Climatising Security Policy

How have the political discourses about climate change influenced security policies? The new CMS report “Climatising Security Policy: A Panorama and Implications for Denmark” investigates the emerging international landscape on ‘climatising’ security policies that Denmark must navigate. Methodical stock-taking of the emerging trends in climate change management through security policies globally, regionally, and nationally provides a basis for forward thinking in the Euro-Atlantic area, helping to set the parameters of security policy planning and action for Denmark. The report is authored by Senior Researcher Maria Mälksoo and Military Analyst Jens Wenzel Kristoffersen, and it is published in cooperation with DJØF Publishing.

The impact of climate change on security policy
A fundamental challenge for traditional security actors is not to have their security, operational effectiveness, and the stability of their strategic environment compromised, either by climate change or its national and international mitigation efforts. Climate change sets a moving agenda for international and national security actors, providing them both with manifold trials but also with an opportunity to rethink the deficiencies and bottlenecks of their existing security policies, practices, and relationships. This report shows that while many actors claim frontrunner status in addressing the climate-security nexus, the emerging security policies and practices in response to climate change vary significantly in terms of their comprehensiveness, level of specificity, concreteness of measures, and their relationship to actors’ overall self-positioning in the wider climate change-action landscape.

Implications for Denmark
The report identifies a number of options for Denmark in relation to the climatisation of security policy. The Danish candidature for a seat on the UN Security Council in 2025‒2026 provides an immediate political impetus and a window of opportunity to leave a mark on the global climate security management agenda. Strategically and operationally, the Arctic region will continue to feature the Danish focal point in climate change-responsive security policies. In light of the increasing power competition in the region induced by climate change, the Kingdom of Denmark (i.e. Denmark, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland) has an important balancing role against the backdrop of the emerging militarisation tendencies of the region. Along the southern security geography vector, climate change will continue to colour Denmark’s operational priorities in cooperation with host nations and other international organisations (primarily NATO), while also featuring as an important contextual contributor to future migration pressures from the south.

Download the report "Climatising Security Policy: A Panorama and Implications for Denmark”.

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