Climatizing National Security

University of Chicago Legal Forum Volume 2024 Article 7 2025 Climatizing National Security Mark Nevitt Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Nevitt, Mark (2025) "Climatizing National Security," University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 2024, Article 7. Available at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol2024/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Chicago Legal Forum by an authorized editor of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact . Climatizing National Security Mark Nevittt ABSTRACT Is climate change a nationalsecurity issue? Human security? Ecologicalsecurity? This Article addresses the growing nexus between climate change and various conceptions of security with a particularemphasis on climate change's national security impacts. This Article argues that there is a growing connection between nationalsecurity and climate change anda correspondingneed to address the normative implications of "climatizingnationalsecurity." This connection can be observed through three lenses: mitigation (reducinggreenhouse gas emissions from military and nationalsecurity sources); adaptation(investingin climate resilient infrastructurein an effort to preparefor 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 Guardand 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 nationalsecurity impacts today ratherthan waitingfor catastrophe to strike. Indeed, upon closer examination, climate change is notjust a complex collective action environmentalproblem it also is a challengingnationalsecurity issue with far-reachingimpacts. I. INTRODUCTION "Climate change can contribute to political and social instability and, in some instances, to conflict. It impacts the operations and missions of defense, diplomacy, and development agencies critical to US national security." 1 -Fifth National Climate Assessment (2023) t Mark Nevitt is an Associate Professor, Emory University School of Law. Prior to academia, he served for twenty years in the U.S. Navy in the rank of commander. He thanks Travis Schneider for outstanding research support as well as Professor Hajin Kim, Caleb Jeffreys, Peer Marie Oppenheimer, and Eliza Martin of The University of Chicago Law School for their thoughtful insights and edits. U.S. GLOB. CHANGE RSCH. PROGRAM, FIFTH NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT 17-8 (2023) (hereinafter NCA5) (parentheticals omitted). The NCA also notes that "climate-related shocks to the food supply chain have led to local to global impacts on food security and human migration patterns that affect US economic and national security interests." Id. at 1-18. 239 240 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LEGAL FORUM [2024 In recent years, scientists, intelligence officials, and national security experts alike have examined climate change's broad national security impacts. 2 Climate change can be characterized as a unique nontraditional security threat in that it interacts with and exacerbates existing threats. 3 In doing so, climate change serves as both a threat multiplier and catalyst for conflict. 4 This Article argues that this growing climate-security nexus-which has been addressed in some U.S. national security corners for decades-reflects a mature acknowledgement that climate impacts transcend traditional environmental concerns. 5 At its core, national security is concerned with safeguarding a nation's safety, welfare, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. 6 Similarly, climate change is poised to destabilize the physical, geopolitical, and national security environment. 7 In this Article, I propose a tripartite framework to showcase climate change's relationship with national security: mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from military and national security sources), adaptation (investing in climate resilient infrastructure in an effort to prepare for climate impacts), and response (addressing climateexacerbated disasters at home and abroad). As the Paris Climate Agreement seeks to decrease each nation's GHG emissions, the militaries of the world-to include the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)-will be asked to do their part to reduce their emissions. 8 Meanwhile, 2 See, e.g., CTR. FOR NAVAL ANALYSIS, NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE THREAT OF CLIMATE CHANGE 16-18, 39 (2007); see also SHERRI GOODMAN, THREAT MULTIPLIER (2024). a See, e.g., CTR. FOR NAVAL ANALYSIS, NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE THREAT OF CLIMATE CHANGE 16-18, 39 (2007). 4 See id. a Some scholars at the War Colleges have been thinking about the security implications of climate change for some time. See, e.g., Terry P. Kelly, Global Climate ChangeImplicationsfor the United States Navy, NAVAL WAR COLLEGE (1990) (arguing that global climate change will threaten naval operations, facilities, and systems in coming decades). 6 The term "national security" lacks a well understood definition in law and remains a somewhat malleable concept. Within the U.S. military, the Joint Chiefs of Staff defines national security as within joint military doctrine it is defined as "[a] collective term encompassing both national defense and foreign relations of the United States with the purpose of gaining: a. [a] military or defense advantage over any foreign nation . . . ; b. [a] favorable foreign relations position; or c. [a] defense posture capable of successfully resisting hostile or destructive action from within or without, overt or covert." DOD DICTIONARY OF MILITARY AND ASSOCIATED TERMS 150 (2020); see also HON. JAMES E. BAKER, IN THE COMMON DEFENSE: NATIONAL SECURITY LAW FOR PERILOUS TIMES 16-19 (2007) (finding that "no single definition of national security is recognized in law or as policy predicate"); Robert M. Chesney, National Security Fact Deference, 95 VA. L. REV. 1361, 1402-03 (2009). See, e.g., Shane Harris & Michael Birnbaum, White House, Intelligence Agencies, Pentagon Issue Reports Warning That Climate Change Threatens Global Security, WASH. POST (Oct. 21, 2021, 5:07 PM), https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/intelligence-pentagonclimate-change-warnings/2021/10/21/ea3a2c84-31d3-11 ec-a le5-7223c50280a_story.html [https://perma.cc/2HJL-NEE2]. 8 Beyond the United States, NATO has increasingly been concerned with climate change's national security implications. See Neta C. Crawford, PentagonFuel Use, Climate Change, and the CLIMATIZING NATIONAL SECURITY 239] 241 developing nations will forge international partnerships with developed nations to ensure that resources are in place fo (...truncated)