This field of international relations is gaining increasing importance, as environmental issues have become an increasingly important matter in international politics. The three partner universities have all developed a specific field of expertise in relation to the topic of the project:
- The University of Economics in Bratislava (EUBA) – the Faculty of International Relations more specifically – has developed a wide expertise in the politics of environmental resources, including its security dimension;
- Sciences Po (Sc Po) has recently launched a new research programme entitled Politics of the Earth, which looks at the new geopolitical challenges brought upon by the Anthropocene;
- The University of Liège (ULg) specialises in the human impacts of environmental changes, with a specific expertise on migration and security issues. In November 2016, it has launched theThe Hugo Observatory, the first scientific research structure dedicated to the interactions between environment, migration and politics.
Thus the areas of expertise of the three partners covers a wide range of subjects related to environmental diplomacy and geopolitics: resources, politics and impacts. The key objective of this partnership is to bring these areas of expertise together to create a comprehensive and consistent cluster of research and teaching activities.
All activities under the EDGE project will take place between 2016 and 2018.