Reshaping Multilateralism Episode 4: Recent Climate Security Successes and Opportunities for 2025
This week, the Nexus25 project released Episode 4 of the Reshaping Multilateralism podcast featuring Erin Sikorsky, Director of the Center for Climate and Security; Iris Ferguson, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Arctic and Global Resilience; and Laura Pavlovic, Senior Deputy Assistant to the Administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization. This week’s guests discuss key climate security successes in the United States over the past four years, leveraging programmatic co-benefits, and opportunities for the next Administration in 2025.
“Reshaping Multilateralism” is a production of the Nexus25 project, a joint Istituto Affari Internazionali / Center for Climate and Security initiative funded by Stiftung Mercator in Germany and produced in partnership with storielibere.fm. Subscribe via your favorite podcast platform, visit www.nexus25.org, and stay tuned for insider analysis from global experts on global security, climate security, climate finance, the future of multilateralism, and more.
Food, Climate Change and National Security: The Feeding Resilience Plan and USAID’s Feed the Future Accelerator
By Tom Ellison and Noah Fritzhand
Last week was an active time in Washington for the intersection of food, climate change, and US national security, featuring the rollout of a new Center for Climate and Security (CCS) report and the announcement of a new US food security policy initiative.
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Event: The Story Behind Climate Security and What it Means for US Foreign Policy
Join the Center for Climate & Security, in partnership with the Wilson Center, on October 1 from 10:30 am – 12:00 pm EST for a dialogue with climate security pioneer and Council on Strategic Risks Board Chair Hon. Sherri Goodman, environmental journalist and CCS journalist in residence Peter Schwartzstein, Middle East expert Merissa Khurma, and Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Anne Witkowsky.
They will unpack the impact of climate change on security risks around the globe, the evolution of US engagement on climate security, and opportunities to strengthen stability and build cooperation through climate action. The discussion will feature insights from Goodman and Schwartzstein’s new books, respectively: Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security and The Heat and the Fury: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence.
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Climate Security at the 79th UN General Assembly and Climate Week: What to Watch
By Noah Fritzhand and Siena Cicarelli
As hundreds of world leaders, policymakers, advocates, and experts make their way to New York for the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and Climate Week, the stage will once again be set for discussions on some of the most pressing international issues, including climate security.
As 2024’s record-breaking heat, “extraordinary” hurricane season, and growing food security risks demonstrate, climate change is already impacting global livelihoods and security in profound ways. At the end of August, UN Secretary-General António Guterres released a study on the impacts of climate-change-induced loss and damage on global human rights, identifying the nexus between climate change, conflict, hunger, and mobility as a key threat to human rights and security. Critically, the report highlights the need for direct funding for disproportionately affected communities including in conflict and fragile settings – a challenging task for today’s development leaders and international financial institutions.
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