An international relations scholar and Georgetown University graduate won the 2026 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order, one of the highest global honors given to political scientists, for his research on the intersection between climate change and security, the university announced Jan. 8.
Joshua Busby (GRD ’02, ’04), who is now a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, received his master’s degree and doctorate from Georgetown’s government department. Busby received the University of Louisville’s award, which has been given annually since 1988 and is generally considered the top award in the field, for the impact of his 2022 book, “States and Nature: The Effects of Climate Change on Security.”
Busby said winning the award, which included a $100,000 prize, was a gratifying recognition after 20 years of scholarship.
“I was thrilled and honored to be among the august company of previous winners,” Busby wrote to The Hoya. “It’s validation for twenty years of work in this space, and I’m happy to have played a part in developing awareness of the links between climate and security and what to do about them.”
Busby said his book explains how climate change leads to negative security outcomes using case studies of countries with various climate risks.
“Why did you get famine in Somalia after drought but not neighboring Ethiopia?” Busby wrote. “Why did you get a civil war in Syria after drought but not neighboring Lebanon? And, why did you get large-scale loss of life in Myanmar after a severe cyclone but not in neighboring Bangladesh and India? What I want readers to take away is that the worst consequences of climate change are not inevitable.”
Andrew Bennett, director of graduate studies in the government department, who worked with Busby as a doctoral candidate, said the Grawemeyer Awards recognize leading scholars.
“The Grawemeyer Award is one of the most distinguished awards in political science, especially since there is no Nobel Prize in political science,” Bennett wrote to The Hoya.
The World Order Award celebrates scholars who are working on significant ideas of global importance, according to the Grawemeyer Awards website. Past winners include Mikhail Gorbachev, the former president of the Soviet Union credited with ending the Cold War, and Gareth Evans, who served in the Australian parliament for 21 years.
George Shambaugh, who served as chair of the government department and taught Busby during his doctoral studies, said Busby’s work has had an intersectional impact.
“I think the award is great, but what it really says to me is that Josh is recognized for the impact of his work,” Shambaugh told The Hoya. “What it really says is that the insights he’s brought to bear about linking the mitigation of environmental issues to politics, to the way aid is distributed and the link between environmental catastrophe and bad governance or military strategy — it shows that his work in that area has really made a difference.”
Bennett said Busby’s work has been influential in the field of security studies.
“Josh Busby is one of our most successful former Ph.D. students and has become a leading international authority on the effects of climate change on international security,” Bennett wrote.
Shambaugh said that, unlike other scholars, Busby considered environmental and security issues as equally important.
“The interesting aspect about it is that most of the countries engaged in climate impacts that were negative had very weak governance systems, or were involved in civil conflict, or somehow were using or creating famine as a tool of war,” Shambaugh said. “So what he explored was a really strong direct link between the ability of individual countries to manage and mitigate environmental concerns as a function of their political capacity.”
Busby said he plans to focus future research on the intersection of politics and clean energy.
“The transition to clean energy is another area of scholarship for me,” Busby wrote. “It’s absolutely essential to avoid runaway climate change. However, the politics of the moment are moving away from serious action. Having said that, the transition to renewables and electric vehicles now has economic momentum, and China is leading the way. I’m currently working on a new project on climate change and great power politics, looking at critical minerals and clean energy.”
Shambaugh said Busby’s work distinguishes him as an example of the kind of Ph.D. student Georgetown aims to educate.
“Josh is a young scholar who is really making a name for himself,” Shambaugh said. “I think that is just superb. He’s an inspiration of what we hope students from Georgetown and students in political science around the country, around the world, will do.”
