Past Event

264

Did Climate Change Spark the Syrian Civil War?

27 April 2017 17:00–18:30

University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9RE

Professor Jan Selby will delivers this Sussex Development Lecture to discuss claims that climate change was behind Syria’s descent into war.

For proponents of the view that anthropogenic climate change will become a ‘threat multiplier’ for instability in the decades ahead, the Syrian civil war – now entering its seventh year – has become a recurring reference point, providing apparently compelling evidence that such conflict effects are already with us. According to this view, human-induced climatic change lay behind an extreme pre-civil war drought in Syria; this drought in turn caused large-scale migration; and this migration exacerbated the socio-economic stresses that underpinned Syria’s descent into war.

This lecture will interrogate these claims and offer a counter-interpretation – one with important implications both for understanding the conflict and security implications of climate change, and for the politics of development more broadly.

About the Speaker

Jan Selby is Professor of International Relations, and Director of the Sussex Centre for Conflict and Security Research (SCSR). His research focuses on peace processes; environmental security; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and International Relations theory.

Key contacts

Share

Related content

Brief

Key Considerations: Post-Trauma Impacts in Conflict-Affected Communities in Northern Nigeria

SSHAP Briefing

Ayodele Samuel Jegede & 2 others

8 November 2024