Vol. 20 No. 4 (2020)

While the COVID-19 pandemic may be the first reference point for a "contemporary challenge," climate change has anything but disappeared in 2020. While the immediate effects of the pandemic might not persist in the long term, climate change remains an undisputedly central point of focus for social science research and thinking. Thus, Vol. 20 No. 3 of IAPSS Politikon contains a special section on "Paths to Climate Justice", consisting of two articles and a research note.

Melina Kotsinas studies disaster management and stakeholders working in this field in a Small Island Developing Nation, Antigua and Barbuda, following Hurricane Irma and how they understand and respond to crisis. Lisa Carroll discusses the fact that the current international legal system cannot ‘effectively manage and sufficiently protect’ people moving due to climate and that the issue surrounding the definition of people undertaking this type of movement is doctrinal as well as definitional. Lisa Nowag reviews past research on the links between environmental changes and violence as well arguments for and against the controversial climate-conflict nexus. 

In addition to the special section, Chloé Bernadaux provides insights into the operation of consociational systems in Northern Ireland and Lebanon from the perspective of their capacity to prevent conflicts along ethnonational lines.