Environmental Science and National Security: Overcoming Barriers to Connecting Research with Policy

Jan 31, 2020 | Winter Wilson
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Beginning with the end of the Cold War, a relatively small but growing number of scholars began to investigate the connections between environmental change, conflict, peace, and changing notions of security. The recognition of these linkages wasn’t new, but as the heavy weight of superpower confrontation lifted and new foreign policy dynamics unfolded across the globe, an expanded range of research questions and tools emerged.

Thirty years later, the environment and security research arena has expanded even more to include robust research on conflict, peacebuilding, protests, and even assassinations of environmental leaders. The range of environmental issues, relatively limited at first, is more diverse and includes the context of a changing climate.