Virginia Page Fortna

Co-Principal Investigator: Jack Snyder, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations, School of Arts & Sciences

Project: "Climate Change and Security: Regional Perspectives on a Global Issue"

Global Centers: Santiago and Istanbul

Project Description: How will the unprecedented changes to climate, and the economic transitions required to stave off the worst effects of climate change, affect regional and international security dynamics? Climate change is a global phenomenon, but its effects on security will play out in different ways around the globe. Regional perspectives are therefore crucial to understanding these issues. At the same time, there will be commonalities across regions in the security issues raised by climate change, such that a global conversation will be essential.

The Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies proposes a one-year planning grant, for a total of $19,910 to initiate a program on Climate Change and Security in conjunction with the Columbia Global Centers. The planning grant will be used to facilitate a dialogue and to begin to build a global community of interdisciplinary scholars, experts, policy-makers, and activists working to understand how climate change will affect regional and global security dynamics. The project leverages expertise on international security at the Saltzman Institute, the interdisciplinary expertise on climate at Columbia (within Arts and Sciences, SIPA, Lamont-Doherty and the Earth Institute, and the nascent Climate School), and the regional expertise of the Global Centers’ networks. We propose to hold two initial workshops, one each at the Global Centers in Santiago and Istanbul in the 2022-2023 academic year to pilot the program. Given the enthusiastic response to early conversations about this idea, we envision the project growing into a more enduring project in collaboration with most if not all of the Columbia Global Centers.