Geoffrey D. Dabelko

Geoffrey D. Dabelko is a Professor at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He previously served as Director of the School’s Environmental Studies Program and Associate Dean. He teaches and conducts research on environmental peacebuilding; climate security; environmental leadership; and Age-Friendly, climate resilient communities through a Grey Green Alliance collaboration with the Age-Friendly Innovation Center.

From 1997-2012, Dabelko served as director of the Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP), a nonpartisan policy forum at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. where he worked with policymakers, practitioners, and scholars grappling with the complex connections among environment, climate, conflict, and security. He has also served as a senior advisor to ECSP, associate senior fellow to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, research associate to the Age-Friendly Innovation Center, and affiliate faculty to the Center for International Studies.

Dabelko worked previously at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Foreign Policy and the Council on Foreign Relations. He was an adjunct professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and lecturer at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Dabelko has directed grants from a range of funders including the National Science Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the UN Environment Programme, and the U.S. 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.” 

Dabelko is co-editor of Green Planet Blues: Critical Perspectives on Global Environmental Politics (6th ed., 2019) and Environmental Peacemaking (2002). He was a chapter lead author for the 5th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a chapter author on the 5^th U.S. National Climate Assessment. Other publications have appeared in Global Environmental Change, Global Environmental Politics, International Affairs, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Climatic Change, Global Governance, Security Dialogue, Environment, Journal of Environmental Studies and Science, and The Gerontologist.

Dabelko served previously as a member of the United Nations Environment Programme's Expert Advisory Group on Environment, Conflict, and Peacebuilding and a board member for the Environmental Peacebuilding Association, the Population Reference Bureau, and the International Human Dimensions Programme. He also has served as an editorial board member for Global Environmental Change, Environment, Case Studies in the Environment, and Environment and Security.

Dabelko was the co-recipient with Ken Conca of the Fifth Al-Moumin Award and Distinguished Lecture on Environmental Peacebuilding. From Ohio University he has been recognized as University Professor, Faculty Sustainability Award, Global Access Award for Excellence in Global Research, and Faculty Award for Excellence in Global Engagement.

Dabelko has a Ph.D. in government and politics from the University of Maryland, College Park and an AB in political science from Duke University.

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Publications

Books

• Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Eds. 2019. Green Planet Blues: Critical Perspectives on Global Environmental Politics. 6^th Ed. (New York: Routledge).
• Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Eds. 2002. Environmental Peacemaking. (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press).

Articles, Reports and Chapters

• Azmat Khan, Amy E. Chadwick, Natalie Kruse Daniels, Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Leigh‐Anne Krometis, Jamie E. Shinn, Amy J. Lynch, Emily Garner, William Cully Hession, & Jen Bowman. 2025. “Extreme Weather Events and Risk Communication Challenges in Central Appalachia: A Qualitative Inquiry.” Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 33:e70057.
• Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2025. “Environmental Security.” In Contemporary Security Studies. 7^th Ed. Alan Collins, Ed. Oxford University Press, pp. 259-274.
• Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2024. “The International (In)Security Order and the Climate-Conflict-Security Nexus.” Environment and Security 2 (4): 501-524.
• Holly Dabelko-Schoeny, Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Smitha Rao, Melissa Damico, Fiona C. Doherty, Anthony C. Traver & Marisa Sheldon. 2024. “Age-Friendly and Climate Resilient Communities: A Grey–Green Alliance.” The Gerontologist 64 (3): 1-6. 
• Molly E. Hellmuth, Farhan H. Akhtar, Andrea H. Cameron, Caitlin A. Corner-Dolloff, Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Tufa Dinku, Jay L. Koh, Doug Mason, Roger S. Pulwarty, Lawrence I. Sperling, & Maria F. Zermoglio. 2023. Ch. 17. “Climate effects on US international interests.” In: Fifth National Climate Assessment. Crimmins, Allison R., Christopher W. Avery, Doug R. Easterling, Kenneth E. Kunkel, Brooke C. Stewart, & Thomas K. Maycock, Eds. (Washington, DC: U.S. Global Change Research Program).
• Domoina J. Rakotobe, Geoffrey D. Dabelko & Nancy J. Stevens. 2023. “Strengthening a Protected Area Workforce to Advance the 30x30 Goal: The Case of Madagascar.” PARKS 29 (2): 94-104.
• Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Anniek Barnhoorn, Noah Bell, Daniel Bell-Moran, Emilie Broek, Alexis Eberlein, Andrea Gadnert, Elise Remling, Jürg Staudenmann, Christoph Bogner, Karolina Eklöw, Blaze Horn, Kyungmee Kim & Johan Schaar. 2022. Navigating a Just and Peaceful Transition (Part 3). (SIPRI: Stockholm, Sweden).
• Richard Black, Joshua Busby, Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Cedric de Coning, Hafsa Maalim, Claire McAllister, Melvis Ndiloseh, Dan Smith, Jose Alvarado, Anniek Barnhoorn, Noah Bell, Daniel Bell-Moran, Emilie Broek, Alexis Eberlein, Karolina Eklow, Jakob Faller, Andrea Gadnert, Farah Hegazi, Kyungmee Kim, Florian Krampe, David Michel, Corey Pattison, C Ray, Elise Remling, Evelyn Salas Alfaro, Elizabeth Smith, Jürg Staudenmann. 2022. Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk. (SIPRI: Stockholm, Sweden). 
• Tobias Ide, Carl Bruch, Alexander Carius, Ken Conca, Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Richard Matthew, & Erika Weinthal. 2021. “The Past and (F)utures of Environmental Peacebuilding.” International Affairs (1): 1-16.
• Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2018. “On Being a Trigger for Peace.” The Environmental Forum (July/August): 52-55.
• Sarah C. Davis, Derek Kauneckis, Natalie A. Kruse, Kimberly E. Miller, Michael Miller, and Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2016. “Closing the Loop: Integrated Systems Management of waste in food, energy, and water systems” Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences 6:11-24.
• Lukas Rüttinger, Dan Smith, Gerald Stang, Dennis Tänzler, Janani Vivekananda, Oli Brown, Alexander Carius, Geoffrey D. 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. [Report prepared at the request of the Group of 7 Foreign Ministers].
• 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.
• Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Lauren Herzer, Schuyler Null, Meaghan Parker, & Russell Sticklor, Eds. 2013. “Backdraft: The Conflict Potential of Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation.” Environmental Change and Security Program Report 14:2.
• Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2009. “Avoid Hyperbole, Oversimplification 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.
• Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2008. “An Uncommon Peace: Environment, Development, and the Global Security Agenda” Environment Vol. 50 (3): 32-45.
• Coleen Vogel, Susanne C. Moser, Roger E. Kasperson, & 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 & Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2005. “Managing Water Conflict and Cooperation” State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security. (New York: Norton): 80-95.
• Ken Conca, Alexander Carius & Geoffrey D. Dabelko. 2005. “Building Peace Through Environmental Cooperation” State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security. (New York: Norton): 144-155.

Media

New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, Boston Globe, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, LosAngeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Financial Times, Columbus Dispatch, Diane Rehm Show, To thePoint with Warren Olney, On Point with Tom Ashbrook, PBS NewsHour, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio, WHYY, WOUB, National Geographic, NPR, Chronicle of Higher Education, ABC News, CNN, CBC, BBC On-line, YaleClimate Forum, ClimateWire, Al& Jazeera, The Huffington Post, The Revelator, Nature, America Adapts, Sustain What?, Inside Climate News