Axon - Teaching Climate Security in Professional Military Education - Ep7 Published April 19, 2023 Air University Teaching and Learning Center Transcript: Axon Podcast with CDR Andrea Cameron This is Axon, the Air University Teaching and Learning Center podcast. At Axon, we make connections between teachers, learners, and ideas in military education. The opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied in this podcast are solely those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent the view of Air University, the United States Air Force, the Department of Defense, or any other US Government agency. Follow us online at www.airuniversity.af.edu/TLC or on Twitter at @airteaching for more. Dr. Megan Hennessey Hello! I am Dr. Megan Hennessy. I'm the director of the Air University Teaching and Learning Center and the host of the Axon Podcast, making connections between teaching and learning in military education. I'm very excited today to have with us Commander Andrea Cameron. Commander Cameron is a permanent military professor teaching policy analysis in the National Security Affairs Department at the US Naval War College. Go Navy, beat Army! She is the founding director of the Climate and Human Security Studies Group and teaches on climate change and national security. Now, this is Women's History Month, and I am super impressed by your educational background, Commander Cameron. So, I'm going to go ahead and read it out. It blows me away. You hold a BA degree in political science from Marquette University, a Masters in Human Resource Development from The George Washington University, a Masters in Military Operational Art and Science from the Air Command and Staff College, an Ed.D in Educational Technology from Pepperdine, and a PhD in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School. And, if that wasn't enough, you are currently a Fulbright Scholar awardee in NATO Security Studies, joining us from Belgium today where you are for the academic year. I am so excited to talk to you. I want to ask you about all those degrees and your love of learning. But first, tell us a little bit about your Fulbright Scholarship and what you're doing in Belgium. CDR Andrea Cameron Thank you so much. I appreciate being included on this podcast. I'm a big fan of the work that you guys do, and anytime we can broaden the audience about teaching and learning in the PME community is just a fantastic opportunity. So, really thrilled to talk to everybody today. I am, as you mentioned, sitting in Brussels, Belgium, as a Fulbright Scholar. I applied for a teaching and research award in NATO security studies and took my area of focus, which is climate security, and chose to look at NATO and NATO member states because so many of our allies and partners are looking at developing climate security policies and practices right now. And we're, we're doing it so fast. It's just a fast-moving field of study and it's really exciting to be here. So, I teach at the College of Europe. I teach a transatlantic climate security class, and I'm also doing research within NATO and a little bit more in the European Union as well, because so much of their policies within European countries are driven by both of those organizations. Dr. Megan Hennessey So, what can the American military education system learn from what you're seeing in the institutions where you are? CDR Andrea Cameron That's an excellent question. One of the reasons I picked Europe is because some of the European countries are ahead of the United States in thinking about climate security. They've clearly been thinking about energy independence for some time, but they've also just not engaged in some of the debates that we have about climate security. They've really embraced their whole-of-nation policies to address climate change and included the militaries in that. So, they're very kind of aggressive. They have about two or three years ahead of us, so while we really kicked started the conversation at the start of the Biden administration, we have a lot to learn about how they've strategically messaged the importance of looking at climate security, and embedding kind of operational advantages into their military, by thinking about this ahead of time, rather than after the fact. Dr. Megan Hennessey What do you think you'll take back with you to Newport as you teach at the Naval War College? CDR Andrea Cameron I like to do a lot of things at Newport. I have two different electives. One in particular is Climate Security Around the World where we look at how people are, view, their own vulnerabilities and what they're doing. So, definitely learning from our European allies what they're doing and bringing that back is wonderful. And another thing is I host events and guest speakers all the time. Dr. Megan Hennessey Thanks for sharing that with us. And I'm sure that your educational background, all those degrees that I listed off which are so impressive, have definitely helped you for your Fulbright Scholarship. You are an incredibly educated and intelligent naval officer. Can you share a little bit about how your educational background has prepared you for where you are now? CDR Andrea Cameron Where I am in the Fulbright or where I am at The Naval War College? Dr. Megan Hennessey Both, both. CDR Andrea Cameron Well, I was surface warfare officer and then a human resources officer for a while. And, while I was a human resources officer is when I got those degrees in human resource development and educational technology, which are two skills that just help any career path you have. Knowing how you can work with your workforce and develop them is just incredibly important, especially for the military. One, to get your mission done. And two, to keep the morale high of your people to know how to work with them. So, I bring that into the classroom and I particularly like the educational technology part of the Naval War College because during COVID, et cetera, I was able to kind of bring in the classroom. I'm wide open to how to use technology to enhance the learning environment. So, that's kind of how it folds into that. And then on the subject matter expertise side with my PhD in Security Studies, I really enjoy, just obviously I love the learning environment. I'm stimulated by it as a student and as faculty. Anyone I can have these kind of deep, rich discussions with, about these kind of concepts of how we can use them to make, in my world the US government, make better decisions, and propel conversations forward, that's incredibly important. And, I really like giving that to PME students because that's where we are in, in the PME environment. Teaching them about their next leadership position and teaching them about their next staff positions and how to really navigate the policy environment to be effective at their jobs. Dr. Megan Hennessey Thank you. Yes. And, I should say that I first met you when you reached out asking for information about the Military Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Forum. I was so excited because you came to us with a topic that we had never seen in the program before, which is your area of expertise: climate, excuse me, climate and security studies, and the relationship between those things. Can you tell us a little bit about your role as director of the Climate and Human Security Group at the Naval War College? CDR Andrea Cameron Absolutely. I started the group almost five years ago. So, we started as Human Security Studies Group, and I really wanted a forum. We have other studies groups, but they're all regionally focused and I thought, well, let's have a topically focused studies group. Because I kept talking to other people on campus who are really interested in that, and we didn't have a way to get together and organize, so, we started our Human Security Studies Group. And, within about six months I realized that some of the things we were sharing and discussing were really climate focused. So, we renamed the group the Climate and Human Security Group at the time, and we've been going ever since. And I just have about a hundred, a hundred and fifty members, internal and external to the college at this point, who are just really interested in following this work. Dr. Megan Hennessey What does one have to do to be an external member? CDR Andrea Cameron You just have to tell me. So, for you and all your audience members, if you go to our website, you'll connect with me and happy to add anyone to the external listserv. Dr. Megan Hennessey Thank you. Now it might be a contentious question, but I have to ask it, since I've got you here and I'm hoping that you can take a research perspective to your answer. Not everyone agrees on the importance of climate change or the existence of climate change. How do you handle that in a military education setting as a naval officer and as a scholar? CDR Andrea Cameron I think that's an excellent question. About 10 years ago, people who were kind of interested in starting in this space were almost shut down by climate deniers. Which is why if you look across the PME institutions, you just don't see the development of any expertise in this space. I answer it two ways. So, one, whether we teach it or not, students are interested. I know this is happening at your institution. It happens at mine, whether I teach electives or not, it’s within the core curriculum. When you have students have some latitude and what their paper topics are, you will get ones that want to talk and write about climate security, which is wonderful. So, one, the students are driving part of the interest, and two just the global environment is in driving it. I do agree with you that not everyone thinks it's as high priority as some of the other things we need to look at. And anytime you're talking about training or education, there's trade space. What are you not going to talk about because you want to talk about climate now? So, I understand that argument. However, it tends to me, it's such a significant part of the security landscape going forward that it does no one any good not to talk about it. We don't actually do our job to fight and defend the nation if we ignore that part of the security environment. So, it has to have at least some place in the education. And whatever the courses are that teach about the contemporary broad security environment, it has to be one piece of that broader landscape. Dr. Megan Hennessey Hear, hear. Thank you. You answered that very well and diplomatically for what I was nervous about asking, so thank you. CDR Andrea Cameron I've been asked a lot of times, a lot of ways, over a lot of years. Dr. Megan Hennessey I could tell. Yes, I mean so, you're in Belgium now. You're in Brussels. You're doing your Fulbright Scholarship, and you also have obviously a lot of experience in working with our international partners and allies. What are some of the conversations that they are having in their PME environments about the same topic? CDR Andrea Cameron Excellent question. They have a lot of conversations, but they're a little bit more regionally oriented. You know the US, we look globally. When I teach our climate security around the world, we look every corner of the world. However, they will tend to look maybe what we would call inside their own, how we organize this geographic combatant commands, or their own neighborhood. And it actually makes it a little easier because you know you're not talking about the Arctic and desertification all in one breath. You're talking about very specific threats. We have water security issues. We have fires. We have a drought, you know. They've lived their regional security for years. So, they know what they are, and they know how they're connected to their security environment, so much more than we do. And because of that, you're not having a debate about what the issue is. You're having a wonderful conversation about what can be done about it. Dr. Megan Hennessey Thank you. Yes, I can imagine how that would be a more focused, and also very helpful approach, to take the regional outlook. But obviously we have the challenge of having to take all of the regions into account, right? So, this seems very overwhelming, perhaps for people who are coming in as military educators into PME spaces. Is there, you know, a set route, or protocol, or process, or curriculum, similar to what we've seen from other special areas of emphasis or even the Women, Peacekeeping, and Security community? Does that exist for this area of study? CDR Andrea Cameron It does not currently exist, but it's kind of in development. So, we did try to have a special area of emphasis. It made it most of the way through the pipeline but did not get released into this latest one. The argument for that being that you know, we have this climate adaptation plan which sets forth the demand signal for more climate education, so we don't need a special one. But I'm not sure how much that permeates through the PME as much as a special area of emphasis would. That being said. There is the climate literacy sub-working group that's happening at the DoD wide level. And we are having a lot of conversations about if we're trying to expand climate literacy across and into the force at all levels, how do we do that? What is it that people need to know? And through that, we have conversations about the kind of people who are building climate education are like. Well, nobody knows about it except for climate scientists, and they tend to want to teach the climate science. But that may not be what the helicopter pilots or the acquisition officers need to know. So, then we have a conversation about when do they need to know it. Do they need to know it when they join? Do they need to know it when they're at the PME stage or higher level? So that's part of the conversation with the what and the when. And then the how, you know, how do we reach as many as possible? Do we try and reach 100% of the force? Do we try and reach top leaders and it percolates down? Or rely on young people who are naturally interested, and it goes from the grassroots. So, these are all of the conversations that we're having literally right now because we're just still in that moment of forming this type of thing. Everyone says how do you define climate security? And there's two ways I tend to look at it. One is pretty intuitive, that climate change will alter the security landscape. The geopolitical situation is going to shift because of climate change and how it affects different countries. And most people tend to agree with that and understand that intuitively. So, now it's a question of what does that mean for them? And the second part of it, which is still in its nascent form, is how climate change really affects militaries. How does it affect our operations, how our planes fly, how our forces need to move in the desert? Whether our Humvees can operate under certain heat or cold conditions, et cetera. And I think it's that operational piece that is talked about a lot less and where there's a lot of room for growth. Dr. Megan Hennessey Which is usually the opposite of what happens in PME, at least from my experience, everyone dives into the tactics and operations before the bigger picture. So, it's interesting that this is sort of a reversal or a switch. CDR Andrea Cameron And I think it's a function a little bit of the reluctance to talk about it. But as soon as you talk about it, it amazes me every I think every single student without fail has said, “Oh yeah, I've been affected by something.” A storm hit my base. We had to move somewhere else because of wildfires. We had to change our deployment path. I'm on a ship, so you know, we had to move different across the ocean because of something we were trying to avoid. Or we got redirected for a humanitarian assistance mission. I think without fail, everyone has mentioned something that has happened to them, whether it's a black flag day in a training institution or a power outage, et cetera. Dr. Megan Hennessey When I was at Defense Information School, DINFOS, for the Navy as a Navy PAO, our first assignment as a team was to come up with the communication plan about how the sea level was rising at Norfolk. That's not something I ever would have thought about before, but clearly has significant impact on a lot of operations. So, thank you for helping us to, to think about those things, not just at the tactical, operational level, but also the bigger picture, the regional picture, and the global picture. Can you describe some of your challenges specific to working on this topic and your area of expertise in military education? Have there been any obstacles? And how did you face them? Any pushback? CDR Andrea Cameron Not as much anymore. And of course, you face it with high-level command endorsement which helps when the President of the United States says this is a priority. Then you have plenty of top cover to explore it. Whether people want to jump in or not. And I've taken an approach two-fold. One, everything I do is voluntary. If you don't want to be part of the group, don't be part of the group. It's a forum for people who are interested. And the other thing I do, I host a lot of talks and conferences. Everything I do is free and open to the public so that I can broaden the audience as much as possible. If you are interested in the subject, you have a place to get information about it. And, so, I don't want to have you know, twenty of the smartest academics get in a closed-door room and have a great conversation because no doubt it would be an exceptional conversation. I'm always impressed with my conferences. I have say, six hundred people show up to an online conference and then I will get a couple thousand views on the YouTube recording of it, which is amazing. The real-time engagement is fantastic, and the fact that I can have a fourfold audience just by hitting the record button is phenomenal. And the more we have people understanding this, the better. Dr. Megan Hennessey I think that's super validating feedback that you're doing the right thing at the right time. So, thank you for being the champion on behalf of PME, but also just, you know, your own research and representing that so well to such a wide audience. What's next for you on the research front? What are you looking into right now? CDR Andrea Cameron I'm looking at climate security policy development. That's really my focus. Here’s a little background, there was a little push for this at the end of the Obama administration, and almost all work toward this space stalled during the Trump administration because there wasn't the high-level interest. In fact, there might have even been discouragement. So, we're really looking at kind of how do you institutionalize some of these things? So that we get to continue working in this space throughout administrations. Because this isn't a political issue. It's just a ‘how do we do our job in this changing security landscape’ issue. And we want to do our job as best as possible. So, I think institutionalizing as much as possible through climate security policies, and practices, and procedures, and strategies, et cetera. That's where my research is. And the second part of that is probably an element of strategic communications. How do you talk about this in a way that most of the force will understand why it's important to them, is another piece. And that's something the Europeans have kind of really excelled at because they have a couple more years of testing messages, et cetera. Dr. Megan Hennessey You use the verbiage “climate literacy.” Is that what you mean by that? CDR Andrea Cameron A little bit, yes. In general, the climate literacy term is being adopted by the DoD and, and across the government, just as the words of saying how do we educate the entire federal government on climate change. Dr. Megan Hennessey It seems like an impossible task. Tell us some victories that you’ve seen to help us feel like we're making movement and progress. CDR Andrea Cameron Well, you can see it in both just kind of informal, what people are interested in. And whether they are participating either within workspace conversations or even private conversations. A lot of the engagement for most of this happens at your local community level, not something you're doing with respect to your job. But both of those are ways that people are getting increasingly engaged in the subject. And you also have just a lot of leaders who are talking about it more, which just permeates through the entire structure of the DoD. So those are two examples of ways that I'm encouraged that these will last longer than any particular administration. Dr. Megan Hennessey Yes, I think we've seen that apply to many different topics and areas of interest, and not just climate and security studies. The messaging seems so important. Is there something that individual faculty and PME institutions can do around that messaging in the way that they talk about this topic in their classes that would be impactful? CDR Andrea Cameron I think the biggest message is people somehow making the false dichotomy: either you are climate conscious or green, or you're operationally effective. And this is something that I think the Europeans have excelled at is really saying no, by making certain changes, and increasing your sustainability and your resilience in the operational field, you are better. You are more competitive. You have an operational advantage by being able to stay on station for more duration than your arrival. So, if you are able to teach this in a way where you remove the either or part of the conversation and say no, this is the next step in warfare, then then you are helping yourself and your students understand the relevance better. Dr. Megan Hennessey That's so well said, and I'm going to be thinking about that now for a while. Thank you. Zooming out a little bit, but also in on you as an individual, if I can ask. You've had such an interesting and varied career to date, not just your educational achievements, but also in your professional life. If there is, you know, a young O-1 or O-2 listening to this podcast, who wants some advice from you about how to navigate, you know, elements of their career, but also to keep sort of one foot in the educational space in terms of PME or military education and training—do you have any advice for them? CDR Andrea Cameron Absolutely. This is one thing, the services do really well, is by embedding education into our pipeline. One thing I always say: not all officers stay in, so I just tell people to take every job they have and have them set themselves up for success for the next job they want. Sometimes you don't understand until you're older like me, that you know, that job that you thought like, oh my gosh, this is going to be awful, and I'll hate it, and this isn't what I signed up for. And you realize that six years down the road, three tours later, it was the most important thing you could have done for your wayward career path. And, and it's not just my career path that's weird. Everyone has their own unique career path that is very rarely step by step by step. So, if you take every job or opportunity and, at one point in my career I had separation orders. I was ready to get out. But I decided to stay in. I was getting a master’s degree in human resources. I was going to do human resources on the outside. And then they created a human resources career community within the Navy, and I could stay in. It was wonderful. So, it worked out in a way that, keep doing what you need to do for staying in or getting out. Don't get your mind so locked in on one or the other. I'd probably kind of keep, you know, everyone's ratio is a little different and maybe not as simple as a 50/50, but 75% I'm going on my military career path, 25% I'm going somewhere else. Whatever your ratio is, keep both of those always in your head and do what you can in your current position to make sure that you're setting yourself up for the next one. Whether that's educational opportunities or training or a certain collateral duty that some people think I never want that. But you know, sometimes I've gotten more benefit out of my collateral duties than my primary function. So, all of those things are opportunities for you to pursue for both your professional and your personal interests within your career path. Dr. Megan Hennessey And, I have to ask, how did you start down this road of your own interests and climate change and security studies.? What kind of clued you in that this is something that you wanted to dive deeper into and to become really a thought leader in this space? CDR Andrea Cameron One, I've been interested in environment since I was in high school so many decades ago. But, I wanted to do my dissertation on climate change, and they told me no. So, I guess I'm even a victim of someone who said that's not something you want to do. Which might, admittedly, it might have been pretty early in the academic space to do that. So, I ended up doing humanitarian assistance, civil-military coordination. Which was a wonderful opportunity. I still do research in that space. And when you're doing humanitarian response, it's by nature response. You're after the fact, something bad has happened. And I wanted to get ahead of the fact. What are the policies we could put in place? What can we do to improve resilience on the front end so that you're not as impacted so much? So that kind of just led me more from response into a more proactive way of looking at it. And that drove me to the climate security dimension. Dr. Megan Hennessey Well, the Navy and the Naval War College are lucky to have you, ma'am. Last question for me, and it's a fun one. Tell us about Brussels. What do you love? CDR Andrea Cameron Well, what did people say about Brussels? It's the beer, it's the chocolate. It's the French fries. They're not French fries here, I said it wrong…Brussels fries. So we are enjoying the beautiful Brussels weather and the amazing opportunities we have to travel all around the country. I was fortunate enough to bring my husband and two of my children with me and we're having a ball. Dr. Megan Hennessey Oh, good. Well, thank you for making time for the Axon Podcast today, ma’am. Thank you very, very much, Commander Cameron. And we wish you the best of luck in the remainder of your Fulbright Scholarship. Thank you. CDR Andrea Cameron Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you today.