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Call for Applications: Gordon R. Sullivan Climate and Ecological Security Fellowship 2025-2026
The Center for Climate and Security (CCS) is pleased to announce a call for applications for the 2025-2026 Gordon R. Sullivan Climate and Ecological Security Fellowship (Sullivan Fellowship). The Sullivan Fellowship is the centerpiece of CCS’s fellowship programming, and is the preeminent opportunity of its kind to forge the next generation of US practitioners at the intersection of climate change and security. It is named in honor of CCS Advisory Board Member General Gordon Sullivan, US Army (Ret.), who passed away in 2024 after a distinguished military career and was an early champion of integrating climate and environmental concerns in US national security.
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Energy Transitions and Ecological Security Risks
By Chloé Prendleloup, Ecological Security Fellow
US Commercial Honeybee Crisis and National Security
A recent report by epidemiologists at Washington State University forecasts that commercial honeybee colony deaths could reach 70% in 2025 – compared to average annual losses between 40-50% in previous seasons. Although the exact cause is still unknown, scientists posit this collapse could be due to a range of factors including disease, pesticide use, invasive mites, and nutritional deficiencies. This is in sharp contrast to the same time last year, when US honeybee colonies reached a record high following decades of decline. The drastic change over less than one year demonstrates the volatility that will likely characterize the broader field of ecological security in the coming decades – especially when factors such as climate change, land use change, pesticides, and other disruptions cascade into one another.
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Establishing an Ecological Security Framework for Southeast Asia
By John Lichtefeld, Ecological Security Fellow
Edited by Andrea Rezzonico and Francesco Femia
Introduction
The concept of “ecological security” references the threats to human, national, and global security that arise from the interconnected effects of climate change, environmental degradation, and ecosystem collapse. Though ecological security is a relatively novel concept, its constituent elements—including aspects of traditional and non-traditional (e.g., human, environmental, climate, and bio) security concepts—are generally understood globally, even as their use and application vary by region.
In Southeast Asia, non-traditional security concepts are recognized but tend to have specialized contexts and are applied uniquely among different stakeholders in different countries. Ecological security is not well recognized at this point, and its framework for holistic assessment of complex and interconnected threat groupings has not yet gained wide traction.
This briefing note assesses the relevance of ecological security and related concepts in Southeast Asia and provides a preliminary cataloging and analysis of some of the most pressing complex ecological security threats facing the region, including recommendations for establishing a framework for future analysis, policy, and practice. It has been informed primarily by three roundtable sessions with participants, including regional academics and practitioners and US and European experts on regional and ecological security concepts. Three major ecological security trends emerged from the discussions: the Mekong ecosystem polycrisis, the unanticipated externalities of an accelerated green transition, and the impact of environmental crimes on regional security. The brief offers three preliminary recommendations to interested practitioners for establishing an ecological security framework for Southeast Asia, including; increasing dialogue between experts, security services, and civil society; developing working groups among experts to break silos and bridge practical divides; and drawing clear connections between ecological security risks and political-security outcomes.