Research and Policy in Homeland Security and Climate Change: Results from a Roundtable and Thoughts on Developing a National Research Agenda for Climate Change and Security

To scientists, there is a clear consensus that human activities have a measurable effect on the climate, and that subsequently there are concerns about how a changing climate could impact global economies, trade relations, water (and other resource) access and logically therefore, also to security. Whether anthropomorphic climate change is a homeland or national security issue is a difficult distinction to make given the lack of consensus over the definition of modern homeland security. However, such distinctions may be moot given the recent and profound changes in the Arctic. On the one hand, Alaska shares a coastline with the Arctic Ocean; hence security concerns in the Arctic may be considered homeland security issues. On the other hand, given the Russian military interest/presence in the Arctic, security concerns in the Arctic may be considered matters of national security. The resulting challenge to the academic community is how to move the discussion about climate change and security forward. The authors recently held a roundtable at Penn State University that included several distinguished and accomplished policy makers, executives and scholars who collectively examined the impacts and threats posed by climate change.