Constructing Threat and Vulnerability in Climate Change Geopolitical Narratives: A View from Critical Geopolitics

Abstract

This research examines the dominant representation of climate change as a dystopian serial narrative. Defined by no present length or ending, a serial narrative requires continuity so that a body of knowledge becomes linked by prior events. In a two-part discourse analysis that examines the ways in which science has been used to turn a crisis into a social norm, this thesis applies a Critical Geopolitics perspective to go beyond the climate change binary of “denial or doomsday.” Shown to be a reproduction of Malthusian scarcity narratives, climate change as an existential threat to modern civilization has direct connections to Cold War security practices supported by scientific and state security discourse. The quantitative research of climate change science is not questioned in this work. This thesis considers the ways in which types of science and state security inform the geopolitical culture of climate change threat and vulnerability.