GECHS

GECHS associates Hans Günther Brauch and Úrsula Oswald Spring are the first and second editors of Volume IV in the Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace. The title of the new volume is “Facing Global Environmental Change – Environmental, Human, Energy, Food, Health and Water Security Concepts”.

This is a policy-focused, global and multidisciplinary security handbook which addresses new security threats of the 21^st century posed by climate change, desertification, water stress, population growth and urbanization. These are security dangers and concerns that lead to migration, crises and conflicts, and they are on the agenda of the UN, OECD, OSCE, NATO and EU.

The book analyses the global debate on environmental, human and gender, energy, food, livelihood, health and water security concepts and policy problems. They suggest a new research programme to move from knowledge to action, from reactive to proactive policies and to explore the opportunities of environmental cooperation for a new peace policy. For information on the whole Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace, please see the Springer Link website.

Volume III in the Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace is now out in Turkish and Spanish editions. In this reference book on global security thinking, 92 authors from five continents and many disciplines, from science and practice, assess the global reconceptualization of security triggered by the end of the Cold War, globalization and manifold impacts of global environmental change in the early 21st century.

The book addresses the theoretical, philosophical, ethical and religious and spatial context of security and discusses the relationship between security, peace, development and environment. Furthermore, the book reviews the reconceptualization of security in philosophy, international law, economics and political science, the political, military, economic, social and environmental security dimension and the adaptation of the institutional security concepts of the UN, EU and NATO. The book also analyzes the reconceptualization of regional security and alternative security futures and draws conclusions for future research and action.

This book contains revised papers from three workshops at ISA ( Montreal), IPRA ( Sopron) and the Fourth Pan European Conference on International Relations (The Hague) and additional commissioned papers. Here, you can read more about the Spanish edition, and the Turkish edition.

The links between climate change, peace and war are analysed in the recent publication “A climate of conflict” from International Alert. International Alert is an independent peacebuilding organisation that has worked for over 20 years to lay the foundations for lasting peace and security in communities affected by violent conflict. In order to understand how the effects of climate change will interact with socio-economic and political problems in poorer countries, the report traces the “consequences of consequences”. This process highlights four key elements of risk – political instability, economic weakness, food insecurity and large-scale migration. Based on the analysis of these elements, the report points out twelve recommendations for addressing climate change in fragile states.

The title of the current IHDP Update is “The Implications of Global Environmental Change for Human Security in Coastal Urban Areas”. The issue is a joint effort by three IHDP core projects: Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC); Global Environmental Change and Human Security (GECHS); and Land-Ocean Interactions in Coastal Zones (LOICZ). It focuses on natural disasters associated with global environmental change in coastal urban areas and sheds light on the main pathways of social and urban vulnerability to natural disasters caused by climate variability and change. The invited authors explore the close links between global environmental change, human security, and urbanization from multidimensional perspectives seeking to provide integrated approaches to those complex interactions.

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This years theme for the global Human Development Report is climate change, as the defining human development challenge of the 21st century. The report, “Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world”, states that failure to respond to that challenge will stall and then reverse international efforts to reduce poverty. And looking to the future, no country – however wealthy or powerful – will be immune to the impact of global warming. This Human Development Report argues that climate change poses challenges at many levels. In a divided but ecologically interdependent world, it challenges all people to reflect upon how we manage the environment of the one thing that we share in common: planet Earth. The report points out that climate change challenges us to reflect on social justice and human rights across countries and generations. It challenges political leaders and people in rich nations to acknowledge their historic responsibility for the problem, and to initiate deep and early cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Above all, it challenges the entire human community to undertake prompt and strong collective action based on shared values and a shared vision.