S2 - Advancing Climate Security: Global Views on U.S. Strategies

With the new U.S. administration, some of the previous U.S. military efforts regarding the security impacts of climate change have slowed and the policy debate of the U.S. government has taken a distinct turn towards disregarding or denying climate change. Given this complicated political environment, our panel discussion with experts and audience members from a variety of geographical and professional backgrounds will ascertain the following: the value of bringing military and national security debates into the climate arena; how these policy conversations helped pave the way for greater public support for climate change policies in the United States; how the U.S. experience might inform European and other allies to push ahead with much needed climate security debates; and how these climate security strategies help drive not only international action but also help outline and define meaningful localized action, both in the United States and abroad.

As a conversation style workshop, we envisage a panel debate format Davos style and conversational rather than a series of planned inputs (no PowerPoints). Since ours is such a topical issue, we expect lots of questions and comments from audience members. Hence, we will make sure to have at least 20 minutes for Q&A at the end of the panel.

The special session is supported by ZEIT Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius, panel introduced by Nina Smidt, the foundation’s director of Strategic Planning.

Picture credit: Mesut Dogan