ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book examines how International Relations (IR) begun to come to terms with the entwinement of social and natural systems. Realist security studies have taken to old themes of scarcity and appeared in new incarnations related to climate security. While the field has broadened and diversified, it is worth taking a step back to assess changing traditions and trends more widely, noting also some new limitations to perspectives on IR and the Earth. The globalised and carbonised view of the environment pulls multiple issues into a unitary and planetary perspective. But at the same time as this unitary view has gained dominance, the political dynamic has become more and more fragmented. More fundamentally, while much is happening both in the discipline and on the ground, there is a lingering sense in which the basic puzzle of IR and the Earth remains unsolved.
