Jan Bachmann

Resource stress leading to inter-communal conflict; climate change triggering future migration crises; climate wars as the challenge of the 21st century: Environmental issues today occupy a significant space in security studies. In fact, we seem to to erode the very conditions of our existence. Accepting the 'Anthropocene' might once more turn our conceptualization of security on its head. Who/what is the primary referent object of security in times of extensive climate change? The most marginalized? Future generations? The planetary ecosystem? And which security issues are invoked by the very means through which we aim at halting climate change?

Environment Security VT 2023.pptx

Mandatory readings:

Dalby, Simon 2017. Anthropocene Formations: Environmental Security, Geopolitics and Disaster. Theory, Culture & Society 34 (2): 233–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276415598629.
Burke, Anthony, Stefanie Fishel, Audra Mitchell, Simon Dalby, and Daniel J. Levine 2016.“Planet Politics: A Manifesto from the End of IR.” Millennium 44 83), pp. 499–523. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0305829816636674
Chandler, David, Erika Cudworth, and Stephen Hobden 2018. Anthropocene, Capitalocene and Liberal Cosmopolitan IR: A Response to Burke et al.’s ‘Planet Politics.’ Millennium - Journal of International Studies 46 (2), pp. 190-208. https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.ub.gu.se/doi/10.1177/0305829817715247?icid=int.sj-full-text.similar-articles.3.

Study questions:

Should environmental issues be approached through the lens of security? Find arguments in favour and against!
Is the discipline (or more precisely the tools and perspectives) of IR suited to grasp the conditions of the Anthropocene? Find arguments in favour and against?