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Sec. Albright & Sec. Shultz On National Security, Climate Change & the Arctic
The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) held an all-star hearing on January 29th, titled “Global Challenges and the U.S. National Security Strategy.” Witnesses included three former Secretaries of State: Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, Dr. George P. Shultz and Dr. Madeleine K. Albright. The entire hearing is worth watching, as it is full of sage advice from the former Secretaries of State.
Climate change – a “multiplier” of many of the national security threats described by the former Secretaries (and an added barrier to achieving U.S. strategic aims) – was explicitly addressed during the hearing. (more…)
Secretary Kerry Follows the Military’s Lead on Climate Change
By LtGen John Castellaw, USMC (Ret) and RADM David Titley, USN (Ret)
Secretary of State John Kerry recently gave a speech in Jakarta, Indonesia, where he compared climate change to other transnational security threats such as “terrorism, epidemics, poverty, [and] the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.” But the U.S. military was already there.
Secretary Kerry was following the lead of four-star Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear II, head of U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), who in a speech in Jakarta a year earlier also identified climate change as the biggest security threat facing the region, with the capacity to even “threaten the loss of entire nations.” (more…)
UPDATE: Climate Security 101: Why the U.S. National Security Establishment Takes Climate Change Seriously
This is an update to the Center for Climate and Security’s 2012 briefer. A PDF version of this update can also be found here.
In a 2007 report by the CNA Military Advisory Board, General Gordon R. Sullivan stated:
“People are saying they want to be perfectly convinced about climate science projections…But speaking as a soldier, we never have 100 percent certainty. If you wait until you have 100 percent certainty, something bad is going to happen on the battlefield.” (more…)
Brigadier General (ret.) W. Christopher King on Climate Change and National Security
Brigadier General (ret.) W. Christopher King, PhD, chief academic officer for the United States Army’s Command and General Staff College, recently spoke to a group of people in Wichita, Kansas on the national security implications of global climate change. A video of King’s presentation can be found here. (more…)