The study of security implications of climate change has
developed rapidly from a nascent area of academic inquiry into an important and
thriving research field that traverses epistemological and disciplinary
boundaries. Here, we take stock of scientific progress by benchmarking the
latest decade of empirical research against seven core research priorities
collectively emphasized in 35 recent literature reviews. On the basis of this
evaluation, we discuss key contributions of this special issue. Overall, we
find that the research community has made important strides in specifying and
evaluating plausible indirect causal pathways between climatic conditions and a
wide set of conflict-related outcomes and the scope conditions that shape this
relationship. Contributions to this special issue push the research frontier
further along these lines. Jointly, they demonstrate significant climate impacts
on social unrest in urban settings; they point to the complexity of the
climate–migration–unrest link; they identify how agricultural production
patterns shape conflict risk; they investigate understudied outcomes in
relation to climate change, such as interstate claims and individual trust; and
they discuss the relevance of this research for user groups across academia and
beyond. We find that the long-term implications of gradual climate change and
conflict potential of policy responses are important remaining research gaps
that should guide future research.
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