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Dan Chiu, Ellen Laipson, Maureen Sullivan, and Amali Tower Join the Center for Climate and Security Advisory Board
The Center for Climate and Security is pleased and honored to announce that Dr. Daniel Y. Chiu, Ellen Laipson, Maureen Sullivan and Amali Tower have joined its distinguished Advisory Board of military and national security leaders. This group supports CCS leadership by providing substantive and strategic guidance as needed.
Dr. Daniel Y. Chiu is the Director of the Joint Advanced Warfighting Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses, a Federally Funded Research and Development Center. He leads a diverse team of military, technical, and analytic experts to support the US Department of Defense in concept and capability development through Joint Experimentation and Defense Innovation. Working primarily with the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff, his team focuses on analytic wargaming, dynamic red-teaming, and broad-spectrum horizon scanning as well as technical and historic lessons-learned. Read Dr. Chiu’s full bio here.
Ellen Laipson is the Director of the International Security program and directs the Center for Security Policy Studies at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She joined GMU in 2017 after a distinguished 25 year career in government and as President and CEO of the Stimson Center (2002-2015). Her last post in government was Vice Chair of the National Intelligence Council (1997-2002). She also served on the State Department’s policy planning staff, the National Security Council staff, and worked at the Congressional Research Service for more than a decade. Read Ms. Laipson’s full bio here.
Maureen Sullivan is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Environment). For 29 years, Ms. Sullivan served in various leadership positions as a member of the Office of the Secretary of Defense environmental staff. During her service, she was responsible for DoD’s policies and programs related to compliance with environmental laws; management of natural and cultural resources; cleanup of contaminated sites; fire and emergency services; green/sustainable buildings; installation emergency management; international environmental policy; and planning to address emerging chemicals of concern. Ms. Sullivan retired in 2020 after over 40 years of service in the Department of Defense. Read Ms. Sullivan’s full bio here.
Amali Tower is the founder and executive director of Climate Refugees. She has extensive global experience in refugee protection, refugee resettlement, and in forced migration and displacement contexts, having worked for numerous NGOs, the UN Refugee Agency, and the US Refugee Admissions Program. She has conducted country and regional visits of case studies and research in climate-induced displacement contexts, including in urban and camp settings. Read Ms. Tower’s full bio here.
Note from CCS and CSR Co-Founder on Ten Years of Combating the Greatest Systemic Threats of Our Time
After ten years of work, first as Co-Founder and President of the Center for Climate and Security (CCS), then as Co-Founder and CEO of the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR), I will be stepping back from day-to-day leadership to focus my time on continuing to foster a new generation of thinkers and leaders that are anticipating, analyzing and addressing some of the most systemic threats to security in the 21st Century.
When Francesco Femia and I founded CCS and CSR, we could not have imagined the extraordinarily talented team and advisors we would have in place just ten years later, and the colleagues and friends from around the world we have had the opportunity and honor to work with.
(more…)For First Time, the Pentagon IG Annual Report Identifies Climate Change as Top Challenge
In another sign that the Department of Defense (DoD) is prioritizing climate security risks, the annual Inspector General (IG) summary of the Department’s top management challenges explicitly discusses climate change and extreme weather events. This is the first time the report has featured climate change, incorporating it along with global pandemics in a section on strengthening resiliency to non-traditional threats.
The report explores a number of ways climate change and extreme weather challenge the DoD. It includes the following examples of the costly impact of extreme weather events on installations: $3.6 billion in hurricane damages to Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in 2018 and the 2019 flooding that caused $1 billion in damages to Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. The report also notes the risk of rising sea levels at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; noting they are expected to rise an additional 3.6 feet by 2050 causing significant campus flooding.
(more…)EVENT: US Navy War College: The National Security Significance of a Changing Climate, January 8
On January 8, the US Naval War College will host a public conference, The National Security Significance of a Changing Climate: Risk and Resilience in the 21st Century. Center for Climate and Security (CCS)CCS Advisory Board member, the Hon. Alice Hill, will serve as the keynote speaker, and panels feature many members of the CCS staff and community, including CCS Advisory Board Members the Hon. Sherri Goodman, Dr. Marcus King, and Rear Adm. Ann Phillips (Ret). Also on tap to speak are CCS Director John Conger and CCS Senior Research Fellow Josh Busby.
We’re delighted to see such an event on the War College’s agenda–In our Climate Security Plan for America, we recommend expanded training programs across the US government to ensure federal employees understand how to characterize and respond to climate security risks. This type of conference is an excellent step toward fulfilling that recommendation. For more information, check out this video about the conference and please click here to register for what is sure to be a fascinating discussion.