses how selected studies frame the issue of climate change and security and considers what recommendations they make on dealing with the problem. Among its findings are that the framing of climate change as a security issue is not based on well founded analysis but is rather largely driven by ad hoc theo ries on the links between environmental degradation and violent conflict. A second finding is that different conceptualisations of security lead to different types of recommendation on how to deal with the consequences of climate change as they relate to peace and security. Securitizing the issue therefore does not necessarily lead the authors of studies to prescribe predominantly traditional security instruments for dealing with crises. However, although the authors reach different conclusions, their diagnosis of climate change as a security issue is likely to push the climate change discourse towards the use of traditional security instruments. A third finding of the paper is therefore that the mixing of different conceptions of security may increase the 'attention grabbing' power of studies but also muddle their messages.
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The debate on securitization has focused on the implications of applying security rationality to a variety of issues, including the environment. By doing so it has pointed at the limits of a security logic based on Schmitt's understanding of the political. These limits are more evident when securitization occurs within non traditional sectors and involves other actors than states. More specifically, the securitization of the environment presents several peculiarities, which challenge the logic of security on which securitization is based. For this reason-instead of focusing on the implication of using security language for environmental governance-this paper explores the implication of applying environmental language and concepts to security. In this perspective the evolution of the debate linking security and climate change provides relevant insights on the difficulties of securitizing the environment and on the transformations of security practices The paper is in three parts. The fist one outlines what is at stake in considering climate change as a security issue. The second part considers the performative power of security and whether and how securitization can allow a conceptualisation of the transformation of security logic. The third one compares and contrasts two attempts to securitize global environmental change. The first one evoking "environmental security" has been the dominant discourse and its analysis allows to point at the difficulties in addressing climate change. The second one, evoking "climate security" points at the potentials and dangers of a discourse based on vulnerabilities and catastrophic events and outlines a transformation of environmental (and security) governance.
Review of European Community & International Environmental Law, 2012
There has been a growing awareness of the implications of climate change for national, international and human security. The Copenhagen School of Security Studies analyzes the process by which an issue comes to be represented as an existential threat in terms of a process of 'securitization'. This article considers what the full securitization of climate change would look like in world politics, including what role the United Nations Security Council might assume in climate change governance, how close we have come to that state of affairs, how likely we are to reach the stage of full securitization and why, and whether reaching that point would in any case be beneficial for the global policy response to climate change.
Climate Change: The Hottest Issue in Security Studies?
Risk Hazards Crisis in Public Policy, 2010
Security studies in the 21st century have broadened to encompass a variety of transnational phenomena newly defined as threats. Climate change is one of these phenomena. In theoretical terms, climate change is being securitized. Climate change, in which man-made global warming is a major factor, is an internationally recognized phenomenon that is projected to produce dramatic, accelerating, and long-lasting human, economic, and political consequences with profound security implications. These will be most pronounced in places where the effects of climate change are greatest, particularly affecting weak states already especially vulnerable to environmental destabilization. National security establishments in the United States and elsewhere are hurriedly attempting to come to grips with climate change and how to respond to its strategic challenges. This paper, in the context of securitization theory, human security, and sustainable security, discusses the phenomena of global warming and climate change, examines the destabilizing effects of climate change, describes how such effects are being perceived as transnational threats to security, and argues that securitization of climate change is necessary, timely, and irreversible.
Global Environmental Politics, 2014
position in the US than in the EU. Interviews and discourse analysis suggest that both cultural and political structures underpin this divergence. European discourses emphasize scientiªc ªndings and themes of opportunity and leadership, the latter also contributing to a pan-European identity. By contrast, American discourses emphasize security. In the US, climate change science is disputed and climate policy skeptics have inºuential access to the machinery of policy. In the EU, political space between EU institutions and the public insulates EU policy-makers, enabling expensive short-term policies without resorting to security politics. Climate change policy also functions to cement EU policy-making authority because it is an issue that cannot be addressed at the level of individual member states.