Capturing the environment, security, and development nexus: intergovernmental and NGO programming during the climate crisis

ABSTRACTWhile patterns of non-state political violence in the Global South have for two decades been associated with the chronic and acute impacts of ecological-environmental stress, violent and hateful extremist actors in Northern states are less often recognised for exploiting political responses to climate change. This article argues that relationships of reciprocity and interdependence between disparate violent actors in the Global North and South pertain in part to their geographical divides, reflected in developmental histories and contemporary responses to climate change. To develop this argument, the article first extends a multidisciplinary literature review of critical perspectives on intergovernmental responses to the ‘environment-security-development’ nexus. Through a case study analysis, it then emphasises the structural, economic and environmental challenges associated with non-government organisational programming for violence prevention, accounting for ecological-environmental risks. It lastly presents an empirical research base on contemporary trends in political violence within Global North and South contexts pertaining to violent actors’ reception of histories of development and the natural environment.KEYWORDS: Environment-security-development nexuspolitical violencenon-government organisationclimate change Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. IPCC, ‘Climate Change 2021’.2. IPCC, ‘Climate Change 2022’.3. Migration Data Portal, Environmental Migration.4. IPCC, ‘Climate Change 2021’.5. Richards, ‘“Sustainable Development”’.6. Hickel et al., ‘National Responsibility for Ecological Breakdown’.7. Busby, ‘Taking Stock’.8. Warner and Boas, ‘Securitization of Climate Change’.9. Greater Manchester Preventing Hateful Extremism and Promoting Social Cohesion Commission, A Shared Future, 22.10. Mehta et al., ‘The New Politics and Geographies of Scarcity’.11. McDonald, ‘Discourses of Climate Security’.12. Murphy, ‘Dignity, Human Security and Global Governance’.13. Busby, ‘Taking Stock’.14. McDonald, ‘Discourses of Climate Security’; McDonald, ‘Climate Change and Security’.15. McDonald, ‘Climate Change and Security’.16. Mehta et al., ‘The New Politics and Geographies of Scarcity’.17. Thomas and Warner, ‘Weaponizing Vulnerability to Climate Change’.18. Szenes, ‘Weaponizing the Climate Crisis’.19. Richards, Neoliberalism and Neo-jihadism.20. Linke and Reuther, ‘Weather, Wheat, and War’.21. Asaka, ‘Climate Change-terrorism Nexus?’.22. IPI, ‘Rosand: UN Role in Preventing Violent Extremism’.23. Linke and Reuther, ‘Weather, Wheat and War’.24. Richards, Neoliberalism and Neo-jihadism.25. Detraz and Bestill, ‘Climate Change and Environmental Security’.26. Whyte, ‘The Crimes of Neo-liberal Rule in Occupied Iraq’.27. Weis and White, ‘A Marxist Perspective’.28. Hickel et al., ‘National Responsibility for Ecological Breakdown’.29. Ibid.30. Ibid.31. Busby, ‘Taking Stock’; see Van Baar, ‘Contained Mobility’.32. Hassan et al., ‘Environmental Diplomacy in South Asia’.33. Barnett, ‘Global Environmental Change’; Mach et al., ‘Climate as a Risk Factor for Armed Conflict’.34. Busby, ‘Taking Stock’; Mach et al., ‘Climate as a Risk Factor for Armed Conflict’.35. Ide et al., ‘Multi-method Evidence’.36. Ibid.37. IPCC, ‘Climate Change 2022’; UNDRR, ‘Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction’.38. Gasper, ‘Human Security’.39. Floyd, ‘Global Climate Security Governance’.40. Ibid.41. Detraz and Bestill, ‘Climate Change and Environmental Security’; Floyd, ‘Global Climate Security Governance’.42. Froese and Schilling, ‘The Nexus of Climate Change’.43. De Grenade et al., ‘The Nexus’.44. McDonald, ‘Climate Change and Security’.45. UNDP, ‘UNDP Policy Brief’.46. See Mach et al., ‘Climate as a Risk Factor’.47. Szenes, ‘Weaponizing the Climate Crisis’.48. Ibid.49. Mousseau, ‘Evicted for Carbon Credits’, 3.50. Ibid.51. Thomas and Warner, ‘Weaponizing Vulnerability to Climate Change’.52. Ibid.53. Sparkblue, ‘Discussion: Climate Security’.54. Richards, Neoliberalism and Neo-jihadism.55. Tarrant, The Great Replacement.56. Crusius, The Inconvenient Truth.57. Anon, 2022.58. Biehl and Staudenmaeir, Ecofascism Revisited.59. Ross and Bevensee, ‘Confronting the Risk of Eco Fascism’.60. See Forchtner, The Far Right and the Environment.61. Richards, ‘A Philosophical and Historical Analysis of Generation Identity’.62. Richards, ‘“Sustainable development”’.63. Phillips, The Battle for Syria.64. Kaldor and Sassen, Cities at War.65. Baldwin et al., ‘Securitizing “Climate Refugees”’.66. Whyte, ‘The Crimes of Neo-liberal Rule in Occupied Iraq’.67. Brisard and Martinez, Islamic State.68. Heißner et al., Caliphate in Decline.69. Jaafar and Woertz, ‘Agriculture as a Funding Source of ISIS’.70. Bin Laden, ‘Declaration of Jihad’.71. AQAP, ‘Inspire: Issue 10’.72. Mosello and Rüttinger, ‘Climate-fragility Research Paper’; Asaka, ‘Climate Change-terrorism Nexus?’.73. Crawford, Pentagon Fuel Use.74. McDonald, ‘Climate Change and Security’, 48.75. McDonnell et al., ‘A Paradox of “Sustainable Development”’.76. Barnett, ‘Global Environmental Change’.Additional informationNotes on contributorsImogen RichardsImogen Richards is a lecturer in criminology at Deakin University. She writes on the political economy of counter-terrorism and the performance of security in response to social crisis. Her first book, Neoliberalism and Neo-jihadism, was published with Manchester University Press in 2020. Her most recent co-authored books are both with Routledge, including Criminologists in the Media, published in 2022, and Global Heating and the Australian Far right, due for publication in 2023.