Climate change is one of the most significant global issues of our time. In a recent United Nations Security Council Meeting, UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed that “no one is safe from the destructive effects of climate disruption.” As our awareness and understanding of climate change increase, the links between climate change and security have become an essential area of inquiry. There is increasing acknowledgment within the research and policy communities and among the security and private sectors that climate change acts as a “threat multiplier.” As such, the complexity of the links between climate change and security, the so-called climate-security nexus, has drawn specific attention to the need to better understand how climate change and terrorism interact. The overall goal of this research agenda is to delve into three possible climate change and terrorism interaction areas: 1) Climate change as an indirect contributor to terrorism; 2) Climate change as an ideological driver of terrorism; and, 3) Climate change as a means for terrorist exploitation to control or coerce populations.
About START: The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) is a university-based research, education and training center comprised of an international network of scholars committed to the scientific study of terrorism, responses to terrorism and related phenomena. Led by the University of Maryland, START is a Department of Homeland Security Emeritus Center of Excellence that is supported by multiple federal agencies and departments. START uses state-of-the-art theories, methods and data from the social and behavioral sciences to improve understanding of the origins, dynamics and effects of terrorism; the effectiveness and impacts of counterterrorism and CVE; and other matters of global and national security.
