2 - The Many Faces of Environmental Security

Summary

Chapter 2 explores the securitization of climate change by engaging with the scholarly debate around environmental and climate security, human security, water and food security, and climate-induced migration. The chapter traces the broadening of traditional security studies to include non-Western perspectives and a more diverse array of potential threats, including environmental degradation, poverty, water scarcity, and climate change. This theoretical review provides the foundation for the discussion of a potential climate-food insecurity and migration nexus. The author shows that the literature has not conclusively shown linkages between climate change, food insecurity, migration and conflict – either globally or in Syria – but that the HECS framework can be used to rigorously evaluate the interactions between these variables. A key theme of this chapter is the need to recognize and prioritize non-Western and marginalized perspectives and agency in environmental security and migration discourses.