The CSD Speaker Series is pleased to announce a special talk with former CEO of the Berghof Foundation, Andrew Gilmour, exploring his latest book: The Burning Question: Climate and Conflict - Why Does It Matter?

About the Book:

Andrew Gilmour’s new publication, The Burning Question, is a timely and incisive exploration of how climate change is reshaping global security. Drawing with authority and extensive experience upon case studies in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and the Sahel, Gilmour sheds light on the ever-deepening intersections of climate change and insecurity and fragility expanding beyond the Global South. As extreme weather events, resource scarcity, and environmental degradation intensify, their consequences extend far beyond ecological concerns- fuelling instability, exacerbating conflict, and reshaping migration patterns.

Its chapters address the mounting shift in perceptions of the climate-security nexus, the current state of the field and discourse regarding security threats posed by climate change in the immediate future, and the risks taken by world leaders and policymakers in failing to sufficiently integrate climate considerations into security frameworks. Subsequent chapters explore practical implications for the global future, including how climate change's impact upon transnational migration patterns could affect an ever-economically globalized political system, the risks and conflicts emerging from the global energy transition, and the necessity of locally integrated environmental peacebuilding.

This book launch offers a valuable opportunity for policymakers, scholars, practitioners and all individuals interested in international affairs and climate futures to learn from expertise about the future challenges to global security, conflict resolution and international relations.

About the Author:

Andrew Gilmour is the recent former CEO of the Berghof Foundation and former UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, previously serving as UN SG Director for Political, Peacekeeping Humanitarian and Human Rights Affairs.

With more than 30 years of experience at the United Nations, he has played a key role in shaping international responses to conflict, humanitarian crises, and governance challenges across the Middle East, North and Western Africa, and the Balkans. Additionally, he is a Senior Fellow at SOAS University of London and has been a Visiting Consultant at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C., and a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford.

He holds a Master’s degree in Government and International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

About the CSD Speaker Series:

The Conflict, Security and Development (CSD) Speaker Series is an initiative from the Conflict, Security & Development Research Group in the Department of War Studies. It aims to bring together interested individuals with some of the brightest and most influential thinkers in the fields of conflict, security, and development.