By Noah Fritzhand

Colombia’s Minister of Defense, Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez Suárez, talking about climate change at the MSC. (Lukas Barth-Tuttas/MSC)

In one of the opening panels of the 2026 Munich Security Conference (MSC), Colombia’s Minister of Defense, Pedro Arnulfo Sánchez Suárez, remarked: “…things that happen in one part of the world can affect the entire world. The threat of climate change is real and we are here, of course, to solve that problem together.”

Referring to the ongoing torrential rains that have devastated Colombia by displacing thousands of families, destroying key infrastructure, disrupting access to food, and decimating crucial crop yields, Minister Suárez’s comments hold true across the world as these threats do not stop at one country’s borders. While many defense leaders recognize the reality of climate threats, the interconnections between climate change, food and agriculture, and national security remain insufficiently incorporated into many countries’ security planning.

At the 2026 MSC, the Center for Climate and Security (CCS) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) convened defense, climate, and agri-food leaders for an official MSC Side Event as part of CCS’ Feeding Resilience Program to discuss this nexus in the NATO context.

Photo from CCS and CIMMYT official MSC Side Event. (Marcel Kusch / MSC)

As NATO revises its baseline resilience requirements for member states, the Alliance has an opportunity to make sure these requirements institutionalize “stability multipliers” that better prepare for the impacts of extreme weather and climate change on critical infrastructure, food and water security, and energy systems in a fractured geopolitical landscape. As part of the Chatham House Rule discussion, leaders deliberated:

1. The primary impacts on domestic resilience in European and NATO countries from global food insecurity, extreme weather, and other climate-driven threats; 
2. Opportunities for resilience investments and policy approaches that provide co-benefits to national defense and geopolitical positioning; 
3. How peace and security actors can better plan for the food and climate security challenges to come – and vice versa.

Participants noted that global security is deeply intertwined with food systems and climate change as primary factors that shape instability and the operating landscape. Prolonged droughts in agriculturally dependent regions, such as those in Somalia, were highlighted as a key destabilizing climate impact. Emphasis was placed on the need to shift planning, across all sectors, toward a ‘resilient by design’ model.

Several participants from the defense sector explained that militaries are attuned to climate-related risks and vulnerabilities because they are often first responders during disasters, operate in more challenging environments, and work with partner countries that are highly concerned about the immediate impacts of climate change (such as the Pacific Islands). There are, however, still significant gaps in operationalizing climate considerations within military planning, and participants called for the development of strengthened risk assessment tools, deepened collaboration with allies, and increased investments in resilience as a strategic advantage.

Throughout the conversation, participants raised concerns about cuts to development and humanitarian funding amidst an increasingly transactional geopolitical moment. Reductions or eliminations of aid, combined with dramatic increases in defense spending, could generate a vicious cycle in which unmet humanitarian needs exacerbate instability and lead to increased security burdens.

The session concluded with a shared recognition that integrating food, climate, and security considerations is not optional, but essential to long-term global resilience and stability.

Read more on food security:

• Munich Security Conference Food Security Task Force Joint Statement: Resilience of Food Systems as Forward Defense
• Erin Sikorsky and Benedetta Berti, Weaponized Food and the New Frontline of Security
• Stability Multipliers: Food Security, Climate Change, and The Future of NATO Resilience 
• Feeding Resilience: Recap of CCS and Kansas State Event on Risk and Readiness in Food Security
• Feeding Resilience: Ethiopia