Geoffrey D. Dabelko is a professor at the George V. Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service at

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

in Athens, OH. He teaches and conducts research in the School's Environmental Studies Program and Master's in Sustainability, Security, and Resilience. His recent research focuses on the conflict and cooperation potential of responses to climate change, environmental peacebuilding,

climate resilience Climate resilience is a concept to describe how well people or ecosystems are prepared to bounce back from certain climate hazard events. The formal definition of the term is the "capacity of social, economic and ecosystems to cope with a hazardou ...

and environmental leadership.

Early life and education

Dabelko grew up in

Athens, Ohio Athens is a city in Athens County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 23,849 at the 2020 United States census. Located along the Hocking River within Appalachian Ohio about southeast of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, Athe ...

, graduating from Athens High School. He has an AB in political science from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

and a Ph.D. in government and politics from the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

Career

From 1997-2012, Dabelko served as director of the Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) at the

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS) or Wilson Center is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topi ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

He continues to work as a senior advisor to the Wilson Center. He is also an Associate Senior Fellow with the

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an international institute based in Stockholm, Sweden. It was founded in 1966 and provides data, analysis and recommendations for armed conflict, military expenditure and arms trade a ...

on its Environment of Peace Initiative. From 2012-2018, he served as director of Ohio University's Environmental Studies Program. From 2016-2022, he served as Associate Dean at the Voinovich School. He has held previous positions at the

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States. Foun ...

's ''

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

'' and the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

. Dabelko is a former member of the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the Declaration of the United Nati ...

’s Expert Advisory Group on Environment, Conflict, and Peacebuilding. He was a board member (and former chair) at

Population Reference Bureau The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) is a private, nonprofit organization specializing in collecting and supplying statistics necessary for research and/or academic purposes focused on the environment, and health and structure of populations. The ...

and a founding board member of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association. He is an editorial board member of the journal ''Case Studies in the Environment,'' published through University of California Press''.'' Dabelko was a lead author on the 5th Assessment of the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to "provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies". The World Met ...

, Working Group II Chapter 12 on "Human Security." He is a chapter author on the International chapter of the 5th U.S.

National Climate Assessment The National Climate Assessment (NCA) is an initiative within the U.S. federal government focused on climate change science, formed under the auspices of the Global Change Research Act of 1990. Background The NCA is a major product of the U. ...

Research

Together with Ken Conca, Dabelko developed the concept of environmental peacemaking in the early 2000s. Not satisfied with existing approaches that conceived of the environment primarily as a source of conflict and violence, Dabelko and Conca outlined how cooperating on joint environmental issues can contribute to improved relations between nations. Drawing on several case studies, they analysed how international environmental cooperation can change the strategic climate between states (more trust, higher levels of

interdependence Systems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or artificial. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structur ...

) and even contribute to post-Westphalian

governance Governance is the overall complex system or framework of Process, processes, functions, structures, Social norm, rules, Law, laws and Norms (sociology), norms born out of the Interpersonal relationship, relationships, Social interaction, intera ...

(broader forms of transnational integration). This work was key for the development of environmental peacebuilding research and has been picked up by many studies in both international and domestic contexts. Dabelko continues to work in the field, for instance by editing a special issue on environmental peacebuilding and being an author of th
Environment of Peace
report.Dabelko and Conca were the co-recipients of the Fifth Al-Moumin Award and Distinguished Lecture on Environmental Peacebuilding in 2018 for their work on environmental peacebuilding.

Erik Solheim Erik Solheim (born 18 January 1955) is a Norwegian diplomat and former politician. He served in the Norwegian government from 2005 to 2012 as Minister of International Development and Minister of the Environment, and as Under-Secretary-General ...

, Executive Director of the

remarked, “No two individuals have shaped our institutional thinking on environmental peacebuilding more than Geoff Dabelko and Ken Conca." Dabelko is also co-editor, with Ken Conca of

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

, of ''Green Planet Blues: Critical Perspectives on Global Environmental Politics'' and ''Environmental Peacemaking''. Furthermore, he has coined the concept of "backdraft" to raise attention to the adverse and potentially conflict-enhancing effects of climate change

mitigation Mitigation is the reduction of something harmful that has occurred or the reduction of its harmful effects. It may refer to measures taken to reduce the harmful effects of hazards that remain ''in potentia'', or to manage harmful incidents that ...

and

adaptation In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the p ...

Personal life

Dabelko lives in Athens, OH.

Publications

* * * Dabelko, Geoffrey D. et al. (2023). ''Navigating a just and peaceful transition''. Part 3. Environment of Peace Initiative. Stockholm:

. https://doi.org/10.55163/BHYR7656 * Dabelko-Schoeny, Holly; Dabelko, Geoffrey D., Rao, Smitha; Damico, Melissa; Doherty, Fiona C.; Travor, Anthony C.; Sheldon, Marissa. (2024). "Age-friendly and climate resilience communities: A grey green alliance." The Gerontologist Vol 64 No 3. March. https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/advance-article/doi/10.1093/geront/gnad137/7293249

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dabelko, Geoffrey American environmentalists Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni Governmental studies academics American international relations scholars People from Greenbelt, Maryland Living people Year of birth missing (living people)