Firepower, security and geopolitics

[Simon Dalby]

Folks:

Just a note to all colleagues. I missed the ISA, and the AAG earlier in the year, and I won't be seeing you in Paris for the IGU conference either. I am packing up in Waterloo, heading West for a six month sabbatical at the University of Victoria, and will then formally retire from Laurier effective next January. The logistics of all this have been a distraction for the last few months which is why I have skipped the conferences.

But I have managed to write a book on "Rethinking Environmental Security" which has just been published. (I first presented some of my initial  ideas about this theme to IGU folks in Prague in 1991, and to ISA folks in 1992 in Atlanta if I remember correctly!) It picks up themes from my 2018 Geopolitics article on Firepower and uses that to rework much of the climate and eco-security discussion in light of the fifty years since the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. See Simon Dalby Rethinking Environmental Security. (Edward Elgar 2022) https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/rethinking-environmental-security-9781800375840.html

As such it is a direct attempt to link global environmental politics to security discussions and do so with geographical and earth system insights to facilitate the "rethinking" that the book series to which it contributes, is designed to do. In the face of escalating security and environmental concerns, (this week think heat waves in South Asia, war in Ukraine and global food and energy price spikes simultaneously) we all need to up our game for the next phase of the Anthropocene.

A short commentary linking the themes of the book to current events in Europe was published yesterday: https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/firepower-climate-and-dilemmas-security

There is still time to register for my virtual book launch this coming Friday 13th (yes, its a bit of an experiment at the Balsillie School): Register here: https://www.balsillieschool.ca/event/rethinking-environmental-security-book-launch/

And, yes, apologies for cross postings! I am trying to reach overlapping scholarly communities with this missive; political geographers and global environment scholars should have very much more to say to each other over the next while!

Simon

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Simon Dalby, Ph.D.

Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation

Professor, Balsillie School of International Affairs
Wilfrid Laurier University
67 Erb Street West
Waterloo, ON N2L 6C2 Canada.

http://www.balsillieschool.ca/people/simon-dalby
"GeopolSimon" on Twitter

Book launch on 13 May:  Register here: https://www.balsillieschool.ca/event/rethinking-environmental-security-book-launch/

Simon Dalby Rethinking Environmental Security. (Edward Elgar 2022) https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/rethinking-environmental-security-9781800375840.html

See also: Simon Dalby Anthropocene Geopolitics: Globalization, Security, Sustainability University of Ottawa Press 2020). https://press.uottawa.ca/anthropocene-geopolitics.html