Panel 4: Climate security in borderlands: Conflict risks and reinforcing resilience

Ayesha Siddiqi – University of Cambridge

Ayesha Siddiqi is a world-leading scholar on decolonising knowledges on climate conflict and (in)security. She has published books, numerous high-impact journal articles and advised national and international policy on this subject. Her work draws on original research conducted in different geographies and cultural contexts in the Global South from Pakistan to the Philippines and Colombia and Peru. It highlights the urgent need for academics and policymakers to recognise non-mainstream knowledges (especially from Arts and Humanities disciplines) and lived experiences (especially from Indigenous and non-Western peoples) for an engaged, plural and less hegemonic analysis of climate conflict and (in)security. 

Cedric de Coning – Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)

Cedric de Coning is a Research Professor with the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), where he co-directs the NUPI Center for UN and Global Governance. Cedric is also a Senior Advisor for ACCORD. His research focus on strengthening the resilience and sustainability of social-ecological systems under pressure from climate change and other stressors, and he applies this adaptive peacebuilding perspective to international, regional and local conflict resolution initiatives and the climate-peace nexus. He is a former South African diplomat and UN peacekeeper, and he has served in various advisory roles for the African Union and United Nations, including on the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board for the UN Peacebuilding Fund. His PhD in complexity theory and peacebuilding is from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch. 

Tasnia Khandaker Prova – Independent researcher

Tasnia Khandaker Prova is an academic researcher and development practitioner from Bangladesh, with notable experience in implementing multi-stakeholder projects and exploring fragile contexts through participatory research. Currently based in Toronto, Canada as an independent consultant, Tasnia remains passionate about uplifting the voices of those disproportionately affected by climate adversities, poverty and systemic ‘othering’, using non-extractive, ethical and empowering methods. As the former Climate Research Lead at the Centre for Peace and Justice, BRAC University, she led an exploration of the intersection of climate change, security and peace as it manifests in the south-west borderlands of Bangladesh. In the absence of military warfare, her research hoped to dissect multi-pronged violence as a threat to sustained peace in contested and climate-vulnerable regions. Tasnia’s research interests also include human mobility and displacement, complex conflict and responsive planning, multispecies geographies and post-humanist ecocentrism. 

Will Reynolds – Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

Will Reynolds is the UK FCDO’s Conflict and Climate Lead, working in the new Fragility Team in FCDO’s Migration and Conflict Directorate. His work brings together conflict and climate expertise and policy from around the UK government and its network abroad. He is an FCDO Conflict Advisor and was previously the UK’s Regional Conflict Advisor in Afghanistan and Pakistan and a Peace Process and Mediation Advisor with the FCDO. 

Tobias Ide – Murdoch University / XCEPT Research Fellow

Tobias Ide is Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at Murdoch University in Perth (Australia). His research deals with the impact of environmental stress and climate change on peace, conflict, and security. He has published Catastrophes, Confrontations, and Constraints: How Disasters Shape the Dynamics of Armed Conflict (MIT Press, 2023) all well as numerous articles in highly renowned journals. Based on this research, he has consulted with a wide range of policy makers, including NATO, the UN, and the World Bank. Having obtained a PhD from the University of Hamburg, he recently received the ISA Emerging Peace Studies Scholar Award and the International Science Prize for Peace and Ecology in the Anthropocene. His current project deals with the peace and conflict implications of climate change mitigation measures.