Handbook of Security and the Environment

Elgar Handbooks in Energy, the Environment and Climate Change

Edited by Ashok Swain, Professor of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Joakim Öjendal, Professor of Peace and Development Research, Gothenburg University, Sweden and Anders Jägerskog, Senior Water Resources Management Specialist, The World Bank, Washington DC, US

This comprehensive Handbook tackles the increasingly urgent problem of the impact of climate change on conflict and human security. It analyses the ways in which scarcity of resources leads to food, water and health insecurities, resulting in population migration. Featuring contributions from leading international scholars, chapters cover how these contribute globally to societal insecurity and violent conflict in a growing number of regions.

‘Swain, Öjendal and Jägerskog’s important Handbook brings new debates, new voices and new cases to the growing research literature on environment and security links and threats to human security at local, national, regional and global scale.’
– Stacy D. VanDeveer, University of Massachusetts, US

'The editors rightly shine a spotlight on the human security dimensions of environment and security links in this Handbook. This more inclusive approach provides a more complete picture of the multi-layered complexity of connections, avoiding the reductionism that afflicts some treatments of these topics. This Handbook reaches beyond the usual suspects to provide in-depth analysis in a wide range of country level and issue specific chapters.'
– Geoffrey Dabelko, Ohio University, US

‘The Handbook of Security and the Environment offers a unique perspective on the intersection between the traditional notions of security and emerging concepts of environmental security. It effectively captures the contemporary knowledge base on environmental security and advances it considerably by exploring pragmatic and actionable steps that can enhance the prospects of enduring global peace. The nuanced analysis captures different geographical contexts and international actors, and unpacks innovations in securing environmental resources – notably food, water and energy – against global impacts of climate change, excessive resource exploitation, mass migration, volatility in food prices, and spiking water scarcity.’
– Zafar Adeel, Simon Fraser University, Canada