Sustainable Peace in the Anthropocene: Towards Political Geoecology and Peace Ecology

This chapter attempts to conceptualize possible and plausible linkages between the emerging ‘sustainability transition’ research paradigm and the conceptual debate on a rethinking of peace, security, development and the environment or ecology, within the context of four research programmes carried out since the end of the Cold War. Within the framework of a shift in earth history from the Holocene to the Anthropocene during the past sixty years, the threat to the survival of humankind has fundamentally changed. No longer are ‘others’ the threat, but ‘we’ are, due to the exponential increase in the burning of hydrocarbons and the resulting accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This new anthropogenic threat can no longer be countered with traditional military strategies and means. In the twenty-first century, there needs to be a long-term transformative change towards a low-carbon economy, in production and consumption, and in the energy, transportation, agricultural and housing sectors. Only thus can dangerous climate change and chaotic tipping points in the climate system be avoided. Such a low-carbon economy should be the result of a transition to sustainability, necessitating not just sociotechnical changes but changes in perception, values, behaviour and lifestyles. Such a longterm transformative change to sustainability may possibly prevent two types of conflicts: climate-induced violent conflicts, and those driven by resource scarcity. On the conceptual level, this chapter suggests possible linkages that may be developed in the Anthropocene between sustainable development, human security and sustainable peace in the context of both a political geoecology—between the natural and social sciences—and a peace ecology—between peace, security, development and environmental studies. Its key message is the need for more conceptual, theoretical and empirical research into possible linkages between peace studies and ecology that takes into account the changed human and environmental conditions in the framework of the Anthropocene. The added value is to sensitize research on ‘sustainability transition’ so that it reflects on the impact of its realization on sustainable peace and human security.