Understanding the Politics of Climate Security Policy Discourse: The Case of the Lake Chad Basin

ABSTRACT

Policy discourse on the conflict and security implications of climate change has repeatedly found it to be overstated, misleading, and out of line with the balance of scientific evidence. However, the reasons for this recurring science-policy divide have not yet been systematically investigated. To explore this issue, we examine the case of Lake Chad, which over the last decade has become a poster child for climate conflict. We seek to understand and explain how this climate security narrative has gained such traction. Drawing on interviews and documentary analysis we examine the key practices, interests and hierarchies underpinning the narrative’s rise and reproduction, and show that it is essentially a political construct, reflecting a combination of questionable epistemic manoeuvres and geopolitical, economic and climate mitigation agendas. Our findings suggest the need for change, and increased caution, in how the climate security community engages with scientific evidence.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Although the term ‘Boko Haram’ is widely used in policy and media narratives, this is not the term the group uses to describe itself, and it perpetuates stereotypes that mask the complexity of the movement’s origins and aims (Ladbury et al. 2016). We use ‘Boko Haram’ here as this is the term commonly used in climate security narratives.

2. We refer here to heads of state at the time of research, prior to the election of current Nigérien president Mohamed Bazoum and the death of Idriss Déby Itno in April 2021.

3. Ethical approval for this research was obtained from the Social Sciences and Arts Cross-Schools Research Ethics Committee at the University of Sussex, where this research was conducted (approval no. ER/GD209/3). Participants provided written or oral informed consent prior to interviews.

4. Emmanuel Macron announced in June 2021 a ‘profound transformation’ to France’s military presence in the Sahel, involving a ‘drawdown’ of Opération Barkhane but the continued presence of ‘several hundred forces’ (Al Jazeera 2021).