Ecological Security
Climate Change and the Construction of Security

This book argues that we should approach the relationship between climate change and security through the lens of ecosystem resilience.

Matt McDonald (Author)

9781316519615, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 September 2021

200 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.51 kg

'… McDonald's book is essential reading for any scholar wishing to handle what is at stake in the climate security debate. Additionally, graduate students would be wise to use it as a model of undertaking sustained discourse analysis that goes beyond critique.' Paul Beaumont, International Studies

Climate change is increasingly recognised as a security issue. Yet this recognition belies contestation over what security means and whose security is viewed as threatened. Different accounts – here defined as discourses – of security range from those focused on national sovereignty to those emphasising the vulnerability of human populations. This book examines the ethical assumptions and implications of these 'climate security' discourses, ultimately making a case for moving beyond the protection of human institutions and collectives. Drawing on insights from political ecology, feminism and critical theory, Matt McDonald suggests the need to focus on the resilience of ecosystems themselves when approaching the climate-security relationship, orienting towards the most vulnerable across time, space and species. The book outlines the ethical assumptions and contours of ecological security before exploring how it might find purchase in contemporary political contexts. A shift in this direction could not be more urgent, given the current climate crisis.

Introduction
1. The construction of security
2. Climate security discourses
3. Ecological security: a definition
4. Means and ends of ecological security
5. Towards Ecological Security?
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Environment law [LNKJ], International organisations & institutions [LBBU], International relations [JPS]