Marisol Maddox,
Research Fellow

Marisol Maddox is a non-resident research fellow at the Center for Climate & Security. She works full time as a Senior Arctic Analyst at the Polar Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, is co-lead of the International Climate working group of Foreign Policy for America’s NextGen Initiative, and is a member of the Newport Arctic Scholars Initiative at the U.S. Naval War College.

Ms. Maddox’s research considers the nexus of the Arctic, climate change, and security. She focuses on emerging actorless threats—such as climate change and biodiversity loss—and the ways they challenge conventional security strategy, as well as their implications for geopolitics and basic stability. 

Ms. Maddox combines her background in ecology and systems thinking with the security field to foster policies that focus on addressing root causes and creating resilience. She is particularly interested in opportunities for enhanced international collaboration on shared security concerns, and the empowerment of communities to generate place-based, meaningful solutions. 

Ms. Maddox frequently publishes and speaks on the Arctic and climate security across the globe. She has been featured in The New York Times, The LA Times, Arctic Today, Business Insider, and Inside Climate News. Ms. Maddox holds an M.A. in International Security with a concentration in Transnational Challenges from George Mason University’s Schar School. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Ecosystems from Binghamton University.

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