A Series of Seminars on the Environment-Security Nexus

Feb 9, 2015 - Feb 10, 2015 | University of Geneva
Global Studies Institute – Rue de l’Ecole de Médecine 20 – S.123
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A growing literature on environmental security reveals a deeper interest in the connections between security studies and environmental studies. However, despite several studies on environmental securitization, further empirical research still needs to be conducted and dialogue with researchers in critical security studies should also be pursued. Furthermore, we believe that both securitization theorists could benefit from the outputs of environmental cases and environmental security scholars could further develop their theoretical frameworks through this exchange.

The Workshops on Environment and Security (WES) propose a platform which seeks to create a space for researchers from different academic backgrounds to work on environment and security issues in the form of a series of seminars. This collaborative effort is the product of a renewed partnership between Sciences Po Paris and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) on environment and security, with the additional participation of three partner institutions, the University of Geneva (UniGe), the University of Economics in Bratislava (EUBA) and the Fletcher School of Tufts University. A total of 5 seminars will be organized over a two-year period, beginning in late 2014, and each partner university will host one seminar.
Sciences Po Paris will organize a daylong seminar on environment, security and migration, UniGe on the securitization of the environment, EUBA on natural resources and security, the Fletcher School of Tufts on hydropolitics, technics and security and the ULB on science, experts and environmental security. Each seminar will be an opportunity to deepen the debate on the connections between environmental studies and security studies so as to develop concepts pertaining to both fields and to bring together new empirical, or more compelling, evidence informed by strengthened theories.