Climate Change & Security: From Multiple Practice(s) to Reconceptualising Paradigm(s)

Climate Change & Security: From Multiple Practice(s) to Reconceptualising Paradigm(s) Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin, Germany 29 June 2023 Climate security has been conceptualized and defined in multiple ways, often in relation to the nature of threats identified, the referent objects that need to be protected (ecology, human beings, nation states, etc.), and the approaches that characterize various actors’ approaches to deal with them. Increasingly, climate security is not seen through the prism of national security alone, but also human and ecological security. The role of intergovernmental organizations (for example, United Nations agencies, European Union, etc.), national governments, humanitarian organizations, non-governmental actors, as wellas traditional security actors such as the military is pertinent to climate security discourseand practice. This includes security strategies, peace operations, foreign policy/diplomacy, and development planning among others. The origin of theoretical and practical conceptualizations of climate security dates back to 2000s. From securitization to climatization, the interlinkages between climate change and security have been explained through different paradigms. In more practical terms, it is with the introduction of the issue in the UN Security Council (UNSC) in 2007 that the debates on what constitutes climate security, and how to conceptualize them and act on them began to gain momentum. The subsequent UNSC discussions and the evolution of academic literature on climate security has raised the relevance of research on the purposes and processes of invoking climate security, and other related security paradigms in complex issues such as developing low-carbon pathways and driving energy transitions. For instance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) recently announced that it would set up a NATO Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence (CCASCOE) in the year 2023 in Montreal, Canada. Similarly, climate change and security concerns are central to the strategies of the EU’s foreign and defence policies. In another case, the Indo-Pacific strategies declared by many countries and intergovernmental organizations pay attention to security implications of climate change. Yet even though there is large-scale acknowledgement of climate-security nexus, there are diverse perspectives on the interlinkages. Countries such as Russia, China, and Indiacontinue to oppose the introduction of the topic in the UNSC for different reasons, including arguments against securitization and militarization. Much of these discourses and practices are still dominated by Global North perspectives that do not fully recognize different realities present in different parts of the world. For instance, questions of development, justice, colonialism, and gender (among others) have remained under-studied in climate security research. Furthermore, even when the research focusses on or includes these aspects,there is a lack of engagement with pre-existing ideas and practices that underlie security logic, especially from the Global South. In this context, the virtual workshop, hosted by Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin aims to host a small group of scholars to analyze climate security from various perspectives – geographic (regional and country-based), theoretical and conceptual (with a focus on interdisciplinary research), actor and issue frames, and policy and security practice. By looking into different aspects of security framing, including power relations, governance mechanisms, geopolitical dynamics, and environment-society interactions, the virtual workshop would strive to open newer avenues of theoretical and policy research on climate security. Through the workshop, we propose to not just share your respective research interests, but also contribute to a broader discussion on the complementary, diverse, and conflicting climate security discourses and practices, without reinventing the wheel. Organizational Details and Expected Outcomes Venue: The workshop will take place virtually. Date and Time: 29 June 2023, between 10:00 and 15:30 CEST. Programme 10:00-10:30 Introduction 10:30-12:00 Initial remarks on the workshop theme 12:00-12:45 Break 12:45-14:30 Deep dive into sub-themes 14:30-15:30 Next steps Participants (in the alphabetical order of first names) 1. Dr. Adrien Estève (Sciences Po, France) 2. Dr. Alistair Cook (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) 3. Dr. Cameron Harrington (Durham University, UK) 4. Dr. Chinwe Philomina Oramah (The Arctic University of Norway) 5. Dr. Dhanasree Jayaram (Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India; Centre March Bloch, Germany) 6. Dr. Duncan McLaren (UCLA School of Law, USA) 7. Dr. Franziskus von Lucke (University of Tuebingen, Germany) 8. Dr. Judith Nora Hardt (Centre March Bloch, Germany; Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy and the Climate and Security Research Group, Hamburg University, Germany) 9. Dr. Maria Cecilia Oliveira (Research Institute for Sustainability Potsdam, Germany) 10. Dr. Maria Julia Trombetta (University of Nottingham Ningbo, China) 11. Dr. Marwa Daoudy (Georgetown University, USA) 12. Dr. Mely Caballero-Anthony (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) 13. Dr. Mirza Sadaqat Huda (ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore) 14. Dr. Rita Floyd (University of Birmingham, UK) Organizers: Dr. Judith Nora Hardt Research Fellow Centre Marc Bloch Friedrichstraße 191, 10117 Berlin Germany judith.hardt@cmb.hu-berlin.de Dr. Dhanasree Jayaram Research Fellow Centre Marc Bloch Friedrichstraße 191, 10117 Berlin Germany dhanasree.j@manipal.edu