Climate Security Discourse in the UN Security Council: Echoes of Malthus?

Abstract

While climate change has experienced prominence on the international policy agenda for a longer time, its security implications have only recently drawn significant attention – most notably in the UN Security Council since 2007. Many states initially opposed debating climate change in this institution, but a decade later little of this resistance remains. From outside the council, however, many scholars have criticized the council’s debate for its neo-Malthusian character, supposedly leading to a depoliticized discussion. They specifically warn of the notion commonly expressed by Western states that climate change causes instability and scarcity conflicts in the developing world (and Africa in particular). Other academics find that the policy objectives pursued by those pushing the climate security issue are relatively inconsequential. Who pushed climate security as a priority issue on the Security Council agenda, and more importantly, why? A first discourse analysis conceptualizes 'neo-Malthusianism' based on the writings of authors typically associated with this ideology. A second discourse analysis then reveals that especially European states have pushed climate security onto the council's agenda, often defining the issue in neo-Malthusian fashion. Small island developing states too appear to have played an important role in pushing and legitimizing this climate security discourse. Curiously, however, the measures proposed by these two groups of states rarely unambiguously appear neo-Malthusian in nature.