The creation of the bureau is an acknowledgement of just how connected our energy policy is to our foreign policy, but the 25 year timeline is interesting to note. Many of the alternative energy sources currently being developed– fusion and space-based solar power are the two that come to mind—hope to deliver relative energy independence within 30 to 40 years. The bureau’s 25 year timeline puts added pressure on the developers of new energy, but in order for the technologies and eventual commercialization of those technologies to emerge, there needs to be greater political support all around.

WASHINGTON D.C. April 19, 2011 – Today the American Security Project released a series of 50 reports which analyze and project possible economic losses—or in some cases, gains—on a state-by-state basis as a result of unmitigated climate change.  The project, “Pay Now, Pay Later” (PNPL), draws attention to the costs of inaction for each state if we fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R-NJ), a former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and who serves on the Board of Directors at the American Security Project (ASP), said: “Too often the debate about climate breaks down over cost, with many Americans rightfully concerned about what limiting pollution would do to our economy.  But what this series of reports shows is that there is a cost on the other side of the ledger, too.  There will be costs to our economic security from climate change—and significant ones at that—if we do nothing but continue business as usual.”

Dr. Jim Ludes, Executive Director of ASP, said: “The costs of inaction on climate change will be steep for each state, as our reports outline. We’re looking at major costs to our economy, security, competitiveness, and public health. Kentucky’s timber industry, alone, generates $9.3 billion for its economy; Arkansas’ employs tens of thousands. Wooded lands will be damaged as a result of drier ecosystems, which are susceptible to harsher and more frequent forest fires. A warmer global climate and changes in precipitation could cost Kansas over $300 million and hundreds of jobs in crop losses by 2035.”

Lindsey Ross, Policy Analyst for Climate Security at ASP, added: “Severe storms and erosion threaten coastal communities, thus the warming and rising of sea levels could affect the 10 million plus people who live on Florida’s coast and other similar communities. Additionally, more severe storms and receding lake levels could disrupt shipping industries in states like Georgia, Ohio, and Michigan—a state that could suffer over $4 billion in import and export losses within the next several decades as a result of a decline in the Great Lakes system connectivity. In the US, we’ve already seen how a severe storm can economically devastate a region, its communities and businesses.”

In addition to tourism and agriculture, the defense industry does not go untouched by climate change. Military installations in areas vulnerable to extreme weather events have been impacted in past and are likely to be in the future.  In 1992, Hurricane Andrew damaged Homestead Air Force Base in Florida to the point that it never reopened, and in 2004, Hurricane Ivan knocked out Naval Air Station Pensacola for a year (Source).

The PNPL reports show the costly, negative effects on our communities, our industries, and our jobs. The cost of inaction outweighs the cost of transforming our old energy economy into a green one. According to the Congressional Budget Office, a prominent cap-and-trade proposal would have cost $22 billion a year by 2020—a total of roughly $175 per US household.  A small amount compared to the costs inaction will likely inflict. Moreover, one study finds investments in renewable energy—which requires less spending on machinery and imports—creates 3.5 more jobs per dollar spent than spending on the old energy economy (Source).

Ludes went on to say: “A lot of people can tell you the cost of proposals to address climate change, but nobody is talking about the cost of doing nothing to meet the climate change challenges we face in the United States. The findings in the Pay Now, Pay Later reports tell us that we can’t afford to continue business as usual.  There are inevitable changes—short term and long term—in our environment that will have costly effects on our economies. We can either pay a little now to address it, or pay a lot more in the not-so-distant future.”

To read the state-by-state Pay Now, Pay Later reports and find out how much climate change is going to cost you, please click here or paste the link below into your web browser:

http://www.secureamericanfuture.org/pay-now-pay-later/

American Security Project releases its “Are We Winning?” 2010 Report

WASHINGTON, D.C., 25 May 2011 – The American Security Project (ASP) today published the latest report in its signature series titled “Are We Winning? Measuring the Progress in the Struggle against al Qaeda and Associated Movements” (AWW). The report series is the first metric-driven assessment of the progress in the fight against al Qaeda.

Senator Gary Hart, Chairman of ASP, stated:

“Now, more than ever, our political and military leaders need to make hard decisions about our progress in the fight against terrorism and what direction we will take as a nation.  ‘Are We Winning?’ reaffirms our need to meet this challenge.”

Bernard Finel, ASP Senior Fellow and author of the report, said:

“Osama Bin Laden is dead. But the evidence  shows that al Qaeda is more than one man. Developments tracked in this report give us reason for continued concern about developments beyond Pakistan, especially in Yemen and Somalia.”

Finel, continued:

“The report also shows that 2010 was a turbulent year with increased concern over both homegrown terrorists and anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States. Against this domestic backdrop, radical Islamist terror attacks world-wide are at all-time highs. Killing bin Laden was an important victory in the fight against al Qaeda and, for certain, there have been other tactical gains as well. But the word that best describes this fight, now in its eleventh year, is ‘stalemate’.”

“Are We Winning?” (AWW) is an annual report released by the American Security Project to assess U.S. progress in the “war on terror.” The goal in the AWW series is to provide empirical data as the foundation of reasoned discussion and principled debate. To this end, ASP has developed ten criteria to measure progress – or lack of progress – in the struggle against anti-American Islamist terror groups such as al Qaeda. Some of the key findings in AWW show that developments on the home front in 2010 were especially problematic as both domestic radicalization and anti-Muslim sentiment increased. To learn more about the key facts and findings in AWW 2010, click here to read the full report and click here to read the factsheet.

Dr. Jim Ludes, Executive Director of ASP, commented:

“The data in ‘Are We Winning?’ tells an unnerving story. Our elected officials and those charged with protecting American’s security need to respond with purpose and foresight, recognizing that the debate around who gets credit for killing bin Laden isn’t nearly as important as how we achieve security in the face of an endless threat. ASP stands ready to support that public discussion.”

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About the American Security Project: The American Security Project is a non-profit, bipartisan public policy and research organization dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of a range of national security issues, promoting debate about the appropriate use of American power, and cultivating strategic responses to 21st century challenges. For more information, visit www.americansecurityproject.org.

WASHINGTON, D.C., 17 May 2011 – The American Security Project (ASP) today announced the addition of August Cole as a new Adjunct Fellow focusing on defense budgets, the health of the defense industrial base and national security issues.

Dr. Jim Ludes, Executive Director of ASP, said: “August is an expert on a broad range of national security issues. His work as a journalist for the Wall Street Journal offers our organization an expert who can speak substantively and ask hard questions about the complex budget issues facing the defense industry. We are thrilled to have him join ASP.

Dr. Ludes went on to say: “No one can listen to the current debate about budget deficits and not realize that defense spending is in the cross-hairs.  At ASP we are committed to bringing informed, rigorous analysis to this debate.  As a nation we have to understand that the choices we make about our defense budget today will affect what we can ask of our military for a generation.  These are issues of significance, and we’re thrilled that someone with August Cole’s instinct and experience will be working with us.”

From 2007 to 2010, August Cole reported on the defense industry for The Wall Street Journal. From 1998 to 2006, he worked as an editor and a reporter for MarketWatch.com, a financial Web site, where he began covering the aerospace and defense industry. In 1998, he worked as an intern at the Freedom Forum’s European Centre in London and as an intern at the NBC News London bureau. Cole earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Diplomatic History and French from the University of Pennsylvania and earned a Master in Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is currently writing a series of novels about private military contractors involved in covert and clandestine intelligence operations for the U.S. Read his full bio here.

August Cole said: “I’m honored to join ASP and count its accomplished members as colleagues. ASP’s mission to confront the country’s most pressing and challenging national security issues is one I strongly identify with.”

Cole continued: “The Defense Department and the defense industry are at a crossroads. More than ever there’s a need for fresh analysis and insight so sensible choices can be made in the face of rising fiscal pressures and shifting policy priorities. This crossroads moment offers a rare chance to begin a substantial debate about breaking old models and considering new ones that offer better outcomes for American taxpayers, the armed forces and the defense industry.”

Download the press release here.

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About the American Security Project: The American Security Project is a non-profit, bipartisan public policy and research organization dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of a range of national security issues, promoting debate about the appropriate use of American power, and cultivating strategic responses to 21st century challenges. For more information, visit www.americansecurityproject.org.

WASHINGTON, D.C., 17 May 2011 – The American Security Project (ASP) today announced the addition of Andrew Holland as a new Adjunct Fellow, focusing on energy and climate change issues. Andrew will lead ASP’s latest energy initiative on the choices America has about how it powers its economy for the future.

Dr. Jim Ludes, Executive Director of ASP, said: “America has choices when it comes to its energy future.  At ASP, we’re dedicated to exploring those choices, understanding the costs and benefits of different approaches and raising the level of public debate. These are big issues—and reasonable people will disagree.  Just as we did with our recent analysis of climate change, ASP is looking to bring fact-based analysis back into vogue when we’re talking about America’s future energy needs and choices.  We’re thrilled that someone with Andrew Holland’s experience and talent will be a part of our effort.”

Dr. Ludes went on to say: “The price of oil weighs on all of us—and as we saw in our recent study ‘Pay Now, Pay Later,’ so will the cost of unmitigated climate change.  The solution to both these challenges will lie in the choices we make as a nation, where we invest and what we prioritize.  Luckily, we have many choices and new technologies to explore, whether it’s advanced wind and solar, nuclear, carbon capture or fusion.  Securing our energy future will take American leadership and strategic investment.”

Andrew Holland is a Washington-based expert on energy, climate change and infrastructure policy. He has over seven years of experience working at the center of debates about how to achieve sustainable energy security and how to effectively address climate change. Mr. Holland is an experienced writer and strategic analyst. He has spoken about energy security, Arctic policy, and water resources at high-level events in South Korea, Brussels, Washington, London, Geneva, and China. Read his full bio here.

Andrew Holland said: “I am excited to be joining ASP as an Adjunct Fellow. I first learned about ASP from their association with my former boss, ASP Board Member Chuck Hagel. Over the past two years, I have followed the important work done by ASP, especially their “Climate Security Index” and the recently-released ‘Pay Now, Pay Later’ report. I look forward to working on a project about America’s future energy choices.

Mr. Holland continued: Over the next decade, our country faces a series of choices about how we will develop and produce the energy we need to power our economy, our society, and our way of life. Some of these choices will be made by government policy, but many of the most important choices will also be made by individuals and companies in the private sector. I hope that my research will provide an important contribution to this debate.”

Download the press release here.

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About the American Security Project: The American Security Project is a non-profit, bipartisan public policy and research organization dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of a range of national security issues, promoting debate about the appropriate use of American power, and cultivating strategic responses to 21st century challenges. For more information, visit www.americansecurityproject.org.

The manner in which the U.S. administration and our highly-skilled Special Forces carried out the successful assault on the leader of al Qaeda emphasizes the changing nature of conflict in the 21st century, a point of emphasis by the American Security Project since its inception.

The confrontation between peaceful nations and terrorist organizations has much more in common with suppression of crime than it does war in any traditional sense.  We now appreciate that the methods we use against al Qaeda must more closely resemble those used against drug cartels, weapons proliferators, and Mafia syndicates than it does conventional warfare.

Now is the time to for us to define the kind of new global leadership we can provide a 21st century world. The world is changing fast and so too must our approach to our national security and foreign policy. We must restructure our institutions to fit this new mission to ensure an economically and socially flourishing America in the 21st century and beyond.

ASP’s “Are We Winning” report has shown that the killing of one man will not suddenly bring this struggle to an end. Today though marks, perhaps, what another leader said in another fight: it is the end of the beginning.

We at the American Security Project congratulate the Administration and the brave men and women in uniform who helped bring down the man who was behind the deaths of thousands of innocent men and women all around the world, including many innocent people in the Muslim community. We especially think of the over 3000 people that were killed on American soil on September  11, 2001, and all who have given their lives in the wars we have fought since that day.  They and their families know the price of freedom.  We are forever in their debt.

- The Honorable Gary Hart

WASHINGTON D.C., 28 April 2011 – Today the American Security Project, with support from the Kauffman Foundation, released the first in a series of research reports on expeditionary economics (ExpEcon), a doctrine for understanding post-conflict economic development in fragile states. ExpEcon involves utilizing lessons learned from successful business growth models to create the conditions in which local businesses can grow and prosper.

Joshua Foust, Fellow at the American Security Project (ASP), said:

“Expeditionary Economics has the promise to dramatically improve our engagement with countries struggling in post-conflict settings. This has tremendous potential to reshape how we think of aid—from focusing on infrastructure to focusing, instead, on the institutions and structures that shape economic development.”

Foust continued:

“When we look at how to rebuild shattered societies, we tend to ignore how the economy should work. ExpEcon focuses and directs that thinking toward building a functional, healthy economy from the ground up—which is the foundation of any successful society.”

ExpEcon is about rethinking the prevailing doctrine of development and assistance aid to fragile countries. As the first report outlines, this new method strategically focuses on local communities and businesses, with emphasis on empowering local businessmen and women who can grow their own economies without major foreign input—which is quite contrary to current foreign aid practices. The ExpEcon doctrine is fundamentally about internal private sector development.

Dr. Jim Ludes, Executive Director of ASP, stated:

“It’s no secret that the future of effective U.S. foreign aid will rest partly on our ability to apply successful engagement policies within local communities. In terms of assessing our past practices for success, we still have much to learn—and, given the turn of current unrest in the Middle East, soon, we will have to decide what U.S. involvement will look like and how to best apply foreign aid policies and practices to regions that have multitudinous and complex needs.”

Dr. Ludes went to say:

“ASP is thrilled to host this new series in conjunction with the Kauffman Foundation. We are committed to moving the debate forward on critical issues pertaining to our national security, and we are grateful to Kauffman for its leadership in this field.”

To download the first research report, please click here.

Download the press release here.

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About the American Security Project: The American Security Project is a non-profit, bipartisan public policy and research organization dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of a range of national security issues, promoting debate about the appropriate use of American power, and cultivating strategic responses to 21st century challenges. For more information, please visit www.americansecurityproject.org.

WASHINGTON D.C. April 19, 2011 – Today the American Security Project released a series of 50 reports which analyze and project possible economic losses—or in some cases, gains—on a state-by-state basis as a result of unmitigated climate change.

Read more…

American Security Project releases a report on the national security threat posed if the New START treaty fails in Senate

WASHINGTON D.C., 30 November 2010 – Today the American Security Project (ASP) released a report titled “10 Challenges to US Security if the Senate Fails to Ratify New START,” which outlines the national security challenges and consequences for the U.S. if the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia is not ratified during the current session of Congress.

Dr. Janne Nolan, Director of Nuclear Security at ASP, said: “Failure to ratify New START this year will damage our relationship with other leading powers and undo the progress in unifying the NATO allies and all law abiding states to act decisively against other urgent threats, especially Iran and North Korea.”

Dr. Nolan added: “At the recent NATO summit in Lisbon, our allies urged us to move forward with the treaty without further delay. New START has also won overwhelming nonpartisan support from the leading national security and military officials of six successive US administrations. The Senate must ratify this treaty now because it is in the best interest of national security in the United States.”

According to the ASP report, the Senate must ratify the New START treaty during this session of Congress to avoid serious setbacks to American interests. The entire US military leadership supports prompt ratification, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and seven former Commanders-in-Chief of American nuclear forces. The ASP report highlights the security, political, and economic risks of failing to implement the agreement, noting: “Without a formal agreement that sets verifiable limits on Russian strategic weapons, the US will have to spend money on forces it planned to retire and redirect resources away from more urgent defense priorities — to hedge against Russian developments that it cannot monitor confidently without the on-site inspections the treaty provides.”

Dr. James Ludes, Executive Director of ASP, said: “As we’ve seen in the past week with the news of North Korea’s new nuclear facilities, its provocative attacks against US ally South Korea, and reports of  stepped up secret nuclear deals between Iran and North Korea, we cannot deny that we live in a dangerous world. The US needs its friends and allies to show unity against our common enemies. This is hardly the time for a minority in the Senate to put politics ahead of our national security.”

Read the complete “10 Challenges to US Security if the Senate Fails to Ratify New START” report here.

Download the press release here.

WASHINGTON D.C., 8 November 2010 – Today the American Security Project re-released its June 2010 report titled “Yemen and U.S Security,” which analyzes U.S. efforts to counter Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Germain Difo, author of the report and adjunct policy analyst at the American Security Project (ASP), said: “Given the recent developments on the Yemen bomb plot, the findings in our report continue to remain relevant. The terrorist threat from Yemen remains very real, as we’ve observed this past week. Binding the United States closer to the Saleh regime could make extrication difficult and will likely prove to be a long-term liability.”

Difo added: “U.S engagement in Yemen requires thinking long-term and strategically. We can’t afford to sacrifice strategic effectiveness for short-term, tactical gains.”

Yemen is one of the poorest in the Middle East, and suffers from a worsening economic system, poor governance, and internal conflict. According to the ASP report, Al Qaeda is attempting to deepen its relationship with Yemeni tribes by capitalizing on widespread resentment against Western influence and the U.S.-backed Yemeni central government. The report also notes that the risk of Yemen-trained terrorists with American passports being used to conduct future attacks could be increasing.

Dr. James Ludes, Executive Director of ASP, said: “It’s not as simple as providing substantial development support to President Saleh’s regime, and increasing our military footprint in Yemen, as those steps could prove counterproductive to U.S. efforts in the region by providing a propaganda tool for AQAP.”

Ludes went on to say: “The recent bombing attempt is an eye-opener to the serious national security threat we face and to the complexity of the terror threat in Yemen.  We hope that policy officials carefully consider the conclusions and recommendations set forth within our report, which highlight the dire need to look at this problem within a strategic framework. ”

Download the press release here.

Read the complete “Yemen and U.S. Security” report here.