Professional Affiliation

Professor and Associate Dean, George V. Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, Ohio University; Associate Senior Fellow, Environment of Peace Initiative, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Expert Bio

Geoffrey D. Dabelko is Professor and Associate Dean at the George V. Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs at Ohio University in Athens, OH. He teaches and conducts applied research on natural resources, conflict, and peacebuilding; global environmental politics; climate change and security; and environmental leadership.  He currently focuses on the conflict and peacebuilding potential of climate change responses and co-directing an environmental peacebuilding study abroad program in the Balkans.

From 1997-2012, he served as director of the Environmental Change and Security Program, a nonpartisan policy forum at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He continues to work as a senior advisor to the Wilson Center where he collaborates with policymakers, practitioners, and scholars grappling with the complex connections that link environment, health, population, conflict, and security.  

Dabelko has directed grants from a range of international and national organizations such as the UN Environment Programme, UN Foundation, and the US Agency for International Development. He was principal investigator for USAID-funded efforts including the "Health, Environment, Livelihoods, Population and Security (HELPS) Project” and the "Resources for Peace Project.” He worked previously at Foreign Policy and the Council on Foreign Relations. He has taught previously at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

Dabelko is co-editor of Green Planet Blues: Critical Perspectives on Global Environmental Politics (6th ed., 2019) and Environmental Peacemaking (2002).  He was a lead author for the 5th assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II Chapter 12 on Human Security released in 2014.  Dabelko is a member of the United Nations Environment Programme's Expert Advisory Group on Environment, Conflict, and Peacebuilding and Co-editor of the Human Security Series at Ohio University Press. He holds an AB in political science from Duke University and a PhD in government and politics from the University of Maryland.

Major Publications

• Lukas Rüttinger, Dan Smith, Gerald Stang, Dennis Tänzler, Janani Vivekananda, Oli Brown, Alexander Carius, Geoff Dabelko, Roger-Mark De Souza, Shreya Mitra, Katharina Nett, Meaghan Parker, Benjamin Pohl. 2015. A New Climate for Peace: Taking Action on Climate and Fragility Risks. Berlin: adelphi, International Alert, Wilson Center, European Institute for Security Studies.
• W.N. Adger, J.M. Pulhin, J. Barnett, G.D. Dabelko, G.K. Hovelsrud, M. Levy, Ú. Oswald Spring, and C.H. Vogel, 2014: Human Security. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Field, C.B., V.R. Barros, D.J. Dokken, K.J. Mach, M.D. Mastrandrea, T.E. Bilir, M. Chatterjee, K.L. Ebi, Y.O. Estrada, R.C. Genova, B. Girma, E.S. Kissel, A.N. Levy, S. MacCracken, P.R. Mastrandrea, and L.L. White (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 755-791.
• Francois Gemenne, Jon Barnett, Neil Adger, & Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2014. “Climate and Security: Evidence, Emerging Risks, and a New Agenda” Climatic Change 123 (1): 1-9.
• Benjamin Pohl, Alexander Carius, Ken Conca, Geoffrey Dabelko, Annika Kramer, David Michel, Sussane Schmeier, Ashok Swain, & Aaron Wolf. 2014. The Rise of Hydro-Diplomacy: Strengthening Foreign Policy for Transboundary Waters. Berlin: Adelphi.
• Neil Adger, Jon Barnett, & Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2013. “Climate and War: A Call for More Research”Nature 498 (171).
• Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2013 “The Periphery Isn’t Peripheral: Addressing Future Trends through Integrated Analysis and Development.” In The Future Can’t Wait: Over-the-Horizon Views on Development. Steve Gale and Sarah Jackson, Eds. (Washington, DC: Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, National Defense University, Woodrow Wilson Center): 88-93.
• Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Eds. 2010. Green Planet Blues: Four Decades of Global Environmental Politics. (Boulder, CO: Westview).
• Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2009. "Avoid Hyperbole, Oversimplificiation when Climate and Security Meet" Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (August 24).
• Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2009. "Planning for Climate Change: The Security Community's Precautionary Principle" Climatic Change Vol 96 (1): 13.
• Kent Hughes Butts and Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2009. "One Way to Boost US-China Military Cooperation" Christian Science Monitor (April 21).
• Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2008. "An Uncommon Peace: Environment, Development, and the Global Security Agenda." Environment Vol. 50 (3): 32-45.
• Karin Bencala and Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2008. "Water Wars: Obscuring Opportunities." Journal of International Affairs Vol. 61 (2): 21-33.
• Coleen Vogel, Susanne C. Moser, Roger E. Kasperson, and Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2007. "Linking Vulnerability, Adaptation and Resilience Science to Practice: Players, Pathways and Partnerships." Global Environmental Change (17): 349–364.
• Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2005. "Speaking their Language: How to Communicate Better with Policymakers and Opinion Shapers – and Why Academics Should Bother in the First Place" International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law, and Economics 5:4 (December): 381-386.
• Aaron T. Wolf, Annika Kramer, Alexander Carius and Geoffrey D. Dabelko "Managing Water Conflict and Cooperation", State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security (Norton, 2005): 80-95.
• Ken Conca, Alexander Carius, and Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2005. "Building Peace Through Environmental Cooperation," with Ken Conca and Alexander Carius, State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security (Norton): 144-155.
• Alexander Carius and Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2004. "Institutionalizing Responses to Environment, Conflict, and Cooperation," Understanding Environment, Conflict, and Cooperation (Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme): 21-33.
• Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Eds. 2004. Green Planet Blues: Global Environmental Politics From Stockholm to Johannesburg, 3rd Ed, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press).
• Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Ed. Environmental Change and Security Program Report (annual journal).
• Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2002. Environmental Peacemaking, (Washington and Baltimore: Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Johns Hopkins University Press).
• Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 1999. "The Environmental Factor," The Wilson Quarterly, 23:4 (Autumn,): 14-19.