ABSTRACT
This book is intended to help answer a simple question: what are the implications of climate change over the next few decades for global security and international relations? While the question may be simple, the answer is not. It touches on such complex and interrelated topics as the historical interaction between human society and climate, the dynamics of state stability and state failure, and the nexus between conflict and resource scarcity. Later chapters
will consider examples of historical conflicts and societal
failures induced, accelerated or intensified by resource
scarcity and environmental factors; assess the relative risks of internal and inter-state conflict in different parts of the
world; and discuss the probable consequences of climaterelated instability and its implications for security policy of states and transnational organisations.
