Climate Change in the U.S. National Security Strategy: History and Recommendations
Publisher: Council on Strategic Risks
Author(s): Holly Kaufman and Sherri Goodman
Date: 2021
Topics: Climate Change, Conflict Causes, Programming
Countries: United States
This paper reviews and gleans lessons from the history of how climate change is treated in National Security Strategies (NSSs). Based on an analysis of the trends since climate change was first mentioned in a NSS more than twenty years ago, this paper proposes recommendations to help ensure that the forthcoming NSS will be as comprehensive as it needs to be to fully address the climate security crisis, and as compelling as it needs to be to ensure that Congress acts on the information it provides, including allocating the budget required to implement the measures necessary to avert the worst impacts to the degree that society still can.