Security and Climate Change: International Relations and the Limits of Realism

This scholarly work provides a distinct critique of the Realist argument. It seeks to explain why the international community has responded with a sense of fatalistic passivity to climate change. The author argues that this realist view rests on a dangerous contradiction; far from delivering security it serves to limit the way we think about the new generation of risks we face. The book explores the limits of a realist perspective with regard to 'non-traditional' threats such as climate change. Focusing on a major Realist text, John Mearsheimer's The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, Mark J. Lacy: Interrogates the foundation of the hierarchy of security that emerges in this Realist argument Challenges the view that Realism is a tragic perspective by arguing that realism is built on a number of techno-optimistic assumptions Links the Realist perspective to corporate interest in the United States. Security and Climate Change moves from the intellectualfoundations of Realism, to the activities of think-tanks such as the Cato Institute, through to the Clinton administration's attempt to articulate a different politics of security. Lacy introduces readers to debates in International Relations theory and the broader issues at stake in the development of United States current Foreign Policy. The book also provides a detailed case study evaluating US climate politics under the Clinton and Bush administrations.

Mark J. Lacy is currently a lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Lancaster University