Most discussions around the national security implications of climate change focus on the effect on our physical environment and the role climate plays in global instability. What gets little attention, but is equally as important, is the role climate change is playing in great power competition. Climate change can no longer be separated from geopolitical and geoeconomics interests.
Join the American Security Project, Joanna Lewis, and Jonathan Elkind on April 20 from 2-3 pm EDT for a discussion of climate change amidst a changing geopolitical and geoeconomic landscape moderated by the American Security Project’s President, Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney, USMC (Ret.).
Joanna Lewis, Associate Professor and Director, Science, Technology and International Affairs (STIA) at Georgetown University
Joanna Lewis is the Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor of Energy and Environment and Director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program (STIA) at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She has two decades of experience working on international climate and clean energy policy with a focus on China. At Georgetown, she runs an active, externally funded research program and leads several dialogues and joint study groups facilitating U.S.-China climate change engagement. Dr. Lewis is also a faculty affiliate in the China Energy Group at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She is the author of the award-winning book Green Innovation in China and was a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report.
Jonathan Elkind, Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University
Jonathan Elkind is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy. Elkind came to the Center after a long and distinguished career devoted to energy and environment policy in the private and public sectors. From 2009 to 2017, he worked on international energy and climate issues at the United States Department of Energy, helping to coordinate energy policy in the Obama Administration and leading climate and energy programs with key global partners. He departed DOE as Assistant Secretary for International Affairs. Before his service in the Obama Administration, he founded Eastlink Consulting, LLC where he guided corporate and non-profit clients on commercial energy projects in Europe and Eurasia, and he served as a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, researching international energy security issues.
Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney (Ret.), President of the American Security Project
BGen Stephen Cheney USMC (Ret) is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and has over 30 years experience as a Marine. His career included a wide variety of command and staff positions with the operating forces and the supporting establishment. Gen. Cheney’s primary specialty was artillery, but he focused extensively on entry-level training, commanding at every echelon at both Marine Corps Recruit Depots, to include being the Commanding General at Parris Island. He served several years in Japan and has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and Asia.
