Suchergebnisse

Human adaptation to major climate change and variability is becoming an increasing concern among both scholars and practitioners. This PhD thesis examines the engagement of international organizations (IOs) in the governance of climate change adaptation. While global climate organizations such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have long been the prominent actors in how climate adaptation and mitigation is governed, the past decades have witnessed a shift. IOs with core mandates outside of climate change, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), have begun to address climate adaptation, for instance by publishing results of scientific studies on the health impacts of climate change. In the light of these developments, this dissertation asks to what extent, how and why non-climate IOs engage with climate change adaptation. To answer this research question, the dissertation develops an overarching theoretical framework. The main argument is that IOs' behavior and willingness to engage with climate adaptation is a function of internal (IO design and bureaucratic politics) and external factors (IO connectivity, resource dependency, fragmentation, problem complexity). Throughout five independent research articles in this dissertation, I utilize this framework to develop new hypotheses in the context of adaptation. Drawing on case studies and quantitative overtime data of 30 IOs, this thesis demonstrates that all non-climate IOs in the sample display engagement with climate adaptation in various forms ranging from publishing global guidelines to implementing local- level projects. Overall, this dissertation reinforces the conclusion that adaptation scholars should abandon the search for conclusive answers as to whether IOs matter. We should, rather resort to a more refined approach, seeking to elaborate which IOs matter for global adaptation governance, under what conditions and in what ways.

Even though violent attacks resulting in civilian fatalities can be seen as constituting failure on the part of the incumbent party to provide security to citizens, governments are not always punished electorally. Rather, at times, they appear to gain votes following terrorist attacks. Here we argue that political parties that can take advantage of their local presence to frame and communicate their narrative in response to terrorism, can better manage to avoid blame and even to emerge victorious in times of violent conflict. The AKP in Turkey is one such important example. Our statistical analyses of municipality-level aggregate election results show that the party not only maintained national incumbency, but even strengthened its predominance in the political system in the face of growing security threats. In municipalities where AKP controlled the local government and hence municipal resources, the party did not lose votes following terrorist attacks. This finding remains even when we consider past voting, regional variations, competitive districts, and ethnicity. Our argument that incumbents can avoid punishment through their capacity to reach out to voters at the local level is also supported by individual-level survey data and the comparison with neighboring municipalities. As such, we highlight how local government control can be consequential for national politics, including periods when security dominates the national agenda.

Climate change adaptation is increasingly perceived as a global and interconnected policy challenge among practitioners and academics, making localized solutions insufficient. In parallel to this trend, a growing number of international organizations that do not have climate as their core mandates link adaptation to various issue areas, such as energy, health, and conflict resolution. Yet we still know little about how and why international organizations respond to adaptation challenges. This article develops an innovative theoretical framework to understand the factors that influence the governance responses of international organizations to adaptation challenges in the context of their respective issue areas. Our analysis reveals that there are three main and interrelated factors influencing international governance responses: problem complexity, institutional frag- mentation, and fiscal pressures. We examine our framework by drawing on of two sources of data: first, a yearly large-n dataset at the level of fourteen international organizations from 2007 to 2017 created on the basis of official documents; and second, in-depth case studies of three UN agencies central in addressing three prominent issue linkages: climate-conflict, climate-health, and climate-migration. We conclude by sketching broader im- plications for the theory and practice of global adaptation governance. ; Glocalizing Climate Governance (GlocalClim) ; Mistra Geopolitics – Navigating towards a Secure and Sustainable Future