Climatizing National Security

Is climate change a national security issue? Human security? Ecological security? This Article addresses the growing nexus between climate change and various conceptions of security with a particular emphasis on climate change's national security impacts.

This Article argues that there is a growing connection between national security and climate change and a corresponding need to address the normative implications of "climatizing national security." This connection can be observed through three lenses: mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions from military and national security sources); adaptation (investing in climate resilient infrastructure in an effort to prepare for climate impacts), and response (addressing climate-exacerbated disasters at home and abroad). The national security response to climate change will require a greater role for the military, particularly the National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard. To be sure, "climatizing" national security also presents normative risks that must be acknowledged and addressed. But this Article argues that it is far better to proactively acknowledge and address climate change's national security impacts today rather than waiting for catastrophe to strike.

Indeed, upon closer examination, climate change is not just a complex collective action environmental problem it also is a challenging national security issue with far-reaching impacts.