Climate Change & (In)Security : Practical Implications of Securitization

Abstract: This study explores different perceptions of security and investigates if recognition of climate change as a security issue has implications for countries’ armed forces. I use a securitization framework to understand how discursive positions are created, and by making the framework more dynamic I investigate how similar security matters are represented in different ways. I argue that securitization of climate change in national contexts changes the armed forces’ strategies to bring about security and that their activities are affected by the underlying logics of the discursive arguments. To investigate the proposed relation, I conduct a comparative case study of Norway and Sweden, and find that different ideas about the security dimension of climate change have different implications for the armed forces’ practices and organization.