Table Of ContentSecurity and Climate Change
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 intellectual foundations 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.
Mark J.Lacy is currently a lecturer in the Department of Politics and International
Relations at Lancaster University. He has published articles in Environmental Politics,
Millenium: Journal of International Studies, and Alternative: Global, Local, Political.
Environmental Politics/Routledge Research
in Environmental Politics
Edited by Matthew Paterson
University of Ottawa
and
Graham Smith
University of Southampton
Over recent years environmental politics has moved from a peripheral interest to a central
concern within the discipline of politics. This series aims to reinforce this trend through
the publication of books that investigate the nature of contemporary environmental
politics and show the centrality of environmental politics to the study of politics per se.
The series understands politics in a broad sense and books will focus on mainstream
issues such as the policy process and new social movements as well as emerging areas
such as cultural politics and political economy. Books in the series will analyse
contemporary political practices with regards to the environment and/or explore possible
future directions for the ‘greening’ of contemporary politics. The series will be of interest
not only to academics and students working in the environmental field, but will also
demand to be read within the broader discipline.
The series consists of two strands:
Environmental Politics addresses the needs of students and teachers, and the titles will
be published in paperback and hardback. Titles include:
Global Warming and Global Politics
Matthew Paterson
Politics and the Environment
James Connelly and Graham Smith
International Relations Theory and Ecological Thought
Towards synthesis
Edited by Eric Lafferière and Peter Stoett
Planning Sustainability
Edited by Michael Kenny and James Meadowcroft
Deliberative Democracy and the Environment
Graham Smith
EU Enlargement and the Environment
Institutional change and environmental policy in Central and Eastern Europe
Edited by JoAnn Carmin and Stacy D.VanDeveer
Routledge Research in Environmental Politics presents innovative new research
intended for high-level specialist readership. These titles are published in hardback only
and include:
1 The Emergence of Ecological Modernisation
Integrating the environment and the economy?
Stephen C.Young
2 Ideas and Actions in the Green Movement
Brian Doherty
3 Russia and the West
Environmental cooperation and conflict
Geir Hønneland
4 Global Warming and East Asia
The domestic and international politics of climate change
Edited by Paul G.Harris
5 Europe, Globalization and Sustainable Development
Edited by John Barry, Brian Baxter and Richard Dunphy
6 The Politics of GM Food
A comparative study of the UK, USA and EU
Dave Toke
7 Environmental Policy in Europe
The Europeanization of national environmental policy
Edited by Andrew Jordan and Duncan Liefferink
8 A Theory of Ecological Justice
Brian Baxter
9 Security and Climate Change
International relations and the limits of Realism
Mark J.Lacy
10 The Environment and International Politics
International fisheries, Heidegger and social method
Hakan Seckinelgin
Security and Climate Change
International relations and the limits of Realism
Mark J.Lacy
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2005 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York,
NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.
© 2005 Mark J.Lacy
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Lacy, Mark J. Security and climate change:
international relations and the limits of Realism/Mark J.Lacy.-1st ed. p. cm.—(Routledge research
in environmental politics) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Climate changes-
Environmental aspects. 2. Environmental policy- International cooperation. 3. Global
environmental change-International cooperation. I. Title. II. Series. QC981.8.C5L33 2005
363.738′74526–dc22 2004021926
ISBN 0-203-35689-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-66931-2 (Adobe e-Reader Format)
ISBN 0-415-32408-4 (Print Edition)
For Claire
Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as
we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know
there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know. And if
one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter
category that tend to be the difficult ones.
(Donald Rumsfeld, United States Secretary of Defense, 2003)
For the more thought can circumscribe its enemy, the more it can concentrate its
strength. In determining the enemy, thought is able to create its own space, to extend it, to
breathe freely.
(Pierre Klossowski, Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle, 1997)
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction: the tragedy of Realism 1
2 The world is a laboratory 23
3 Illusions of Realism 44
4 Mearsheimer and the vicious circle 72
5 Conclusion 100
Notes 122
Index 130
Acknowledgments
I owe a considerable debt to the many friends and colleagues who have encouraged me
over the past years. Conversations with Neil Cooper and Mike Pugh in the James Street
Vault, Plymouth, reminded me why I became interested in International Relations in the
first place. During the same period, Claire Heristchi put up with my “organized
irresponsibility” for too long: her support was essential to the completion of the book.
Graduate students at the University of Bristol allowed me the indulgence of testing out
the arguments in a course on environmental security: at the University of Lancaster, Matt
Macdonald was a useful realist critic. Simon Dalby and Matthew Paterson provided
useful insights into earlier drafts: this book is very much a “footnote” to the
interrogations of ecopolitics and (in)security that they have developed in recent years. As
an Economic Social Research Council-funded graduate student at the University of
Sussex, Julian Saurin provided me with the freedom and guidance to pursue the lines of
thought that have filtered into this book; Justin Rosenberg, Kees van der Pijl, Beate Jahn
and Alex Colas inspired me to read books I might otherwise not have considered.
Similarly, Branwen Gruffydd Jones, Laura Maritano, Henry Neale and Kevin Love were
good friends and interlocutors to have as a graduate student. I was fortunate to complete
the book at the University of Lancaster where Cindy Weber, Mick Dillon, Adam Morton,
Mark Duffield, Christine Aguis, and Peter Wilkin offered useful last minute comments
and observations. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Ann and Ed, for providing
support during the writing of the thesis that is the basis for this book.
In the preface to the book that forms the basis of the critique developed here—John
Mearsheimer’s The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001)—the author makes a point
that I am in total agreement with, citing C.Wright Mills’ advice on the art of academic
writing:
You are to assume that you have been asked to give a lecture on some
subject you know well, before an audience of teachers and students from
all departments of a leading university, as well as an assortment of
interested people from a nearby city. Assume that such an audience is
before you and that they have a right to know; assume that you want to let
them know. Now Write.
Like Mearsheimer, I hope that the advice of Mills has been well taken here.
