PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Contemporary Global Concerns — I

Narrate the various ways in which rapid environmental

How the answer moves

The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.

Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes

Route 1 security widened beyond the military → protection of resources + survival of populations → Buzan: environment now on the security agenda

Route 2 degradation as a transnational, non-traditional threat → several connected pathways to human insecurity

Body flow

resource conflict (water/diamonds/oil) in scarcity → Homer-Dixon: supply/demand/structural scarcity → resource capture + ecological marginalisation → weakened states → insurgency + communal violence → threats to food/energy/economic security → livelihood loss → climate-induced migration + displacement → strain on borders + stability

Counter-view

the burden falls unevenly → Buzan/Copenhagen securitisation (existential framing, extraordinary responses) → Beck’s Risk Society: manufactured risks contested + unequally distributed → Global South disempowered → Maldives: existential threat, little voice

Conclusion routes

Route 1 environmental insecurity inseparable from injustice + inequality → a transnational threat demands cooperation → SDGs as a blueprint for resilience

Route 2 Beck: shift from short-term national interest to long-term planetary ethics

Model answer

Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.

Handwritten model answer — UPSC PSIR 2023, Contemporary Global Concerns — I