Session C08: Science and National Security

Live

After a brief history of pandemics in world affairs and the connection to national and global security, the talk will cover how Trump and Xi set the stage for the coronavirus pandemic and what the U.S. and the world can expect in the coming months.   

Live

Decades of scientific measurements from multiple, independent lines of evidence have established an unequivocal warming trend in the Earth’s climate. Rising temperatures in turn drives changes in a large number of Earth system processes in the atmosphere, ocean, freshwater, soil, ice masses, permafrost, and biosphere. Acidifying waters likewise drive a number of changes in the ocean. Through individual and compound action, climate-linked events are disruptive when they harm people directly or substantially undermine the systems that support people. Security outcomes include degradation of human security, political instability, social discohesion, heightened tensions over natural resources, uptick in humanitarian crises, increased human migration, adverse effects on militaries, new geostrategic domains, threats to global institutions, and heightened risk of climate-linked surprises   

Live

This talk will touch on a broad range of cyber and cyber-related issues that have significant national security implications. These include the protection of cyber-enabled critical national infrastructure, the use of offensive cyber operations as instruments of state policy, cyber-enabled information warfare and influence operations, and the intersection between cyber issues and nuclear security.