Converging Risks Lab
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CSR Announces New Staff, Internal Moves
Continuing a trajectory of rapid growth, the Council on Strategic Risks is pleased to announce a new round of hires across its programs and role changes for existing staff. The Center for Climate and Climate and Security (CCS) added expertise across its portfolios, bringing on Tom Ellison, Patricia Parera, and Michael Zarfos to analyze ecological…
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Release: Experts Publish Handbook on How Emerging Technologies Increase the Risk of Miscalculation, Misinterpretation and Escalation in Nuclear Weapons Decisions
In the next crisis between nuclear-armed states, national decision-makers may confront a much denser fog of war, an increased pressure to act, and a grave lack of understanding about the features of their operating environment—to name just a few of the changes on the horizon—due to a suite of emerging and disruptive technologies including social…
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Within the Health, Climate, and Security Nexus, Prevention is Better than a Cure
By Kelly Bridges During the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, healthcare workers were contracting Ebola at an alarming rate. The World Health Organization (WHO) found that those fighting Ebola at the frontlines–in clinics and hospitals–were up to 32 times more likely to contract the disease than the rest of the population. Among the principal…
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New White House Action Plan Underscores Water Security as National Security
By Rod Schoonover On June 1, the Biden-Harris Administration released the White House Action Plan on Global Water Security, citing water’s role in national security as a primary motivation for its approach. In remarks delivered from the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Vice President Kamala Harris argued that “many of our…
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A Threat to Ecological Security from Inter-Species Viral Distributions Driven by Climate Change
By Dr. Marc Kodack Most of the security analysis on climate change effects has been focused on human systems and how people need to mitigate and adapt to those effects. However, these same effects will also create multiple opportunities for humans to become hosts for new pathogens, such as viruses, potentially significantly altering and disrupting…
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RELEASE: In Seminal Report, CSR Finds Declines in Pollination and Seed Dispersal Will Have Significant Security Consequences
Washington DC, March 22, 2022 – Today, the Converging Risks Lab of the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) released a groundbreaking report, Societal and Security Implications of Ecosystem Service Declines, Part 1: Pollination and Seed Dispersal. It is the first in a planned three-part series on the international security implications of declines in ecosystem services…
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Call for Applications: 2022 Ecological Security Fellowship
The Converging Risks Lab of the Council on Strategic Risks is pleased to announce a call for applications for its inaugural Ecological Security Fellowship, as part of its broader Ecological Security Program. Tackling complex, converging risks arising from ecological change requires the development of resilient leaders spanning international, national, state, and local levels. This program…
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Nuclear War and Climate Change: The Urgency for Action
By Christine Parthemore I had the honor of delivering a keynote speech at a COP26 side event hosted by the International Forum for Understanding on November 1, 2021, on the subject of nuclear war and climate change. My remarks were followed by a panel of talented, cross-discipline emerging leaders. The evening was capped with a…
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REPORT RELEASE: The Nexus of Climate Change, Ecological Disruption, Stability, and Security
By Andrea Rezzonico Last week, the Climate and Land Use Alliance launched Climate and Forests 2030, a program aimed at mobilizing finance at scale to help realize the potential of forests to mitigate climate change, benefit people, and protect biodiversity. CSR contributed a report to this effort titled “The Nexus of Climate Change, Ecological Disruption,…
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Why I’ve Joined the Council on Strategic Risks as Head of its Ecological Security Program
By Dr. Rod Schoonover We are in the midst of an ecological crisis. Biodiversity loss is quickening, ecosystems are collapsing, mass die-offs are rising, zoonotic spillovers are escalating, and populations of harmful organisms are booming. In a January 2021 article titled Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future, 17 of the world’s leading ecologists…