‘Climate Change, Conflict and (In)Security’: Dr Timothy Clack Co-Edits New Book

Congratulations to Dr Timothy Clack, who has published a new co-edited volume with Ziya Meral and Louise Selisny, Climate Change, Conflict and (In)Security: Hot War.

Dr Clack is Chingiz Gutseriev Research Fellow at St Peter’s College. Dr Clack’s research primarily focusses on conflict, identities, cultural heritage and memory. He has spent much of his career engaged in research projects in Eastern Africa, Central Asia, the South Atlantic and the UK.

The sixteen chapters of Climate Change, Conflict and (In)Security examine how climate change is creating and exacerbating insecurities for millions of people globally, and how states, inter-governmental bodies and others are trying to meet these challenges today and in the near and medium term. With contributions from pioneering researchers and practitioners, the volume shows that climate change insecurity is relevant to a battery of security areas, including warfighting, stabilisation, human security, influence, resilience and capacity building. Climate change has and will impact security at different scales and in different localities, including national and ethnic tensions, food and water security, resource competition, mass displacement, and the recruitment profiles and operations of violent and extremist organisations. The volume is available in both print and e-book format from Routledge. 

Beyond the tutorial room and academic publications, Dr Clack’s work has recently involved parliamentary engagement. He is the Director of the Climate Change & (In)Security Project, which provides the Secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Climate and Security.

In March, he gave a presentation entitled ‘Climate Security: Key Themes and Case Studies’, at the first formal meeting of the APPG for Climate and Security, held in the Jubilee Room in the House of Commons. He discussed water, food and energy security, and how climate change and responses to it are configuring threats to human security in the Sahel, the Arctic and Ukraine.

Also this year, he was called as an expert witness to give evidence on climate change and security to the House of Commons Defence Committee. The transcript of oral evidence (given in February) and the Committee’s report on Defence and Climate Change (published in August) is available here.

Learn more about Climate Change, Conflict and (In)Security: Hot War here.

By Darcy Holland