ConvergenceClimate Change and Geopolitical Futures
£29.99
About this book
Competing visions of the future are at the heart of debates on climate change.
This book provides readers with a framework for assessing the future of geopolitics in a climate-changed epoch. It outlines competing trends of ‘divergence’, where zero-sum competition leads to socio-political conflict, and ‘convergence’, where shared risks catalyse cooperation.
In doing so, it highlights the need for a geopolitical dual awareness: an ability to see the world as it is (and the forces that have produced present realities), while remaining open to the possibility of it becoming otherwise.
Reviews
Trying to think through the impacts of climate change in a geopolitically turbulent world can feel so overwhelming as to discourage positive action. Jalili, Briffa, and Ryan cut through that paralysis with remarkable precision and imagination. Convergence is clear-eyed about current trends and risks, yet ambitious about the alternatives that are possible.
This brilliant, imaginative and highly original take on the politics of climate change recognizes that addressing this huge challenge is more about the management of an uncertain future than grand problem-solving. The authors show this by skilfully presenting alternative futures across a range of policy areas and so circumvent the typical over-reliance on the simplistic alarmism of tipping points, resource wars and mass flows of environmental refugees.
This book provides a much-needed exploration of climate futures, including the assumptions underpinning imagined scenarios of collapse or constructive realignment. The authors make a compelling case for recognising our own capacity to shape our future world.
Table of contents
1. Introduction: flashpoints and convergence points in a time of “everything change”
2. Methods for understanding climate insecurity
3. Norms, knowledge and ideologies
4. Health and wellbeing
5. Resources, supply chains and political economies
6. Place and mobility
7. Technology and innovation
8. Epilogue