Caitlin Werrell is CEO of the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR), and was previously Co-President of the Center for Climate and Security, and Co-Chair of the Climate and Security Advisory Group. She has a particular interest in the security implications of climate change, water stress and natural resource mismanagement in Syria and North Africa, and on the potential for new technologies for addressing climate risks.
Caitlin Werrell is CEO of the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR), where she co-manages all of CSR’s efforts, including the Center for Climate and Security, the Center on Nuclear Risks and the Climate-Nuclear-Security Program.
Previously, Werrell served as Co-President of the Center for Climate and Security, and Co-Chair of the Climate and Security Advisory Group – the primary forum for climate and security dialogue in the U.S. national security community. Before that, she founded the MAP Institute for Water & Climate, and served as Senior Associate at AD Partners.
Much of her work has focused on the security implications of climate change, water stress and natural resource mismanagement in Syria and North Africa, and on the potential for new technologies for addressing climate risks, such as additive manufacturing.
Werrell’s work has been published in ‘The Arab Spring and Climate Change’, the SAIS Review of International Affairs, and the Brown Journal of World Affairs. She is a regular commentator on climate and international security issues, is a lead author of the “Responsibility to Prepare” framework, and has appeared before the UN Security Council. She has been cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and Defense News, and also on USA Today and CNN.
Werrell holds a Master’s degree from the University of Oxford, where she focused on transboundary water conflict and security, and a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College.
Articles
Climate Change as a National Security Threat and What to Do About it
Francesco "Frank" Femia, Ms. Caitlin Werrell
This article, co-written by two NSWG members, analyzes the Fourth National Climate Assessment, a Congressionally mandated quadrennial review. The pair points out that this report is...