Vulnerable Pawns, Leading securitizing actors, or both? A study of Small Island Developing States and Climate Security

Abstract

Climate change is not officially recognized as a traditional security threat by international bodies regardless of the climate-related security concerns raised by small and developing countries such as Small Island Developing States (SIDS) which are threatened by the increasing sea level rise (SLR) resulting from the warming of global temperature. Exploring the subject of climate change in relation to SIDS is highly important as they are explicitly viewed as vulnerable pawns in the climate change regime regardless of their strategies and powers as small state actors. This research project, therefore, turns attention to the domestic construction of climate change and asks: how do SIDS frame climate change, and with what strategies do they apply to strengthen climate security and governance globally? This research utilizes the frameworks of the Copenhagen School of Security Studies as well as small state studies to explore climate security discursive practices and powers across three selected cases: the Bahamas, Tuvalu, and the Maldives. The main findings of the research are that SIDS frames and securitizes climate change as an existential threat to different security sectors depending on domestic understanding and priorities. Further, SIDS integrates their climate securitization moves into the realm of global climate security and governance by employing powers of small states that rely on cooperation, morality, and global public awareness. The main objective of this research is to move away from the vulnerability rhetoric that addresses SIDS as pawns in the game of climate change due to inherent and structural elements of island states rather than leading powers with the will and skills to expand on the meaning of security.