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State Department Ignores Climate Change in the Indo-Pacific Region
By Marc Kodack
The U.S. State Department recently published an “implementation update” of its Indo-Pacific strategy, titled “A Free and Open Indo-Pacific: Advancing a Shared Vision.” It provides a summary of the State Department’s initiatives over the last two years – namely its’ “diplomatic, economic, governance and security” actions to implement a whole-of-government strategy in the region. Ideally, it should complement the Department of Defense’s Indo-Pacific Strategy Report. While the Pentagon report mentions climate change as a “transnational challenge” within its report, the State Department document includes no mention of climate change, despite severe consequences for the region, including as it relates to transboundary water issues, such as the Mekong River, which are creating tensions among multiple countries that share a river system. (more…)
U.S. Policy-Makers Must Do More to Protect Intelligence Analysis from Political Suppression
Rod Schoonover (INR), Peter Kiemel (ODNI) and Jeffrey Ringhausen (ONI) testify on climate and security before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, June 5, 2019
As reported by the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, Dr. Rod Schoonover, Senior Analyst at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), former Director of Environment and Natural Resources at the National Intelligence Council, and one of the nation’s foremost experts on the security implications of climate change, has resigned voluntarily in the wake of unprecedented White House suppression of INR’s written intelligence analysis on climate and security, which was intended to be delivered by Dr. Schoonover to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on June 5, 2019. (more…)
Our Interview with Moyers and Co: Syria, Drought, Climate and Security
The Center for Climate and Security’s Co-Founder and Director, Francesco Femia, was recently interviewed by Moyers & Company’s John Light. In the interview, Femia discusses the links between the drought, climate change and the lead-up to unrest in Syria. The interview draws heavily from the Center’s 2012 report, Syria: Climate Change, Drought and Social Unrest and the 2013 report, The Arab Spring and Climate Change. (more…)