New Book Addresses Link Between Climate Change and Security

Climate Security is an important new book by our Prof. Ashok Swain, which highlights the many ways in which climate change poses a threat to national and global security.

–Many researchers and advocacy groups avoid framing climate change as a national security concern to prevent governments from prioritising military and border control spending over environmental action. This approach, while well intentioned, has led to climate change often being sidelined in political agendas and policymaking. This book is a clarion call to act on the inseparable link between climate and security, Swain explains.

The book is written for a wide audience and is packed with global examples, from glacier movements destabilizing borders, to misinformation driving political apathy around the climate. It contains new, provocative ideas such as the carbon footprint of the military, the pressing need for the Global South to adapt, not blame, and the need for strong and visionary leadership in climate negotiations.

To make it more accessible, Climate Security has been simultaneously released in hardcover and paperback formats. In some countries it is also available to rent or buy as an eBook.

Climate Security is available through Sage Publishing among others.

In Sweden the book is available through Adlibris and others.

Reviews

Ashok Swain has written a packed and seminal book on climate security, calling for a bold, new security architecture to tackle the climate crisis. Climate Security covers multiple ways in which climate change affects national and human security, including military readiness and resilience, water availability, and migration.’

Erika Weinthal, PhD, John O. Blackburn Distinguished Professor of Environmental Policy, Duke University

Climate Security is a powerful synthesis from a pioneer in the field. Swain makes the case for a new paradigm rooted in sustainability, social justice, and cooperation. His work points toward transformations that the planet and its people demand.

Ken Conca, Professor of Environment, Development & Health, American University

Ashok Swain has produced a remarkably timely, clear-headed, and straight-talking book that explains climate security as it should: not as an obscure intellectual concept, but as a reality that is already defining the existential challenges of our times, and that must now define the real actions that we need to take.

Adil Najam, Professor of International Relations and Earth & Environment, Boston University, President, World Wildlife Fund

When we achieve the first quarter of the 21st century, the book is a wake-up call to humanity: either we collectively act now or we may lose “our ability to survive as societies”. The author uses his unique sensibility from years fighting for civil rights in difficult contexts to understand what insecurity is, to demonstrate the severity of the current environmental crisis, and to explore possible solutions. In a time of overlapping and self-reinforcing risks, this is a fundamental book to both scholars and practitioners.

Juliano Cortinhas, Professor of International Relations at the University of Brasília, Advisor to President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva