Lawfare Archive: ‘Threat Multiplier,’ Climate, and the Military with Sherri Goodman

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4.7 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 November 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

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Summary

From August 27, 2024: On today’s episode, Sherri Goodman, the Secretary General of the International Military Council on Climate & Security and the first Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Environmental Security) joins Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien to talk about Sherri’s new book, “Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security.”

They discuss Sherri’s career in climate security, beginning at the Senate Armed Services Committee before “climate security” entered the lexicon. From there, they trace Sherri’s career educating a generation of military leaders about the nexus between climate change and national security and coining the phrase “threat multiplier,” helping to usher in a paradigm shift at the Pentagon. Sherri addresses skeptics wary of a perceived tradeoff between military readiness and greening the military, as well as others who warn against “securitizing” climate change. Finally, they look ahead, as Sherri lays out her four main pillars of climate action (mitigation and adaptation) and institutional reform (awareness and alliance building).

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Isabella Royo, with an episode from the Lawfare for November 1st, 2025.
0:16.0	On October 28, Hurricane Melissa made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane in Jamaica, the strongest
0:22.0	storm ever recorded on the island. Since then, the storm has moved across Haiti and Cuba,
0:27.3	killing dozens of people and causing flooding, landslides, and widespread devastation.
0:31.8	Climate experts have linked the sheer force of Hurricane Melissa to the unusual warmth of the
0:35.8	water south of Jamaica, and warned that
0:38.1	climate change's effects on sea surface temperatures are likely to make weather events like Melissa
0:42.2	more frequent and more devastating. For today's archive, I chose an episode from August 27,
0:47.6	2004, in which Tyler McBrion sat down with Sherry Goodman, former deputy undersecretary of
0:53.8	Defense for Environmental
0:54.9	Security, to discuss the nexus between climate change and national security. Goodman's efforts
1:00.3	to articulate the role of climate as a, quote, threat multiplier, end quote, at the Pentagon,
1:05.3	the pillars of effective climate action, and more.
1:22.6	Thank you. action and more. It's the Lawfare podcast. I'm Tiley McBrion, managing editor of lawfare, with Sherry Goodman, the Secretary
1:29.0	General of the International Military Council on Climate and Security, and the first deputy
1:33.5	undersecretary of defense for environmental security. Yes, you have to have military readiness.
1:39.5	Absolutely is fundamental. But how you achieve that readiness, you have to think about what are all the
1:45.6	components that go into it. And it's often the case that environmental stewardship and climate
1:52.7	security can be a piece of enabling that readiness. Today we're talking about Sherry's new book,
2:03.6	threat multiplier, climate, military leadership, and the Fight for Global Security.
2:06.5	So, Sherry, many of our listeners will be familiar with you and your work as a pioneer
2:12.0	in the field of climate security, but many may be surprised to learn that you didn't start
	...

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