The CNA Military Advisory Board (MAB) is an American defense advisory group composed of retired three-star and four-star generals and admirals from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps that studies pressing issues of the day to assess their impact on America's national security. CNA is a nonprofit research and analysis organization that operates the Center for Naval Analyses and the Institute for Public Research. The CNA Military Advisory Board was founded by Sherri Goodman, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Environmental Security), who served as the Executive Director of the CNA MAB from its founding in 2007–2015.
In April 2007, the MAB issued its first report entitled "National Security and the Threat of Climate Change." [1] [2] The report projects that climate change will pose a serious threat to America's national security, especially by creating instability in already volatile regions. [3]
In May 2009 the MAB issued a report that explores the impact of America's energy choices on our national security policies. This report, titled "Powering America’s Defense: Energy and the Risks to National Security," considers the security risks inherent in our current energy posture; energy choices the nation can make to enhance our national security; the impact of climate change on our energy choices and our national security; and the role the Department of Defense can play in the nation's approach to energy security and climate change. [4]
The MAB also released reports in 2010, [5] 2011, [6] and 2014 [7] The May 2014 report, "National Security and the Accelerating Risks of Climate Change" re-examines the impact of climate change on U.S. national security. [8]
The most recent MAB report, "National Security and Assured U.S. Electrical Power," was released in November 2015. [9] [10] [11] The 2015 report found that "the current U.S. electrical grid – based on centralized power generation and interconnected and aging distribution architecture – is susceptible to a wide variety of threats." [12]
Principal Findings
The CNA Military Advisory Board looked at the conditions climate changes are likely to produce, how those conditions may affect America's national security interests, and what actions the nation should take to address these consequences. [3] Its principal findings included the following:
Recommendations Based on these findings, the Board made several recommendations, including the following:
Eleven highly respected retired admirals and generals, headed by former Army Chief of Staff General Gordon R. Sullivan, comprised the CNA Military Advisory Board in 2007. [1]
The 2015 MAB members are: [13]
Morrow Cater, founding principal of Cater Communications, has served as a strategic communication advisor to the MAB, including managing the media release of several of their influential reports on the link between climate change, energy, and national security. Her company has also helped organize dozens of state visits featuring MAB members who discuss national security and climate change issues with policymakers, business and community leaders, and the media.
"After listening to leaders of the scientific, business, and governmental communities both I and my colleagues came to agree that Global Climate Change is and will be a significant threat to our National Security and in a larger sense to life on earth as we know it to be."
"Unlike the problems that we are used to dealing with, these will come upon us extremely slowly, but come they will, and they will be grinding and inexorable,"
Anthony Charles Zinni is a former United States Marine Corps general and a former Commander in Chief of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM). From 2001 to 2003, he served as a special envoy for the United States to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. From 2017 to 2019, he served as a special envoy to help resolve the Qatar diplomatic crisis.
The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), formerly named the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, is a Washington, D.C.-based, non-profit and pro-Israeli lobby and think tank. It was founded in 1976 focusing on issues of national security, advocating that Israel can play an important role in bolstering democracy. It claims it has a membership of 20,000.
The Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. The medal was established on July 2, 1926, and is currently awarded to any persons who, after April 6, 1917, distinguish themselves by single acts of heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight. Both heroism and extraordinary achievement are entirely distinctive, involving operations that are not routine. The medal may be awarded to friendly foreign military members in ranks equivalent to U.S. Pay Grade of O-6 and below, in actual combat in support operations.
Richard Harrison Truly is a retired vice admiral in the United States Navy, a former fighter pilot, engineer, astronaut, and was the eighth administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 1989 to 1992. He was the first former astronaut to head the space agency.
Gordon Russell Sullivan is a retired United States Army general, who served as the 32nd Chief of Staff of the Army and as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sullivan also served as acting Secretary of the Army.
The National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal (NIDSM) is a decoration awarded for service to the United States Intelligence Community. The decoration is awarded to any member or contributor to the National Intelligence Community, either civilian or military, who distinguishes themselves by meritorious actions to the betterment of national security in the United States of America, through sustained and selfless service of the highest order.
The World Security Institute (WSI) was a Washington D.C.-based think tank committed to independent research and journalism on global affairs and security. Projects of WSI included the Center for Defense Information (CDI), Azimuth Media, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and Global Zero, among others. In the last several years of WSI's existence, Global Zero constituted more than 90% of WSI's operations.
In the United States Armed Forces, a lieutenant general is a three-star general officer in the United States Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force.
Frank Lee Bowman, a retired four-star Admiral, is the former Chief of Naval Personnel and former Director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2009 for his leadership in the design of nuclear-reactor propulsion plants to support the power requirements of evolving combat systems.
James George Stavridis is a retired United States Navy admiral, currently vice chair, global affairs and managing director of the global investment firm the Carlyle Group, and chair of the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation. Stavridis serves as the chief international diplomacy and national security analyst for NBC News in New York. He is also chair emeritus of the board of directors of the United States Naval Institute and a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Hispanics in the United States Naval Academy account for the largest minority group in the institution. According to the academy, the Class of 2009 includes 271 (22.2%) minority midshipmen. Out of these 271 midshipmen, 115 are of Hispanic heritage. In 2004, of the total of 736 female midshipmen, 74 (10%) of them were of Hispanic descent.
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is a Washington, D.C. based think tank founded in 2007 by Michèle Flournoy, board member of military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, and Kurt M. Campbell, coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs in the Biden Administration. Funded by Northrop Grumman, dozens of military contractors, Chevron, Amazon, Google and other large corporations, CNAS specializes in United States national security issues, including terrorism, irregular warfare, the future of the U.S. military, the emergence of Asia as a global power center, war games pitting the US against the People's Republic of China and the national security implications of natural resource consumption, among others.
The Naval War College Distinguished Graduate leadership Award was established in 1996 by the Trustees of the Naval War College Foundation to honor United States Naval War College graduates who have attained positions of prominence in the field of national security.
Lee Fredric Gunn is a retired Vice Admiral and former Naval Inspector General of the United States Department of the Navy.
Sherri Goodman has had a multidisciplinary career as a national security executive, public policy leader, board director and lawyer. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Polar Institute and the Environmental Change & Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, and Senior Strategist at the Center for Climate and Security. She is the Secretary General of the International Military Council on Climate & Security. Previously, she served as the President and CEO of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership.
David William Titley is a professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University and the founding director of their Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk. He was also NOAA's chief operating officer from 2012 to 2013. Before assuming these positions, he was a rear admiral in, and the chief oceanographer of, the U.S. Navy, in which he served for 32 years. He is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society.
Stephen A. Cheney is a retired United States Marine Corps Brigadier General who served for more than 30 years. He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and held command positions at the Marine Corps Recruit Depots in San Diego and Parris Island, where he was Commanding General. He also served as Inspector General of the Marine Corps from 1997 to 1999, during which time he was also Deputy Inspector General for the Department of the Navy. He retired from active duty in 2001. Cheney currently serves on the American Security Project's board of directors, where he previously served as CEO.
CNA (The Center for Naval Analyses), formerly known as the CNA Corporation, is a federally-funded nonprofit research and analysis organization based in Arlington County, Virginia. It has around 625 employees.
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