Climate, peace, and conflict—past and present: Bridging insights from historical sciences and contemporary research
Concern has risen that current global warming and more frequent extreme events such as droughts and floods will increase conflict around the world. This concern has spurred both social science research on contemporary climate, peace, and conflict as well as research in the historical sciences on past climate, weather, warfare, and violence. This perspectives article compares these two fields of scholarship and examines how each may benefit the other. It finds significant convergences in methods and insights across contemporary and historical research as well as persistent patterns in causal pathways between climate and conflict. Contemporary climate, peace, and conflict (CPC) research may sharpen methods and causal models for historical researchers. Historical studies, particularly those informed by contemporary research, may elucidate deep origins and long-term effects of climate-related conflicts. For policymakers and the public, history offers comprehensible ways to make sense of complex and contingent linkages and to construct cogent narratives of the past as well as storylines for the future.
Authors
- Katrin Kleemann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9719-3413)
- Astrid E. J. Ogilvie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9711-7878)
- Mariano Barriendos i Vallvé (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9220-1245)
- Barry Molloy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2493-8859)
- Sam White (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1046-3944)
- Agustí Alcoberro i Pericay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4240-9296)
- Cedric de Coning (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4567-8838)
- Santiago Gorostiza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8516-5642)
- Florian Krampe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2208-794X)
- Stefan Döring (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6949-7084)
- Natália Melo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7466-4772)
- Dominik Collet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8970-970X)
- Qing Pei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9699-2950)
- Rudolf Brázdil (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4826-2299)
- Dagomar Degroot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3769-3990)
- Silviya Serafimova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2996-5319)
- Lukáš Dolák (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1325-298X)
- Pi-Ling Pai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8236-1912)
- Siyu Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-9584-6905)
- Diyang Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3782-3871)
- Christian Pfister
- Kuan‐Hui Elaine Lin
- Nicolas Maughan
- Pau Castell
Institutions
- University College Dublin (IE)
- Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SE)
- University of Bern (CH)
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES)
- Uppsala University (SE)
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NO)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- National Taiwan Normal University (TW)
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK)
- University of Freiburg (DE)
- Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (US)
- Georgetown University (US)
- University of Oslo (NO)
- Masaryk University (CZ)
- Aix-Marseille Université (FR)
- University of Évora (PT)
- Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum (DE)
- Stefansson Arctic Institute (IS)
- Institute of Philosophy and Sociology (BG)
- Czech Academy of Sciences, Global Change Research Institute (CZ)
- Fjellhaug Internasjonale Høgskole (NO)
- Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (ES)
- Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica (TW)
- Universitat de Barcelona (ES)
Publication Details
- Journal
- AMBIO
- Published
- 2025-02-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-024-02109-1
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Transboundary Water Resource Management
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 16.81
Funders
- Helsingin Yliopisto
- Past Global Changes
- Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy
- Universitetet i Oslo
- Norges Forskningsråd