Climate Change: The Greatest National Security Threat to the United States
Publisher: Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
Author(s): Anatol Lieven
Date: 2021
Topics: Climate Change, Cooperation, Programming
Countries: China, United States
Climate change presents threats to the United States and the wellbeing of its citizens that dwarf those from Russia, China, or Iran. U.S. government policies and priorities should be reoriented accordingly. The necessary policy changes are these:
• U.S. strategy toward China should be crafted and focused with a view to making sure tensions between the two countries do not impede international action against climate change. A zero-sum relationship between the great powers will ensure continued prioritization of manageable military threats over existential climate perils. This is precisely the policy framework that must be superseded.
• Spending on efforts to limit climate change and mitigate its effects should take precedence over military spending, especially on new, vast, and nonessential programs such as the upgrading of America’s nuclear forces, which are already much larger than nuclear deterrence requires.
• International aid should be increased and redirected toward building resilience against climate change in endangered countries, especially, but not only, in Central America.
• The United States should seek opportunities to work with China’s Belt and Road Initiative, BRI, to improve climate resilience in Asian and African countries.
• The United States should maintain cooperation and trade with China in the area of renewable energy technology.