Conference Report

Regional Security and Climate Change

Sponsored by the Long Range Analysis Unit of the National Intelligence Council

11 – 13 December 2007, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California

by Daniel J. Moran

On December 11-13, 2007 the Department of National Security Affairs organized and hosted a conference on Regional Security and Climate Change, involving over thirty scholars from the United States and overseas.  

The conference assessed the likely security consequences, out to the year 2030, that may arise in a rage of countries (49 in all) that contemporary climate science indicates may be especially vulnerable to changing environmental conditions.  

The changes studied included rising average temperatures, rising sea level, declining availability of fresh water, and changes in patterns of agricultural productivity.  The results presented a striking picture of political and social variation, even within regions in which climate impacts are expected to be broadly similar, and demonstrated the importance of incorporating political expertise about local and national conditions into any process of assessing how climate change will play out internationally.

The project was sponsored by the Long Range Analysis Unit of the National Intelligence Council.  The principal investigator was Professor Daniel Moran.

For more information, see the recently published book: Daniel Moran and James A. Russell, eds. Energy Security and Global Politics: The Militarization of Resource Management (Abington, UK, and New York: Routledge, 2009).