Energy powers the American economy, but it also presents a threat as grave as any foreign army or terrorist group. How the nation gets and consumes energy puts our security at risk, every day. The oil we use empowers hostile states and terrorist groups and fosters instability. The system of energy supply, from oil pipelines to the electric grid, is vulnerable to attack and natural disasters. The fuel we burn, especially oil and coal, contributes to climate change, which has the potential to destroy our way of life.
Through its Energy Security and Climate Change project, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) seeks to integrate communities of interest, improve the flow of information to decisionmakers, and design practical strategies and policies for achieving energy security.
In Sentries in the Sky: Using Space Technologies for Disaster Response, CNAS Bacevich Fellow Will Rogers argues that U.S. policymakers can make better use of space technologies to improve disaster warning and response.
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While the United States has protected its maritime interests without ratifying the Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC), the rise of modern navies and unconventional security threats are making this approach increasingly risky and will imperil U.S. national security interests. The U.S. Senate must act now to protect the nation's maritime interests by approving LOSC, argues Will Rogers in Security at Sea: The Case for Ratifying the Law of the Sea Convention.
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Elements of Security: Mitigating the Risks of U.S. Dependence on Critical Minerals, explores a range of potential vulnerabilities that stem from dependence on several minerals that the United States will need for defense supply chains and clean energy goals in the decades ahead.
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CNAS Non-Resident Senior Fellow Richard Weitz testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on the current status of Sino-Russian relations.
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In his new book, MONSOON: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power (A Random House Hardcover, On Sale: October 19, 2010), bestselling author and CNAS Senior Fellow Robert D. Kaplan argues that the Indian Ocean region and countries known as “Monsoon Asia” will become crucial to American power in the twenty-first century.
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In this U.S.-India Initiative Series working paper, author Marshall Bouton explores U.S. strategic interests in a deepened relationship with India and argues that that strengthening relations with India is in the long-term interest of the United States and will help ensure an international system in that accords with U.S. economic and political values.
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In this U.S.-India Initiative Series working paper, author C. Raja Mohan calls for deeper cooperation between India and the United States in protecting the air, sea, space, and cyberspace commons and provides specific recommendations for ways to deepen the relationship in these shared spaces.
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In this U.S.-India Initiative Series working paper, author Ambassador Teresita Schaffer identifies areas in which India and the United States are likely to increase cooperation in the next 10 years as well as areas of potential tension.
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CNAS Fellow Abraham Denmark writes a chapter in the report Asia's Rising Power on Asia's Security and the Contested Global Commons. Download a free sample of his chapter here.
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This report argues that the Department of Defense (DOD) must prepare to transition smoothly to a future in which it does not depend on petroleum – no small task given that 77 percent of DOD’s energy needs depend on petroleum for fuel. Authors Christine Parthemore and John Nagl offer 12 specific guiding principles that map a path forward for the Department, helping to ensure that DOD can weather change, protect its own interests, reduce its vulnerability to extreme price spikes and – most importantly – ensure that it can meet its mandate to protect the nation’s security.
| more |February 18, 2011 — CNAS Fellow Christine Parthemore comments on Darpa's proposal to fuel wartime Forward Operating Bases with nuclear power.
| more |January 13, 2011 — CNAS Research Associate Will Rogers comments on the long-term effects of the "Buy American" provision in the latest military appropriations bill.
| more |January 3, 2011 — Christine Parthemore writes about the growing demand of and interest in rare earth elements, found in everything from missile guidance systems to televisions, from policymakers worldwide.
| more |December 16, 2010 — Andrew Exum writes about cyclical nature of the war in Afghanistan for The New York Times upon his return from a two-week tour on-the-ground in the south and east regions of Afghanistan.
| more |December 13, 2010 — The New York Times draws attention to the importance of natural security to future international conflicts.
| more |December 13, 2010 — CNAS President John Nagl and Fellow Christine Parthmore write that the armed forces must have a strategy to be oil-free by 2040.
| more |December 6, 2010 — CNAS Senior Fellow Robert Kaplan writes in The Washington Post about the ramifications of the decline of empires on the international order.
| more |December 6, 2010 — Robert Kaplan's book Monsoon receives a rave review from Newsweek: Kaplan has "written prolifically on how geography plays into national destiny, takes the 'rise of the rest' theory one step further in Monsoon."
| more |November 15, 2010 — CNAS Senior Fellow Robert Kaplan's latest book, Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, received a glowing review from HuntingtonNews.Net. "Kaplan graphically and eloquently shows how crucial this dynamic area has become to American power in the 21st century," said reviewer David M. Kinchen.
| more |November 15, 2010 — CNAS Senior Fellow Robert Kaplan writes in The New York Times that, although President Obama has cast his Asia trip as a job-creating mission, he ultimately must realize the important and complicated place Asia holds in the future of U.S. foreign policy.
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CNAS Fellow Christine Parthemore testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific in an open hearing on critical minerals.
The Center for a New American Security's (CNAS) fifth annual conference took place in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, June 2, 2011. Download the conference program, watch the videos and read the transcripts online.
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On March 3, 2011, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) hosted a roundtable discussion to discuss the risks and rewards of smart grid technology and implications for U.S. policy, led by Director of Studies Dr. Kristin Lord and Fellow Christine Parthemore.
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On November 9, 2010, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) hosted a book launch for MONSOON featuring best-selling author Robert Kaplan and NPR’s award-winning correspondent Tom Gjelten.
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On October 29, 2010, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) will hold an insider's press briefing on what to expect from President Obama's trip to India, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia.
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On September 22, 2010, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) will hold a congressional luncheon briefing on how natural resources influence national security, featuring a presentation by General Anthony C. "Tony" Zinni (Ret), Former Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Central Command and CNAS Fellow Christine Parthemore.
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The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) will hold its fourth annual conference, Shaping the Agenda: American National Security in the 21st Century, on June 10, 2010. The event will feature a keynote address by Michèle Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and three expert panels discussing the most salient national security challenges America faces.
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Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change; David Kilcullen, RADM Philip Hart Cullom, USN, Robert Kaplan, and Christine Parthemore spoke at a CNAS event addressing the effects of climate change on our national security on Wednesday, April 28.
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The Defense Attachés Association, in consultation with the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), hosted their annual conference, Strategic Resources and Global Security Trends, on November 18, 2009, at the Embassy of New Zealand. This event, an effort led in part by Sharon Burke, vice president for Natural Security at CNAS, brought together defense attachés from over 40 countries, as well as U.S. military service personnel and civilian leaders at the Department of Defense, to discuss global security trends, including natural resource scarcity, energy security and climate change. Participants also included representatives from CNA, the New America Foundation, and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
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The Center for a New American Security co-hosted a discussion on climate change and its implications for national policy with the Joint Global Change Research Institute and the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of Maryland.
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According to the newly released Center for a New American Security (CNAS) report, "Blinded: The Decline of U.S. Earth Monitoring Capabilities and Its Consequences for National Security," “By 2016, only seven of NASA’s current 13 earth monitoring satellites are expected to be operational, leaving a crucial information gap that will hinder national security planning.”
On June 23, 2011, CNAS hosted Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead, USN, for a speech on "A Global Navy in a Time of Change."
CNAS hosted Jake Sullivan, Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State, for an address on "American Foreign Policy Priorities in an Age of Uncertainty," at the CNAS fifth annual conference on June 2, 2011. Read the transcript here.
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"Cooperation and Competition: China and the Asia-Pacific," a roundtable discussion hosted at the CNAS Fifth Annual Conference on June 2, 2011, featured: David E. Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent of The New York Times; Dr. Bernard D. Cole, Professor of International History at the National War College; Dr. Patrick Cronin, CNAS Senior Advisor and Senior Fellow; Admiral Patrick M. Walsh, USN, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet; and Dr. Douglas Paal, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. You may read the transcript of the discussion here and watch the video online here.
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"Cooperation and Competition: China and the Asia-Pacific," a roundtable discussion hosted at the CNAS Fifth Annual Conference on June 2, 2011, featured: David E. Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent of The New York Times; Dr. Bernard D. Cole, Professor of International History at the National War College; Dr. Patrick Cronin, CNAS Senior Advisor and Senior Fellow; Admiral Patrick M. Walsh, USN, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet; and Dr. Douglas Paal, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. You may read the transcript of the discussion here.
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CNAS hosted Jake Sullivan, Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State, for an address on "American Foreign Policy Priorities in an Age of Uncertainty," at the CNAS fifth annual conference on June 2, 2011. Watch the video here.
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The Center for a New American Security's (CNAS) Fifth Annual Conference, "Risk and Reward: American Security in an Age of Uncertainty," took place in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, June 2, 2011
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As rising fuel costs put a strain on the defense budget, CNAS Fellow Christine Parthemore discusses the Pentagon's options in an interview with Defense News TV.
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CNAS Fellow Christine Parthemore participated in a panel discussion at New York University's Center on Law and Security. The panel, which featured several distinguished speakers, focused on potential threats to national security that could result from the scarcity of natural resources in geopolitically important areas.
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CNAS Senior Fellow Richard Fontaine comments to NPR about the policy interests that attracted President Obama to Asia.
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Dr. Jay Gulledge is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow with the Center for a New American Security and is the Senior Scientist and Program Manager for Science and Impacts at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
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