2024/25 Taught Postgraduate Module Catalogue
SOEE5866M Climate Security
30 creditsClass Size: 50
Module manager: Olaf Corry
Email: T.O.Corry@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2024/25
Pre-requisite qualifications
Physical Climate Change, Impacts and mitigation.Social and Political Dimensions of the Climate Challenge
This module is not approved as an Elective
Module summary
This module takes up how and why climate change is increasingly linked to ideas of ‘security’. It evaluates the interlinked scientific (e.g., extreme weather, scenarios, tipping-points) and political debates (such as concerning urgency ‘synchronous failure’ and ‘climate emergency’). We consider possible links between conflict and climate and vulnerability and adaptation strategies, assess diverse measures to secure ecosystems, human habitats and societal values, such as large-scale carbon removal or geoengineering and rapid societal changes.Objectives
The module will blend the science and social science of a ‘climate emergency’. Taking examples of that covers deep ocean circulation, sea level rise, sea ice loss, more extreme emissions- and high sensitivity-scenarios, and the case of the Amazon rainforest, students will engage with the scientific and political questions and dilemmas attached to ‘securitising’ the climate: what are the critical tipping points key ecosystems and when will they be encountered? Which actors are called upon to solve climate related security challenges? Do climatic changes lead to or predetermine societal conflicts, migration and crises? What are potential policy-implications of (a declaration of) a climate emergency – will or should it lead to consideration of geoengineering or radical societal transformations?Learning on this module will include a (disaster) film screening, theoretical and conceptual teaching around cascading risks and how declarations of emergency and security can have political effects by moving or reframing a problem in certain ways, augmenting attention and ‘political will’, but often in ways that favour security-actors and solutions. Students will dig deeper into tipping point debates, and examine projections and data sets related to impacts. A debate on geoengineering and radical climate mitigation will round off the module.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this module, students will be able to…
1. Compare and evaluate the implications of different ways of interpreting and pursuing ‘climate security’.
2. Assess how and whether ongoing and abrupt climate changes might exacerbate national security challenges and threaten/or human security or wider ecological integrity, e.g., considering tipping points and extremes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere (ice) and biosphere.
3. Analyse how climate measures could create new insecurities in (inter)state politics, people’s livelihoods, and the natural world
4. Interpret the scientific data for monitoring climate, e.g., changes in Earth’s ice, oceans, atmosphere, and biosphere.
5. Explain which actors and climate solutions are empowered and promoted through different climate security-framings.
6. Communicate climate security carefully yet effectively to avoid unintended consequences of climate emergency rhetoric.
Skills outcomes:
At the end of the module students should be able to:
- Identify, analyse, synthesise and present relevant data and arguments
- Critical thinking, reading and writing,
- Applying academic concepts and theories to complex climate issues
- Systems thinking, integrated problem solving,
- Communication skills.
Skills outcomes
At the end of the module students should be able to:
- Identify, analyse, synthesise and present relevant data and arguments
- Critical thinking, reading and writing,
- Applying academic concepts and theories to complex climate issues
- Systems thinking, integrated problem solving,
- Oral and written communication skills,
Syllabus
Introductory disaster movie, e.g. The Day After Tomorrow.
The concept of security – ‘reason of state’, existential threats and emergency measures. How have environmental factors been thought to cause insecurity.
Tipping points and cascading risks. What are the physical and social ‘runaway’ dynamics that are on the table? Including:
Emergencies of the seas, deep ocean circulation slowing, and sea level rise – what is the prognosis, possible impacts, can it cause mass migration and security implications?
Observation security – how is satellite data generated and used to assess sea ice? What are the security roots and uses of satellite geo-data – how is sea ice loss monitored?
Climate change and conflict – is there a statistical link and how is it supposed to work? Examining a case study – what are the regional climate stresses and what other causes of migration and conflict do climate security discourses obscure?
What roles do militaries and state security actors play in relation to climate change? Examining biome transformation – the Amazon as a site of climatic change and securitized environmental, economic and indigenous security politics.
Potential ‘emergency’ policies – (solar and carbon) geoengineering vs. radical societal transformations.
Teaching methods
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
| Supervision | 1 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Lecture | 4 | 1.00 | 4.00 |
| Lecture | 19 | 1.00 | 19.00 |
| Practical | 1 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| Practical | 2 | 2.00 | 4.00 |
| Seminar | 2 | 2.00 | 4.00 |
| Seminar | 2 | 3.00 | 6.00 |
| Seminar | 4 | 1.00 | 4.00 |
| Independent online learning hours | 45.00 | ||
| Private study hours | 210.00 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 45.00 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 300.00 | ||
Opportunities for Formative Feedback
Formative feedback will be provided directly to students during seminars, in-class discussion of their ideas and results during practical activities) and optional drop-in sessions on assessments 1 & 2.Methods of assessment
Coursework
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
| Assignment | A short ‘op-ed’ blog column/persuasive writing piece on a self-chosen theme related to climate security, e.g., what role might militaries play in ensuring ‘climate security'. | 30.00 |
| Essay | Essay from a choice ofset questions linking scientific and political analysis of climate security. | 70.00 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100.00 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Reading list
The reading list is available from the Library websiteLast updated: 04/04/2024 14:08:13
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- Undergraduate module catalogue
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