Uncontested terrain? Reflections on the perception of the military in climate security

In the 1990s when environmental security first gained mainstream prominence, environmentally-minded academics viewed the involvement of the military in this agenda negatively. Nowadays, academics seem more willing to accept a role for the provision of climate security. In this article we establish whether this is really the case, and we seek to explain this shift in perception. Drawing on lived experience, observation, and readings of the literature, this article advances a series of propositions that together aim to show whether there is a change in perception of the military, and why it occurred. The propositions’ relative explanatory value is established via a literature review and cross-referenced with informal interviews with scholars in the field. The article ends by warning that these developments ought not breed complacency on the role of the military in this space. It is suggested that many of the articles in this special issue demonstrate how being critical is reconcilable with a more positive view of the military.