Please RSVP to join us on November 17, 2015 for the launch of our new report, The U.S. Asia-Pacific Rebalance, National Security and Climate Change, and a conversation between leaders from the defense, diplomacy and intelligence worlds.
The United States is in the early stages of what it characterizes as an “Asia-Pacific rebalance”. Essentially, this means that on a very broad strategic scale, the United States intends to reorient its foreign policy and national security posture to the Asia-Pacific region, which is host to burgeoning populations, growing economies, strategic choke-points like the South China Sea, and a number of rising powers. But the region is also one of the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, with a growing coastal population, rising seas, numerous critical waterways fed by glaciers, threatened island states, increased drying, and projections of severe water insecurity in the near future.
In this context, the effects of climate change are likely to both shape, and be shaped by, the U.S. role in the Asia-Pacific. If the U.S. is to engage constructively in the region – building and broadening alliances, helping advance regional security and prosperity in the face of potentially catastrophic change, and advancing U.S. national security interests – it will have to seriously consider how climate change affects the region, how the U.S. can help advance the climate resilience of the region’s diverse nations, and how the U.S. will adapt strategically to a changed security environment.
The report is being published by the Center for Climate and Security, in partnership with the Carnegie Mellon University Civil and Environmental Engineering Program, the Center for New American Security and the University of Oxford.
A Conversation Between Leaders in Defense, Diplomacy and Intelligence
The launch will be held at the Woodrow Wilson Center, and hosted by the Environmental Change and Security Program on November 17 from 3-5pm EDT (webcast live). A reception sponsored by the Henry M. Jackson Foundation will follow the event and provide an opportunity to meet with the report authors. To RSVP for the event, click here. Speakers include:
Admiral Samuel Locklear III, USN (Ret.), Former Commander of U.S. Pacific Command; Contributing Author
Sherri Goodman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership; Former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Environmental Security)
Eric Schwartz, Dean, Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota; Former Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration
Moderated by Ellen Laipson, Distinguished Fellow and President Emeritus, Henry L. Stimson Center; Former Vice Chair of the National Intelligence Council
Report Contents and Authors
The U.S. Asia-Pacific Rebalance, National Security and Climate Change
A Climate and Security Correlations Series
Edited by Caitlin E. Werrell and Francesco Femia
Foreword
Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, U.S. Navy (ret), Former U.S. Pacific Commander
Strategies, Policies and Practices
A Climate-Security Plan for the Asia-Pacific Rebalance: Lessons from the Marshall Plan
Francesco Femia and Caitlin Werrell, Center for Climate and Security
Widening the Scope to Asia: Climate Change and Security
Joshua Busby and Nisha Krishnan, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas
U.S. Military Basing Considerations during a Rebalance to Asia: Maintaining Capabilities under Climate Change Impacts
Constantine Samaras, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
How Focusing on Climate Security in the Pacific Can Strengthen Alliances: Lessons from the Global Defense Index on Climate Change for the U.S.
Andrew Holland, American Security Project
Addressing Climate Change and Enhancing Environmental Security in the Asia-Pacific Region
J. Scott Hauger, Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies
Regional and Country Case Studies
Climate Change and Vietnamese Fisheries: Opportunities for Conflict Prevention
Marcus DuBois King, Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University
Climate Change, Migration, and Resiliency in South Asia: Cooperation for Climate Security
Arpita Bhattacharyya and Michael Werz, Center for American Progress
Environmental Instability, Climate Change and Chinese Security
Troy Sternberg, Oxford University
Climate Change, Migration and a Security Framework for the U.S. Asia-Pacific Rebalance
Leo Goff and Nilanthi Samaranayake, CNA Corporation
Pathways For Development
Shifting the Paradigm: Climate-wise Development for Human Security
Linda Yarr, The George Washington University
The Security Benefits of Expanded Trade in Energy Efficiency in the Asia-Pacific Region
Peter Gardett, Argus Media and
Elizabeth Rosenberg, Center for a New American Security
Climate, Security, and Reform
Nancy Brune, Guinn Center for Policy Priorities
