Greetings everyone!
This next blog post has been a long time coming. As you may know, I am studying an MSc in Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation at Lund University in Sweden as a Rotary Global Grant Scholar for the Environment. Part of my studies deals with disaster response management and climate risk reduction.
Many of our professors come from the MSB (think Swedish FEMA) and the Swedish Defense University. So, we have a little of the Swedish military and civil defense perspective in our program!
But that aside, we have talked about how NATO can respond to future challenges. As Sweden has recently joined NATO in 2024, this conversation is especially important to Swedes. Both the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the growing impact of Climate Change are making this part of everyday discourse.
So, as part of my cultural exchange, I will share a little bit about events "on this side of the pond" and introduce you to my journey to Berlin last fall.
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Last fall, I was invited to attend the 2024 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Future's Seminar workshop. I was invited by the Youth Atlantic Treaty Association (YATA) Germany and the Deutsche Atlantische Gesellschaft e. V. (The German Atlantic Society) to a 3-day workshop. At the workshop, I joined a team to focus on how NATO can adapt and build resilience to Climate Change.
Within the realm of international security, the NATO alliance must adapt to prepare for new threats to society and democracy, albeit in the immediate or long-term. NATO must prepare for it all.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded on April 4, 1949, as a military alliance to counter the growing threat of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It started with 12 founding members: the United States, Canada, and 10 Western European countries. The alliance was based on collective defense and safeguarding the future of Europe from attacks. This kind of global alliance was supposed to work in tandem with the United Nations to make a more peaceful world after the Second World War. In some ways, it succeeded. In other ways, the Alliance did not.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
However, the world of 2026 is very different from the world of 1949. Now, NATO alliance members must deal with non-traditional security threats like artificial intelligence, climate change, infectious diseases, cyber attacks, natural disasters, and transnational crime. With this changing environment, the question has become: Can NATO be resilient to a more uncertain future with higher risks? What can the Alliance do to prepare for future challenges in global security?
While I will avoid politics and discussion on what NATO should or should not do, I think it is essential to point out what it can do right. NATO has an important role in responding to climate change disasters and risks and has the resources to save lives, provide humanitarian relief, and support those in need.
With this belief in mind, I was recommended by an old colleague to apply for the NATO future's seminar and was accepted. They invited me to be part of the Climate Change and Security delegation. The next thing I knew, I was off to Berlin.
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ONWARDS TO BERLIN
I took an overnight bus from Lund University to Berlin. I arrived at 6 am and, with very little sleep and coffee, made my way to the rendezvous point: The German Bundestag (parliament building). This is the center of the German government and a place of historical significance.
The German Bundestag
We were supposed to be meeting a German politician from the conservative party to talk about German foreign policy and NATO. As we were waiting, we were given a tour of the building and the different meeting rooms. We were even able to see the German Foreign and Finance ministers moving between meetings. In one of the rooms, I found a picture of the former German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.
We also found a long corridor full of the names of German governmental figures and party members since the early Weimar Republic (1900s).
Where the German Parliament meets
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2005 to 2021)
A placard of Adolf Hitler that has been removed and left bare.
Upon first impression, Berlin is not a beautiful city. The streets are grey, and the stones are dark. But it is a city of rich cultural and historical significance. You can feel the history in the city. I had also arrived at a special time: the 35th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
Many of you likely remember where you were when the Berlin Wall fell. For me, it is a moment I only read about in history books. However, as an avid fan of history, I could not help but feel a little humbled by it. Around Berlin were art pieces and commemorations of the reunification of Berlin and East/West Germany. Furthermore, history felt closer as many of the anxieties in Germany remain with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the fear of a larger war in Europe.
A documentary showing in front of the Brandenburg Gate
An art piece next to the old Berlin Wall
It was under these conditions that I went to the Eastern part of Berlin to find my hotel for the workshop. The eastern part of Berlin is remarkably different from the Western part. The buildings are older and grayer. Things are less kept together. My hotel was only two blocks away from the old Stasi headquarters. The Stasi were the East Berlin secret police and were feared across Eastern Germany during the Cold War. In many ways, we were walking back into history again.
The NATO Workshop
In a facility in Eastern Berlin, we had our three-day NATO workshop. Youth from all around the NATO alliance countries came to share their opinions and ideas on how to prepare NATO for future challenges. All together, there were 35 of us, all with very different backgrounds. I was brought onto the team because of my interest in Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation.
What followed was two days of intensive conferences, meetings, expert panels, and policy drafting sessions. We heard from the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, German politicians, ex-NATO generals, researchers, and the former Climate Change Youth Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General.
My Climate Change and Security team was made up of Master's Students and young professionals from the United States, Germany, Lithuania, Estonia, and Spain. Together, we shared ideas and drafted policy recommendations for how NATO can respond to the climate crisis and what we wanted as youth for our futures.
The Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany.
NATO Guest speakers talking about Climate Change.
The NATO Youth Policy Teams
My particular focus was on how NATO can better prepare for climate change disasters that are transmitted across borders. When a flood, heatwave, drought, wildfire, or extreme storm occurs, the impacts never respect geographic borders. The border between France and Germany is meaningless to a storm; however, our responses to these hazards tend to be restricted by geography and responsibility. But the reality is that they are transboundary climate risks that can spread as a cascade risk (think falling dominoes) or compound event (a flood + an infectious disease outbreak) that spreads across borders and between regions.
Transboundary Climate Risks - Courtesy of the Stockholm Environment Institute
To solve this, I suggested that NATO cooperate more closely on climate change and disaster response/coordination by proactively anticipating and planning for climate-amplified events. This requires a certain level of preparedness and contingency planning, and a focus on improving societal resilience to climate and disaster shocks. This is by acknowledging his risk or an event that moves, who is affected, and who is responsible for managing the risk.
Sharing Ideas at the NATO Workshop
Luckily, NATO already does respond and utilizes military resources/personnel to save lives and rescue those who are impacted by disasters. They often cooperate with the European Union, the United Nations, the U.S. Military, and local governments.
A NATO plane is next to disaster relief supplies.
However, the speed, magnitude, and scale of climate disasters are getting worse. Europe is particularly at risk. If you follow the wildfires in Los Angeles, you will see that America is, too. Resources may be stretched then, and simple cooperation may not be enough. Coordination, flexibility, response diversity, prediction, and robustness are crucial. Fundamentally, resilience is key.
Wildfires in Los Angeles, 2024.
Climate Risks in Europe. Courtesy of the European Environmental Agency
Fundamentally, preparing for these events requires comfort with uncertainty and ambiguity. You know a disaster event will happen, but you do not know how large it will be or how many may be affected. However, that makes responsibility and preparedness more important. It is not just a responsibility of the military and government; it is also the responsibility of civil society. Hence, the term, Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) for climate-induced disasters. An area that I have become interested in since studying at Lund University.
Based on this understanding, we drafted recommendations to NATO on how to improve disaster response and climate security coordination. Soon after, I returned to Sweden to continue my studies. Being in Berlin was an amazing experience, not only because of its history but also because of the people I met there. It was inspiring to engage with youth from all around different NATO countries on how we can better prepare for the future.
I am a big proponent of peace-building and dialogue. In an ideal world, I think it is better to see smaller militaries rather than larger ones. However, given the challenges of the future, I do see a greater role for the military in helping save lives and create a safer society.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE UNITED STATES MILITARY?
As disasters worsen, NATO has a stronger role to play in responding to these disasters and improving societal safety. The U.S. military also has a role to play inside the United States.
In fact, this is already becoming a long-term trend. The Center for Climate and Security has tracked U.S. military deployments to natural and climate disasters. Since 2022, the U.S. military has had 176 deployments to address "floods, fires, and hurricanes across three-quarters of US states and territories". As climate change worsens, military deployments to respond to hazards and disasters will grow. They will also be more involved in the preparation, prevention, and relief stages of a disaster. This makes Civil-Military cooperation an imperative as long as disaster relief and assistance are given to all states equally.
With regards to cross-country collaboration, U.S. Allies and friends have also contributed to support disaster response and relief. During the 2024 wildfires in LA, Canada (a NATO member) and Mexico provided specialized planes to help put out and contain wildfire spread. This is quite common and part of standard practice that countries offer to each other in times of distress.
Types of Hazards that the U.S. Military has responded to since 2022
Courtesy of the Center for Climate and Security
Moving Forward: Exploring how Climate Disasters are impacting European Resilience
Since finishing the NATO seminar, I have started to engage more with this topic. In particular, how can the European Union and NATO work together to address climate risks and disasters? I have been working on this in two capacities in my free time.
We are writing essays and doing studies on how climate change is impacting humanitarian assistance, international development, disaster response, and societies. I am happy that many of my coursemates have jumped on this project with me to contribute.
2. Lastly, I have been invited to join an expert group on Project CASA.
This stands for Climate and Security Action through Civil-Military Cooperation in Climate-Related Emergencies (Project CASA)
Project CASA studies the extent to which NATO and selected non-NATO countries have engaged their national militaries in responding to climate-related emergencies. It examines trends in these responses over time and the degree to which national militaries have the resources and mechanisms needed to prepare for and respond to these emergencies.
In my role in the expert group, I am contributing to recommendations to the final report and have been invited to attend an international seminar in Brussels organized by the Brussels Dialogue on Climate Diplomacy (online).
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This is just the start of an interesting new adventure in my studies at Lund. Thank you all for being with me on this journey. Special thank you to the Rotarians of Central Arkansas, who made all this possible. I am always happy to share a little history with you all. Thank you for supporting me and allowing my research and studies to have an impact.
Disclaimer: All ideas in this blog post are my own and do not necessarily represent the thoughts of the Rotary Foundation or my host Rotary clubs.
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