Shelter from the Storm: Natural Disasters and International Relations Theory

Abstract

Natural disasters have largely been absent from International Relations [IR] scholarship, despite the complex international interactions involved in the response to disasters. There has been little discussion of how natural disasters relate to security issues, even though they are exogenous shocks that disrupt the status quo, allowing sudden opportunities for displays of military strength and the exploitation of rivals’ weaknesses during the crises. Natural disasters are arguably becoming more important as climate change, population growth, and rapid urbanization increase their potential consequences. This paper provides the platform for fresh debates about how natural disasters can be integrated into security studies. Natural disasters upset the status quo, allowing for the evaluation of the assumptions held by the prevailing theories of international politics when an exogenous crisis occurs in the international system. This paper identifies the scope within neorealism, neoclassical realism, neoliberalism, and constructivism for the integration of security studies and natural disasters. This discussion provides the theoretical foundation for future research into the implications of natural disasters for IR theory.

Keywords: neorealism, neoclassical realism, neoliberalism, constructivism, natural disasters