Resilience in Migration, Climate Change, and Geopolitics: A Case of the EU’s Periphery

The chapter summarizes case study reports of three social tipping points with different triggers: migration, climate change, and geopolitics. For the migration-triggered tipping point, we assess the burning of the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. As a social tipping point with climate change as a trigger, we analyze the bark beetle epidemic in the Slovak Tatra Mountain. The last case study focuses on the war in Ukraine and the ensuing refugee crisis on the Polish–Ukrainian border. Based on the cross-case conclusions from these three case study reports, we reflect our theoretical conceptual framework. It is concluded that while state capacity and resilience are critical in addressing social tipping points, the collaboration of non-state actors (transnational, private, and local) with their respective capacities and resilience can mitigate some of the consequences resulting from social tipping points and help the state to prevent yet another tipping point from occurring.