1st Edition

Navigating the Complexity Across the Peace–Sustainability–Climate Security Nexus

By Bernard Amadei Copyright 2024
    402 Pages 115 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Promoting peace and sustainability in human development while accounting for the risks associated with the impact of climate change on society has become more imperative than ever when addressing humanity's challenges of the twenty-first century. There is enough evidence that peace, sustainability, and climate security are entangled with multiple complex interactions and cannot be dealt with in isolation and independently from the environment and the numerous systems with which they interact. Yet, the intersection of peace, sustainability, and climate security or their opposites (i.e., conflict, unsustainability, and climate vulnerability) is rarely articulated with a systemic mindset. A multi-solving nexus approach is more appropriate to capture the complexity and uncertainty of how the three sectors of peace, sustainability, and climate security play a role in community development, the nature of their causal chains, and the feedback on how community development affects the three sectors. Navigating the Complexity Across the Peace–Sustainability–Climate Security Nexus explores the value proposition of using a systems approach, methodology, and tools to comprehend and model that dynamic.

    Features of the book:

    • Explores the interaction between the different components of peace and the relationship between peace, sustainability, and climate security using semi-qualitative and quantitative tools;

    • Explains how climate adaptation and mitigation are related to peace or conflict;

    • Presents generic system dynamics modeling that can be used in different contexts.

    1. Introduction  2. The Peace–Sustainability–Climate Nexus  3. Changing the Narrative  4. Systems Thinking  5. Defining the PSC Nexus Landscape  6. Soft Systems Modeling Tools  7. Hard Systems Modeling Tools  8. Systems Archetypes  9. System-Based Methodology  10. Illustrative Examples–Part 1  11. Illustrative Examples–Part 2  12. Case Studies  13. Systemic Interventions  14. Conclusions 

    Biography

    Bernard Amadei is a Distinguished Professor and Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is the Founding Director of the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities. He is also the Founding President of Engineers Without Borders - USA and the Engineers Without Borders - International network co-founder. Among other distinctions, Dr. Amadei is an elected member of the US National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Construction. He is also a Senior Ashoka Fellow.