Patrick Flamm is a Senior Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) in the research department “International Security” since 2022. Before joining PRIF, he was a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington in Aotearoa New Zealand. His research focuses on the relationship between the environment, peace and security in the ‘Anthropocene’ with a specific focus on polar geopolitics. Patrick holds a PhD in Asian Studies from the University of Auckland and he has a Diplom in Political Science from Goethe University Frankfurt.
Patrick’s current work is about the how two global change dynamics – geopolitical power transition and the global environmental crisis – affect the high degrees of peaceful and environmental cooperation in the ‘exceptional’ polar regions. It builds on environmental peacebuilding scholarship to analyse the role of environmental protection in fostering and sustaining peaceful cooperation in the Antarctic in particular. The planetary challenge of the Anthropocene invites reflection beyond the security of nations states and vulnerable human populations living today. As Antarctica is often seen as ‘paradigmatically non-human’ the security of future generations and other living beings may also be included in efforts to build sustainable peace and security, for example on the basis of concepts such as ecological security.
