Editors' Note

Dear Reader,

The Georgetown Journal of International Affairs celebrated its twentieth year of publication in 2019, an anniversary that also coincided with the Georgetown School of Foreign Service's Centennial Year, which was commemorated by the theme of that year's edition, "100 Years Past, 100 Years Forward." That edition called for a reflection and internalization of the past to inform our path, as citizens and international affairs practitioners, moving forward.

This twenty-first edition focuses instead on the present. Climate—Change Is Inevitable confronts humanity's most consequential challenge to date at a time when global efforts to address climate change have stalled (or failed). A binding international agreement on climate change seems unlikely and the United States has abdicated leadership on environmental issues—yet climate change is inevitable. And while most are (rightly) focusing scholarship and policy to reduce emissions in an effort to forestall that inevitability, the world must also confront the parallel policy challenge of dealing with the fallout of rising temperatures. As the articles featured in this edition point out, climate change is already having significant impacts on security, conflict, migration, and more. The Journal staff of around eighty graduate and undergraduate students at Georgetown University voted overwhelmingly in favor of addressing this theme.

The Journal's mission to emphasize diverse, international perspectives—seeking out experts, practitioners, and academics from around the world—is more important than ever for this edition, as we sought to solicit experiences from those in areas already dealing with the brunt of climate change. This includes articles on climate and indigenous culture preservation in the Pacific Islands (See Yamamoto, Lesa) and climate conflict in the Sahel (See Mbaye). We hope their experiences offer valuable lessons for policymakers worldwide. This commitment to diverse perspectives is also embodied by the Journal's evolving "Student Review" section, which features book reviews, and now literature reviews, by undergraduate and graduate students.

This year's edition was well underway when the novel coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, and while some articles have taken into account the impacts of the pandemic, we are too close to the crisis to make meaningful contributions. The coronavirus pandemic has profoundly disrupted the lives, both personal and academic, of our student editors, and the lives of our contributors. The challenge will be, once the pandemic subsides, to pick up where we left off. We hope that this edition preserves the context and issues before the pandemic upended the global economy.

We hope this edition, which brings into focus the issue of climate change as well as other critical issues across disciplines and regions, broadens readers' perspectives and encourages multidisciplinary thinking. We hope that the articles in this edition immortalize many of the critical issues that, while overshadowed by the pandemic, will persist.