Description:

Please join the International Relations Speaker Series as they host Dr. Virginia Page Fortna, Harold Brown Professor of U.S. Foreign and Security Policy in the Department of Political Science, and Director of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University.

Abstract: The climate crisis is the existential problem of our time. But the field of international relations has been slow to begin grappling with what it will mean for relations among states, and perhaps for the international system itself. This paper considers the implications of climate change for a fundamental concept in, and component of, international politics: power. Beginning with material power, we discuss how climate change will affect power under two boundary scenarios: a world of unmitigated climate catastrophe, and a world of rapid technological change away from fossil fuels. We consider implications for the main dimensions of power - economic, demographic, and military might - as well as for the global distribution of power.(Paper co-authored with Prof. Tanisha Fazal)

Bio: Page Fortna (PhD Harvard, 1998) is the Harold Brown Professor of U.S. Foreign and Security Policy in the Department of Political Science, and Director of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. Her research focuses on terrorism, the international politics of climate change, the durability of peace in the aftermath of both civil and interstate wars, and war termination. She is the author of two books: Does Peacekeeping Work? Shaping Belligerents Choices after Civil War (Princeton University Press, 2008) and Peace Time: Cease-Fire Agreements and the Durability of Peace (Princeton University Press, 2004). She has published articles in journals such as International Organization, Perspectives on Politics, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, World Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and International Studies Review. She is currently working on projects on terrorism in civil wars and international power in the anthropocene. Her research combines quantitative and qualitative methods, draws on diverse theoretical approaches, and focuses on policy-relevant questions. Fortna was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021. She received the Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award in 2014, and the Karl Deutsch Award from the International Studies Association in 2010. She has held fellowships at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the Dickey Center at Dartmouth, the Olin Institute at Harvard, the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Hoover Institution. She received her BA from Wesleyan University.

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