General Tom Middendorp, Chief of Defence of the Netherlands (Ret) will Address the National Press Club of Australia on "Climate change: a matter of national security".
Climate Change has game-changing effects on a global, regional, and local level that call for a realignment of our security policies. On a global level it leads to increased competition and disruptions of major supply lines. On a regional level it acts as a risk multiplier leading to more instability and indirectly to migration flows and breeding grounds for extremism and organized crime. At the local level we face the impacts of increasing severe weather events resulting in human suffering and more frequent calls on security services to provide disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. The security sector needs to be part of whole-of-government efforts to address these effects, which calls for mitigation and adaptation programs to climate-proof their policies and capabilities.
In his address the National Press Club, General Tom Middendorp will draw on his book Climate General (published in 2023) to provide insights on how to adapt and mitigate the current and future challenges.
BIO:
General Tom Middendorp, Chief of Defence of the Netherlands (Ret) is the Chair of the International Military Council on Climate and Security (IMCCS). Previously, he served as the Netherlands Chief of Defence for five and a half years and after 38 years of serving his country. As the Chief of Defence, he was the most senior military advisor to the Minister of Defence, responsible for the readiness, the international cooperation, and the modernization of the Dutch Armed Forces, as well as the planning and execution of its military deployments. He commanded troops at all levels, led a large multinational taskforce in the south of Afghanistan and was involved in over twenty different military missions as the Director of Operations. General Middendorp has extensive operational and strategic experience of building unity of effort with different nations, governments, companies, and many other stakeholders in order to deal with a wide range of security risks. He organized two large Future Forces Conferences where he introduced an ecosystems approach to security and offered “Defence” as a testbed for innovation, resulting in many promising new initiatives. His current occupation as an independent senior expert on defence and security allows him to continue his work on the impact of climate change on the security environment and on the role the military can play in addressing climate change.
General Tom Middendorp is the author of Climate General published in 2023. Climate General explores the nexus between climate change and national security. The book provides a unique and vital view on the mutual influences of climate security and the military, providing advice on how to adapt and mitigate the current challenges.
