Podcasts

What happens to global security when the climate itself becomes the battlefield?

Spoiler: it’s not science fiction — it’s already happening.

In this must-listen conversation, Professor Bruno Charbonneau at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean, Canada — unpacks why climate change is now one of the biggest wildcards for military readiness, international relations, and the future of warfare.

We dive into:

🔹 How heat domes, wildfires & water stress are reshaping military operations

🔹 Why NATO is stepping up — and what’s still missing

🔹 The poly-crisis moment we’re living through — and how to build strategic capacity amid deep uncertainty

🔹 Why we need new ways of thinking and planning in the face of a destabilized future

If you care about climate security, defense strategy, or futures thinking — this episode is packed with insights you don’t want to miss.

🎧 Listen now: 

This podcast episode can be streamed below and is also available through Castos, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Learn out Loud, Listen Notes, Player FM, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, RadioPublic and YouTube.

About the Episode’s Guest

Bruno Charbonneau (PhD, Queen’s University, Canada) is Professor of International Studies at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean, Senior Scientific Advisor to the NATO Climate Change and Security Centre of Excellence, Founding President of the Climate Security Association of Canada, and Founding Director of the Centre FrancoPaix in conflict resolution at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He is also Team Leader of the NATO Research Task Group SAS-182 on the effects of climate change on security. He is one of ten award winners of the 2025 NATO Chief Scientist Grant for his project ‘Foresight: Planning for Low-Carbon Warfare’. His past and current research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Global Affairs Canada, Canada’s Department of National Defence, Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, and more. His academic publications have appeared in several world-renowned academic journals: African Affairs (OUP), International Affairs (OUP), Global Sustainability (forthcoming, CUP), Environmental Science and Policy, Review of International Studies (CUP), International Political Sociology (OUP), International Peacekeeping, Les Temps modernes, Cultures & Conflits, and more. He has edited or co-edited five books and six special issues. 

Links & Resources:

Climate Security Association of Canada – Home

Project: The production of climate security futures, foresight, and much more. In essence, interrogating the possibilities and limits of the science and policy worlds in imagining and predicting the future(s) of climate change, war, and peace; how framings of climate change futures shape or impact the trajectories of war; how the questions that climate change raises about how war can or should be imagined and managed; and how the production of climate security futures are mediated through various technologies, practices, policies, politics, and sociotechnical imaginaries.

Show Notes

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Credits

Host & Producer: Donna Dupont

Editor: Mikhial Gurarie

Graphic Designer: Habiba Elgendy