This course focuses on the interrelationship between climate change and conflict from a criminological approach. As global temperatures continue to rise, so does the evidence supporting the assertion that climate change acts as a threat multiplier, exacerbating existing tensions and promoting insecurity and war. Erratic weather patterns, including prolonged droughts or unseasonal rains, lead to crop failures, thereby exacerbating food insecurity. Sea-level rises, desertification, and other climate impacts promote forced migration, sometimes across national borders, creating or exacerbating tensions and anti-migration sentiments. Activist groups calling for action to stop climate change become ever more radicalized, while politicians and law enforcement actors already have started labeling and treating activists as terrorists. New legal tools are being proposed to counter climate change, but the international community and countries alike are hesitant to implement this into legislation.
Where do you stand? What role do you dare to play and what line of argument can you think of when presented with a dilemma? By means of original and interactive roleplay-assignments students will be forced to view the relationship between climate change and conflict from different perspectives, thereby fostering their critical thinking, promoting critical introspection while training performance and presentation skills.
For more information and course details, go to 'Curriculum' at the top of the page.