Reality for realists: Climate Change and the Nation State

Abstract

One of the best books on the climate crisis over the past 10 years, maybe the best book, is Anatol Lieven’s Climate Change and the Nation State. This is not because it is particularly original in its basic arguments about the nature of the political world. It presents a solidly realist argument with its many strengths and weaknesses. It is a great book because Lieven has the courage to expose the appalling inability of the various political realist communities to grasp the seriousness of the exponentially increasing threat to the very existence of organised human life. The failure of modern conservatives to deal effectively with the terror that is coming down the road must be the most powerful case study of the inability of humans to act in accordance with their beliefs and self-interest. Lieven accepts his faith in Enlightenment values is shaken by this failure. I would argue such faith is shattered on the floor. We are heading into the greatest period of social breakdown in world history and conservatives are betraying in their most basic value – the hint is in the name. They stand by while the consequence of state inaction is the tearing apart of the very fabric our societies. Is it eye watering stupidity, is it entrancement by an infinite evil, or it is just ‘one bloody thing after another’ writ large – writ on an infinite scale? People will debate this greatest of all betrayals for centuries to come, on the questionable assumption future societies will still value debate. As an award winning researcher in political mobilisation at King’s College I initiated the Extinction Rebellion movement with a presentation called ‘Pivoting to the real issue’ (note the word ‘real’) in January 2018. I produced the core strategic framework of mass civil disobedience for the movement which went on to become the number one global influencer on the climate in 2019, and spread to 70 odd countries, inspiring thousands to get arrested. It was a desperate attempt to persuade the elites of their last change to turn the world back from triggering the numerous geo physical and biological feedbacks which threaten to decimate the habitats upon which our existence depends. It failed. And the main reason for this failure was the unwillingness of the liberal and conservative political class to look beyond the pathetic distractions of their culture wars to see that preventing climate breakdown is the most serious political imperative of all time.