Links in the Chain: Environmental Concerns for the Global Economy and International Security

Sean S Costigan

From the extraction and exploitation of natural resources, to the production of goods and their movement around the world all the way to consumption, the environment impacts every link of the supply chain. This paper will focus on expectations of what the future may resemble, examining current indicators related to such concerns as sea level rise, extreme weather events, climate change, economics, political security and their overall impacts for Asia, Europe and North America.

Sean S Costigan leads the CogNet project at MIT and lectures at the New School University in New York. He specializes in technology concerns. For 2010 he was a visiting fellow at the University of Calcutta’s Institute of Foreign Policy Studies. Previously he taught at the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School and was Director for Strategic Initiatives, Center for Security Studies, ETH Zürich. He is co-chair of the Economics of Security Study Group, chair of the editorial board, Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Homeland Security Working Group. He previously served as Executive Editor of Columbia International Affairs Online, Research Associate for Science, Technology and Defense Industrial Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, and on the staff of the Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. His research interests include information technology, cybersecurity, foresight and the environment. He is the author or editor of a number of works, including Arming the Future, Terrornomics, and the forthcoming Cyberspaces and Global Affairs.