CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Alkilic, Ayse |
|---|---|
| Title | Revisiting Threat-based and Risk-based Security Logics to Analyze Contemporary Climate Security Discourse in the U.S. |
| Summary | During President Barack Obama administration climate change is increasingly being pondered as a matter of national security in the U.S. On the one hand, many scholars within Security Studies articulate this move as securitization that leads to militarization of the environmental sector. On the other hand, recent studies argue that climate securitization might bring various cooperation strategies forward. In making apparent the main assumptions therein, the thesis elucidates that these debates accept supremacy of securitization framework to study climate security discourse. However, diversity in actions called to tackle climate change is due to ‘threat-based’ and ‘risk-based’ security logics which could be observed in contemporary climate security debate. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is as follows: (i) to situate characteristics of these security logics, and (ii) set the boundaries of a complementary approach to securitization by critical reading of the literature. Ultimately, this thesis discursively investigates through which logics and with what effects that current climate security discourse operates in the U.S. This analysis is essential as it can assist better understanding implications attached to actions driven by moving climate change into national security agenda, and generating appropriate responses to climate change. The findings of this study illustrate that, contrary to prevailing arguments of climate securitization, climate change debate in the U.S. functions through risk-security logic. Therefore, climate change is not securitized, and that politico-military establishments cooperate to adopt, mitigate or prevent climate-induced catastrophes. Nonetheless, non-securitization of the climate security debate is not impeccable: climate security discourse points at possibility of new implications arising due to uneven distribution of precautionary strategies. |
| Supervisor | Fumagalli Matteo |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/alkilic_ayse.pdf |
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