ISBN: 978-3-943423-81-5

Nina von Uexkull

Stockholm University

Read more about this book at blogs.sub.uni-hamburg.de

This ambitious edited volume comprises 15 essays on climate change and security by authors affiliated with Hamburg University and collaborating institutions. Drawing on a variety of predominantly qualitative methodological approaches, authors cover a wide range of outcomes including water and land-use conflict, migration, discourse analyses and security implications of renewable energy expansion. These significant contributions by the Hamburg group demonstrate the multitude of channels through which climate change affects the basis of human security and peace. Importantly, the collection also covers topics relating to climate change mitigation that have received comparably scant attention in previous research, such as the impact of wind power expansion in a conflict-affected region. At the same time, rich case studies from Brazil, Spain and China contribute to expanding the empirical scope of case study research on climate security that still has heavy empirical focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. Reading the individual essays as standalone contributions to the field, methods and data tend to be described briefly and their relation to other research in the same volume and elsewhere is not always spelled out clearly. While the introductory chapter introduces the evolution of the research agenda of the Hamburg group, a stronger focus on synthesis and connecting chapters across topics would have strengthened the collective contribution of the edited volume. Taken together, this volume first and foremost demonstrates the important contributions of the Hamburg group to research on climate and security over the years, but it will also be of interest to readers looking for an introduction to climate change impact on various dimensions of human security across the globe.