Climate Security and the 4Ds of Foreign Policy

Originally aired November 18, 2015

The fourth webinar in SSF’s Global Climate Security series examines how the disaster risk reduction, development, diplomacy, and defense communities — the “4Ds” — are responding to climate as a security risk. The U.S. Department of Defense has identified climate change as posing immediate risks to national security; this session explores what those communities are actually doing to address these risks and how they can work together to build resilience across geopolitical boundaries.

Speakers

Dr. Marga Gual Soler (Moderator)

Project Director, Center for Science Diplomacy, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Faculty, Arizona State University

Dr. Marga Gual Soler is a Project Director at the Center for Science Diplomacy at AAAS in Washington, D.C., where she fosters scientific relations between countries to address challenges across political, geographical, and cultural divides. She holds a faculty position at Arizona State University and creates training initiatives to provide scientists and engineers with policy, communication, and cross-cultural leadership skills. She serves as Latin America coordinator of the World Association of Young Scientists and was appointed to the RISE High-Level Advisory Body to the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation.

Melanie Nakagawa

Policy Planning Staff, U.S. Department of State

Melanie Nakagawa served on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff with a portfolio covering climate change, energy, environment, and ocean issues. Previously, she was Senior Energy and Environment Counsel on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council — bringing a combined legal, legislative, and diplomatic perspective to international climate and energy policy.

Jeffrey Stark

Director of Research and Studies, Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability (FESS)

Jeffrey Stark is Director of Research and Studies at the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability, where he has led environmental security assessments in the Dominican Republic, Uganda, and the Philippines, with project activities in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia. He previously directed research at the North-South Center of the University of Miami and has written extensively on security, democratic governance, and environmental security in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Since 2007, he has been a visiting professor at the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica.

Daniel Y. Chiu

Deputy Director, Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, Atlantic Council; Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development

Daniel Y. Chiu is Deputy Director at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security. He is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for strategy and force development at the Department of Defense, where he was responsible for developing national defense strategy and led work on the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance, and 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review — with special emphasis on improving strategic planning and strengthening collaboration with interagency and international partners.