Threat Multiplier takes us onto the battlefield and inside the Pentagon to show how the US military is confronting the biggest security risk in global history: climate change. More than thirty years ago, when Sherri Goodman became the Pentagon’s first Chief Environmental Officer, no one would have imagined this role for our armed forces.

Indeed, for much of the twentieth century, the Department of Defense (DOD) was better known for containing the Soviet nuclear threat than protecting the environment. And yet, today, the military has moved from an environmental laggard to a clean energy and climate leader, recognizing that a warming world exacerbates every threat—from hurricanes and forest fires, to competition for increasingly scarce food and water, to terrorism and power plays by Russia and China. The Pentagon now considers climate in war games, disaster relief planning, international diplomacy, and even the design of its own bases.
 
What was the key to this dramatic change in military thinking? What keeps today’s generals and admirals up at night? How can we safeguard our national defense and our planet? No one is better poised to answer these questions than Sherri Goodman, who was at the vanguard of environmental leadership among our armed forces and civilian representatives. In Threat Multiplier, she tells the inside story of the military’s fight for global security, a tale that is as hopeful as it is harrowing.

Introduction
Chapter 1. From Weapons to Waste
Chapter 2. The Birth of Environmental Security
Chapter 3. Generals and Admirals Battle Climate Change
Chapter 4. Melting Ice and Rising Tensions in the Arctic
Chapter 5. Drought, Oil, and Power in Africa and the Middle East
Chapter 6. Navigating Asia’s Disaster Alley
Chapter 7. Imperiled Neighbors to the South
Chapter 8. Climate Readiness on the Home Base
Chapter 9. Less Fuel, More Fight
Chapter 10. Climate Proofing Security
 
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About the Author

--An inside look at how climate change exacerbates the biggest threats to national defense.

--Will appeal to a broad range of readers, from history buffs and military aficionados to environmental advocates and those interested in womens leadership.

--Threat Multiplier is the previously untold story of the US militarys evolution from an environmental laggard to a climate and clean energy trailblazer.

"The climate crisis has enormous national security implications, and no one knows that better than Sherri Goodman, who long ago coined the phrase ‘threat multiplier’ to capture the ways this environmental wrecking ball would inform policymakers in situation rooms everywhere. There is no one better to take readers along on the Pentagons journey wrestling with this new and evolving reality implicating basing, training, peacekeeping, and much more. A must read for everyone who wants to understand why climate imperatives arent just for environmentalists."

-John F. Kerry, former Secretary of State and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate

"This is an immensely informative and very important book. The story of how climate change and global security are intertwined—and how the US Department of Defense grasped this reality to become the US government leader in embedding climate-change resilience into its core responsibilities—is told here by a woman whose deep insight and remarkable political skill helped her do more than anybody to achieve this stunning result."

-John P. Holdren, Harvard University, former Science Advisor to the President

"Over the course of my naval career, I came to appreciate how climate change was affecting global politics—literally altering the geostrategic landscape. Sherri Goodman tells the untold story of how many of our nations military leaders came to appreciate this challenge and recognize climate change as one of the key global threats of our age."

-Admiral James Stavridis, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and co-author of 2054: A Novel

"Climate change adds additional instability to a world already disrupted by strategic competition with China, Russia and Iran, two regional wars, and mounting challenges from new technologies such as AI and cyber. Sherri Goodman shows how the US military is managing these risks and why a bipartisan approach to building a more resilient future supports our national security."

-Stephen J. Hadley, former US National Security Advisor

"As Secretary of Defense, my job was to protect the nation from all manner of threats. Climate change was one of those threats. But its not just one among a list of many. Its the threat that multiplies all others.  Sherri Goodman gives us a first-hand account of how climate change affects the military and our national security - and the steps we must take to build a more secure future."