How climate reshapes the world: climate as a catalyst of international change
Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue — it is a force reshaping global politics, economies, and the balance of power. From the collapse of ancient civilizations to the upheavals that followed the Little Ice Age, periods of climate instability have repeatedly influenced international relations, triggering changes in trading patterns, increasing migration and conflict, and catalyzing domestic upheaval. What can these historical moments teach us about today’s rapidly warming world—and about why some polities weathered instability better than others?
This discussion explores how climatic shocks interact with political authority, global cooperation, and security. The discussion explores how past climate disruptions reveal not only the fragility of orders that failed to adapt, but also the resilience of those that did—offering lessons for how today’s institutions might endure and evolve amid 21st-century instability.
Catch up on this conversation that bridges climate history and contemporary geopolitics, asking: can our world order survive the next great climate shock?
Meet the Speakers
Ulf Buntgen
Ulf Büntgen is a professor of environmental systems analysis at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK. He is also professor of physical geography at the Department of Geography, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, and research associate at CzechGlobe, Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Science in Brno, Czech Republic.
Together with colleagues all over the world, he aims to better understand the causes and consequences of past and present changes in the Earth’s
climate and environmental systems, and how tree-ring research can be optimised to contribute to biology, ecology, (paleo)climatology and human history. Ulf’s credo is “Ask the right question(s) and let the data speak”.
Professor Chris Alden
Professor Chris Alden teaches International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) where he is Deputy Head of the Department (PhD and Research). He is also Director of LSE IDEAS. He is a Research Associate with South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA).
Terrence Mullan
Terrence Mullan is a PhD candidate in the Department of International Relations at LSE. His research focuses on how historic periods of climate instability impact international order change. He was previously associate director of the Council of Councils at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where he managed an international initiative that connected twenty-seven major policy institutes from twenty-four countries in a dialogue on issues of geopolitics and multilateral cooperation. He also served as assistant director and program coordinator for CFR’s International Institutions and Global Governance program. Prior to that, he was manager of the president’s office at the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. He also worked in the offices of Senator Roland W. Burris as a legislative aide and Senator Paul G. Kirk Jr. as a legislative correspondent. From 2014 to 2015, he was a Frederic Bastiat fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. Mullan earned a BBA in international business and economics from George Washington University and an MA in international commerce and policy from George Mason University. He is a CFR term member.