Dr Tobias Ide
PhD (Political Science), PhD (Geography), MA (Political Science)

My works broadly focuses on the intersections of environmental change and environmental politics with peace, conflict, and security. In my current research, I assess the impact of disasters on conflict dynamics, the security implications of climate change, and environmental peacebuilding processes.

Further academic interests of me include climate politics, peace and conflict studies, international politics, security studies, and the critical geopolitics of education. I employ various quantitative and qualitative research methods, including qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and field research.

My teaching is guided by three principles: (1) introduce the core theoretical foundations of a field, (2) explore their usefulness in the context of real word developments and practical examples, and (3) utilise interactive methods to increase learning success.

I hold an MA in Political Science (Leipzig, 2012), a PhD in Earth Sciences (Hamburg, 2015) and an advanced PhD (Habilitation) in Political Science (Braunschweig, 2019). Previously, I worked at the Georg Eckert Institute and the University of Melbourne, and held visiting positions at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the American University in Washington DC.

My research has attracted funding by various external bodies (see Awards and grants). I published in leading disciplinary and interdisciplinary journals, including Global Environmental Change, International Affairs, International Studies Review, Journal of Peace Research, Nature Climate Change, and World Development (see Publications). Furthermore, I am a director of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association (EnPAx) and have consulted several decision makers (see Professional and community service).

My main teaching areas at Murdoch University are:

• Security studies
• International politics
• Environmental stress and climate change
• Peace and conflict
• International development
• Research methods

• Peace and conflict studies
• International relations
• Climate change
• Global environmental politics
• Security
• Research methods
• Disasters
• Geopolitics of education

• The impact of disasters on armed conflict dynamics
• Social and political conflict tracking in the Pacific region
• Environmental peacebuilding
• Climate change and security
• COVID-19, social conflicts, and violence against health workers
• Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) in International Relations

• 2022: Award for Enhancing the Environmental Peacebuilding Knowledge Base
• 2021: From Climate conflicts to environmental peacebuilding (German Research Council/DFG)
• 2020: Pandemics and political conflicts (Albert Shimmins Fund)
• 2020: Intersections of environmental and security politics (Dyason Fellowship)
• 2019: The impact of disasters on armed conflicts (Australian Research Coucil)
• 2019: Disaster vulnerability and political violence (Global Challenges Foundation)
• 2018: Environmental peacebuilding (SDAW: Foundation German-American Academic Relations)
• 2019: International terrorism discourses (Gerda Henkel Foundation)
• 2018: Education and environmental peacebuilding (German-Israeli Cooperation in Water Technology Research Program)
• 2016: Environmental peacemaking? An empirical investigation of the impact of environmental agreements on interstate reconciliation (DFG: German Research Council)
• 2016: Environmental education in the MENA region (German Federal Foreign Office)
• 2012: Climate change and conflict (DBU: German Federal Environmental Foundation)

This is a selective list of my research grants and fellowship in the format “Start year of the project: project title (funder)”. Please contact me for a complete list of my grants.

I have been invited to present my research at numerous conferences, workshops, universities and institutions, including Akhmet Yassawi University Almaty, American University, Chung Ang University Seoul, German Development Institute Bonn (DIE),  German Institute for Global and Area Studies Hamburg (GIGA), Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO),  Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Toda Peace Institute in Tokyo, University of Frankfurt, University of Freiburg, University of Gießen, University of Hamburg, University of Melbourne, and the Wilson Center in Washington DC.

I have also frequently organised panels and presented at major conferences in my field, such as the Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA), the Australian Political Studies Association (APSA) Annual Conference, the Oceanic Conference of International Studies (OCIS), the International Environmental Peacebuilding Conference, the Congress of the German Political Science Association, the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference, and the Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG) Conference.

• Director of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association (EnPAx)
• Member of the University Research Committee at Murdoch University
• Consultant for a number of decision making bodies, including USAID (2020), the Global Environmental Facility (2020), members of the German Parliament (2019, 2016), the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (2019), the German Foreign Ministry (2019), and UNESCO (2016), among others
• Responses to media inquiries from 12 countries (for examples of English-language media, see here, here and here)
• Member of the scholarship selection committee of the Heinrich Böll Foundation
• Member of three academic advisory boards
• Organisation of various conference panels and workshops
• Reviewer for 39 journals and eight organisations

I am happy to take on new Honours, Masters or PhD students, particularly in these research areas:

• Peace and conflict studies
• Environmental and climate security
• Environmental and climate politics
• Disasters and natural hazards
• Critical geopolitics
• Security studies
• International political economy

Please write me an email in case you want to discuss a research project idea.

You can check my Google Scholar profile here.

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Journal articles (peer reviewed):

2022

• Ide, Tobias and Patrick A. Mello (2022): QCA in International Relations: A Review of Strenghts, Pitfalls, and Empirical Applications. International Studies Review 24 (1), viac008.
• Ide, Tobias (2022): Globalising the ‘war on terror’? An analysis of 36 countries. International Relations, online first.
• Ge, Quansheng, Mengmeng Hao, Fangyu Ding, Dong Jiang, Jürgen Scheffran, David Helman and Tobias Ide (2022): Modelling Armed Conflict Risk under Climate Change with Machine Learning and Time-Series Data. Nature Communications 13(1), 2839.
• Wiederkehr, Charlotte, Tobias Ide, Ralf Seppelt and Kathleen Hermans (2022): It’s All About Politics: Migration and Resource Conflicts in the Global South. World Development 157(1), 105938.

2021

• Ide, Tobias (2021): COVID-19 and Armed Conflict. World Development 140 (1), 1-6.
• Ide, Tobias, Marisa O. Ensor, Virginie Le Masson and Susanne Kozak (2021): Gender in the Climate-Conflict Nexus: “Forgotten” Variables, Alternative Securities and Hidden Power Dimensions. Politics and Governance 9 (4), 43-52.
• Ide, Tobias, Anders Kristensen and Henrikas Bartusevicius (2021): First Comes the River, Then Comes the Conflict? A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Flood-Related Political Unrest. Journal of Peace Research 58 (1), 83-97.
• Ide, Tobias, Miguel Rodriguez Lopez, Christiane Fröhlich and Jürgen Scheffran (2021): Pathways to Water Conflict during Drought in the MENA Region. Journal of Peace Research 58 (3), 568-582.
• Ide, Tobias, Carl Bruch, Alexander Carius, Ken Conca, Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Richard Matthew and Erika Weinthal (2021): The Past and Future(s) of Environmental Peacebuilding. International Affairs 97 (1), 1-16.
• Ide, Tobias, Lisa Palmer and Jon Barnett (2021): Environmental Peacebuilding from Below: Customary Approaches in Timor-Leste. International Affairs 97 (1), 103-117.

2020

• Ide, Tobias (2020): The Dark Side of Environmental Peacebuilding. World Development 127 (1), 1-9.
• Ide, Tobias (2020): Teaching Terrorism, Saving the State? Education and Geopolitical Imaginations of Terrorism in 12 Violently Challenged States. Political Geography 77 (1), 1-10.
• Ide, Tobias (2020): Recession and Fossil Fuel Dependence Undermine Climate Policy Commitments. Environmental Research Communications 2 (10), 1-5.
• Ide, Tobias, Michael Brzoska, Jonathan Donges and Carl-Friedrich Schleussner (2020): Multi-method Evidence that Climate-related Disasters Contribute to Armed Conflict Risk. Global Environmental Change 62 (1), 1-8.
• Ide, Tobias und Amit Tubi (2020): Education for Environmental Peacebuilding: Insights from Three Projects in Israel and Palestine. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 110 (1), 1-17.
• Groth, Juliane, Tobias Ide, Patrick Sakdapolrak and Kathleen Hermans (2020): Why Farmers Choose to Migrate under Changing Environmental Conditions: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Ethiopian Farming Households. Global Environmental Change 63 (1), 1-11.

2019:

• Ide, Tobias (2019): The Impact of Environmental Cooperation on Peacemaking: Definitions, Mechanisms and Empirical Evidence. International Studies Review 21 (3), 327-346.
• Ide, Tobias, Adrien Detges and Timo Leimeister (2019): Securitization Through the Schoolbook? On Facilitating Conditions for and Audience Responses to the Attempted Securitization of Climate Change. Journal of International Relations and Development 22 (3), 532-559.
• Ide, Tobias, Anna-Katharina Thiel and Itay Fischhendler (2019): The Critical Geopolitics of Water Conflicts in School Textbooks: The Case of Germany. Water Alternatives 12 (1), 304-321.
• Ide, Tobias Christiane Fröhlich and Jonathan Donges (2019): The Economic, Political, and Social Implications of Environmental Crises. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 101 (3), E364-E367.
• Hermans, Kathleen and Tobias Ide (2019): Advancing Research on Climate Change, Conflict and Migration. Die Erde 150 (1), 40-44.

2018:

• Ide, Tobias (2018): Does Environmental Peacemaking between States Work? Insights on Cooperative Environmental Agreements and Reconciliation in International Rivalries. Journal of Peace Research 55 (3), 351-365.
• Adams, Courtland, Tobias Ide, Jon Barnett and Adrien Detges (2018): Sampling Bias in Climate-Conflict Research. Nature Climate Change 8 (3), 200-203.
• Ide, Tobias, Jon Barnett, Adrien Detges and Courtland Adams (2018): Reply to “Sampling bias does not exaggerate climate-conflict claims”. Nature Climate Change 8 (6), 442-443.
• Ide, Tobias (2018): Climate War in the Middle East? Drought, the Syrian Civil War and the State of Climate-Conflict Research. Current Climate Change Reports 4 (4), 347-354.
• Ide, Tobias (2018): On the Appropriate Use of QCA in Environmental Management Research: A Comment on Hossu et al. In: Ambio: A Journal of the Human Environment 47 (7), 831-832.
• Ide, Tobias and Adrien Detges (2018): International Water Cooperation and Environmental Peacemaking. Global Environmental Politics 18 (4), 63-84.
• Ide, Tobias, Abdulkhaleq Alwan, Kalil Bader, Noureddine Dougui, Maysoun Husseini, Elarbi Imad, Farouk Gaafar Marzouk, Amani Taha Moustafa and Riem Spielhaus (2018): The Geopolitics of Environmental Education: An Analysis of School Textbooks in the MENA Region. Journal of Educational Media, Memory and Society 10 (2), 64-83.
• Ide, Tobias, Jakob Kirchheimer and Denise Bentrovato (2018): School Textbooks, Peace and Conflict: An Introduction. Global Change, Peace and Security 30 (3), 287-294.

2017:

• Ide, Tobias (2017): ): Space, Discourse and Environmental Peacebuilding. Third World Quarterly 38 (3), 544-562.
• Ide, Tobias (2017): Research Methods for Exploring the Links between Climate Change and Conflict. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change 8 (3), 1-14.
• Ide, Tobias (2017): Terrorism in the Textbook: A Comparative Analysis of Terrorism Discourses in Germany, India, Kenya and the United States Based on School Textbooks. Cambridge Review of International Affairs 30 (1), 44-66.
• Schilling, Janpeter, Sarah Nash, Tobias Ide, Jürgen Scheffran, Rebecca Froese and Pina von Prondzinski (2017): Resilience and Environmental Security: Towards Joint Application in Peacebuilding. Global Change, Peace & Security 29 (2), 107-127.

2016:

• Ide, Tobias (2016): Critical Geopolitics and School Textbooks: The Case of Environment-Conflict Links in Germany. Political Geography 55 (1), 60-71
• Ide, Tobias (2016): Towards a Constructivist Understanding of Socio-Environmental Conflicts. Civil Wars 18 (1), 69-90.
• Link, P. Michael, Jürgen Scheffran and Tobias Ide (2016): Conflict and Cooperation in the Water-Security Nexus: A Global Comparative Analysis of River Basins under Climate Change. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Water 3 (4), 495-515.

2015:

• Ide, Tobias (2015): Why Do Conflicts over Scarce Renewable Resources Turn Violent? A Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Global Environmental Change 33 (1), 61-70.
• Ide,Tobias and Christiane Fröhlich (2015): Socio-environmental Cooperation and Conflict? A Discursive Understanding and Its Application to the Case of Israel/Palestine. Earth System Dynamics 6 (2), 659-671.
• Selbmann, Kirsten and Tobias Ide (2015): Between Redeemer and Work of the Devil: The Transnational Brazilian Biofuel Discourse. Energy for Sustainable Development 29 (1), 118-126.

2014:

• Ide, Tobias, Janpeter Schilling, Jasmin S. A. Link, Jürgen Scheffran, Grace Ngaruiya and Thomas Weinzierl (2014): On Exposure, Vulnerability and Violence: Spatial Distribution of Risk Factors for Climate Change and Violent Conflict across Kenya and Uganda. Political Geography43 (1), 68-81.
• Ide, Tobias and Jürgen Scheffran (2014): On Climate, Conflict and Cumulation: Suggestions for Integrative Cumulation of Knowledge in the Research on Climate Change and Violent Conflict. Global Change, Peace & Security 26 (3), 263-279.
• Scheffran, Jürgen, Tobias Ide and Janpeter Schilling (2014): Violent Climate or Climate of Violence? Concepts and Relations with Focus on Kenya and Sudan. International Journal of Human Rights 18 (3), 369-390.

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Edited books:

• Ide, Tobias (ed.) (2017): Peace and Conflict Research. Leverkusen: Barbara Budrich, in German.
• Christ, Tamina, Angelika Gellrich and Tobias Ide (eds.) (2012): Perspectives on the Climate Debate in Political Science, Sociology and Psychology. Marburg: Metropolis, in German.

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Chapters in edited books:

2020

• Ide, Tobias (2020): Renewable Resource Scarcity, Conflicts, and Migration. In: Krieger, Tim, Diana Panke and Michael Pregerning (eds.): Environment, Conflict, and Migration: Exploring Interdependencies. Bristol: Bristol University Press, 17-36.
• Ide, Tobias (2020): Environmental Peacebuilding. In: Oxford Bibliographies in International Relations. DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199743292-0290.
• Zhang, David D., Qing Pei, Christiane Fröhlich and Tobias Ide (2020): Does Climate Change Drive Violence, Conflict and Human Migration? In: Hulme, Mike (eds.): Climate Change Debates: A Student Primer. London: Routledge, 51-64.

2018:

• Ide, Tobias (2018): Using SKAD to Investigate Cooperation and Conflict Over Water Resources. In: Keller, Reiner, Wolf J. Schünemann and Anna-Katharina Hornidge (eds.): The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse. London: Sage, 237-253.
• Ide, Tobias, Vakur Sümer and Larissa M. Aldehoff (2018): Environmental Peacebuilding in the Middle East. In: Swain, Ashok and Joakim Öjendal (eds.): Routledge Handbook on Environmental Conflict and Peacebuilding. London: Rouledge, 175-187.
• Ide, Tobias (2018): Environment. In: Fuchs, Eckhardt and Annekatrin Bock (eds.): Palgrave Handbook of Textbook Studies. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 357-366.

2017:

• Ide, Tobias (2017): Introduction: Concepts, Trends and Issues of Peace and Conflict Studies. In: Ide, Tobias (ed.): Peace and Conflict Research. Leverkusen: Barbara Budrich, 7-32, in German.
• Ide, Tobias (2017): A Climate of Violence? The Debate on Climate Change and Violent Conflicts. In: Ide, Tobias (ed.): Peace and Conflict Research. Leverkusen: Barbara Budrich, 193-226, in German.

2016:

• Ide, Tobias and Kirsten Selbmann (2016): Climate Change, Biofuels and Conflict. In: Singh, Ram Sarup, Ashok Pandey and Edgard Gnansounou (eds.): Biofuels: Production and Future Perspectives. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 25-40.
• Ide, Tobias, P. Michael Link, Jürgen Scheffran and Janpeter Schilling (2016): The Climate-Conflict Nexus: Pathways, Regional Links and Case Studies. In: In: Brauch, Hans Günter, Úrsula Oswald Spring, John Grin and Jürgen Scheffran (eds.): Handbook on Sustainability Transition and Sustainable Peace. Dordrecht: Springer, 285-304.

2015:

• Ide, Tobias (2015): The Resource Curse as a Security Threat: On the Link between Resource Abundance and Intrastate Violent Conflict. In: Jäger, Thomas (ed.): Handbook Security Threats. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag, 43-52, in German.
• Scheffran, Jürgen, Tobias Ide and Janpeter Schilling (2015): Violent Climate or Climate of Violence? Concepts and Relations with Focus on Kenya and Sudan. In: Zimmerer, Jürgen (ed.): Climate Change and Genocide: Environmental Violence in the 21^st Century. London: Routledge, 107-126.

2012:

• Ide, Tobias (2012): Wars and Violent Conflict as a Consequence of Climate Change? In: Christ, Tamina, Angelika Gellrich and Tobias Ide (eds.): Perspectives on the Climate Debate in Political Science, Sociology and Psychology. Marburg: Metropolis, 169-196, in German.
• Ide, Tobias (2012): A Short Story of Failure, or: Why We Know That It Will Be Bad and Change (Almost) Nothing. In: Christ, Tamina, Angelika Gellrich and Tobias Ide (eds.): Perspectives on the Climate Debate in Political Science, Sociology and Psychology. Marburg: Metropolis, 57-84, in German.
• Ide, Tobias, Angelika Gellrich and Tamina Christ (2012): Introduction: Climate Change as an Area of Contention between Society, Politics and Economy. In: Christ, Tamina, Angelika Gellrich and Tobias Ide (eds.): Perspectives on the Climate Debate in Political Science, Sociology and Psychology. Marburg: Metropolis, 11-45, in German.

2010:

• Ide, Tobias (2010): The “True” Causes of Climate Change. In: Aufenanger, Vanessa, Nele Friedrichsen and Stephan Koch (eds.): Justice and Responsibility in Climate and Energy Politics. Münster: Monsenstein und Vanderat, 14-24, in German.