Dabelko grew up in Athens, Ohio, graduating from Athens High School. He has an AB in political science from Duke University and a Ph.D. in government and politics from the University of Maryland.^[1]

From 1997-2012, Dabelko served as director of the Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.^[2] He continues to work as a senior advisor to the Wilson Center.^[3] He is also an Associate Senior Fellow with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute on its Environment of Peace Initiative. From 2012-2018, he served as director of Ohio University's Environmental Studies Program.^[4] From 2016-2022, he served as Associate Dean at the Voinovich School. He has held previous positions at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Foreign Policy and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dabelko is a former member of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Expert Advisory Group on Environment, Conflict, and Peacebuilding.^[5] He was a board member (and former chair) at Population Reference Bureau^[6] and a founding board member of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association.^[7] He is an editorial board member of the journal Case Studies in the Environment,^[8] published through University of California Press. Dabelko was a lead author on the 5th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group II Chapter 12 on "Human Security." He is a chapter author on the International chapter of the 5th U.S. National Climate Assessment.

Dabelko is known for his research in and work on environmental peacebuilding. He is co-editor, with Ken Conca of American University, of Green Planet Blues: Critical Perspectives on Global Environmental Politics and Environmental Peacemaking.^[9] Dabelko and Conca were the co-recipients of the Fifth Al-Moumin Award and Distinguished Lecture on Environmental Peacebuilding in 2018 for their work on environmental peacebuilding. Erik Solheim, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme remarked, “No two individuals have shaped our institutional thinking on environmental peacebuilding more than Geoff Dabelko and Ken Conca."^[10]

Dabelko lives in Athens, OH.

• Conca, Ken; Dabelko, Geoffrey D. (2002). Environmental peacemaking. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press. ISBN 0-8018-7192-1. OCLC 50520518.
• Conca, Ken; Dabelko, Geoffrey D., eds. (2019). Green planet blues : critical perspectives on global environmental politics (6th ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-32220-4. OCLC 1099544139.
• Dabelko, Geoffrey D. et al. (2023). Navigating a just and peaceful transition. Part 3. Environment of Peace Initiative. Stockholm: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. https://doi.org/10.55163/BHYR7656
• Dabelko-Schoeny, Holly; Dabelko, Geoffrey D., Rao, Smitha; Damico, Melissa; Doherty, Fiona C.; Travor, Anthony C.; Sheldon, Marissa. (2024). "Age-friendly and climate resilience communities: A grey green alliance." The Gerontologist Vol 64 No 3. March. https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/advance-article/doi/10.1093/geront/gnad137/7293249