Sherri Goodman
Senior Fellow, Polar Institute and Environmental Change & Security Program
202-691-4343
Schedule an interviewProfessional Affiliation
Author, Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership & the Fight for Global Security.
Expert Bio
Summary
Sherri Goodman, Senior Fellow at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program and Polar Institute, and Secretary General of the International Military Council on Climate & Security, is credited with educating a generation of US military and government officials about the nexus between energy, climate change and national security, using her famous coinage, “threat multiplier,” to fundamentally reshape the national discourse on the topic. A former first Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Environmental Security) and staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Goodman has founded, led, or advised nearly a dozen research organizations on environmental and energy matters, national security, and public policy. Her new book, Threat Multiplier: Climate Change, the Military and Fight for Global Security was published in 2024.
Full Bio
Sherri Goodman is an experienced leader and senior executive, lawyer, and director in the fields of national security, climate change, energy, science, oceans, and environment. Goodman is Secretary General of the International Military Council on Climate & Security, the global forum for military leaders and security professionals dedicated to addressing the security risks of a changing climate. She is a Senior Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, and Senior Strategist at the Center for Climate and Security. Previously, she served as the President and CEO of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership.
Goodman served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of CNA (Center for Naval Analyses) where she was also the founder and Executive Director of the CNA Military Advisory Board, whose landmark reports include National Security and the Threat of Climate Change (2007), and National Security and the Accelerating Risks of Climate Change (2014), Advanced Energy and US National Security (2017), and The Role of Water Stress in Instability and Conflict (2017) among others. The film The Age of Consequences in which Goodman is featured, is based on the work of the CNA Military Advisory Board.
Goodman served as the first Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Environmental Security) from 1993-2001. As the chief environmental, safety, and occupational health officer for the Department of Defense (DoD), she oversaw an annual budget of over $5 billion. She established the first environmental, safety and health performance metrics for the Department and, as the nation’s largest energy user, led its energy, environmental and natural resource conservation programs. Overseeing the President’s plan for revitalizing base closure communities, she ensured that 80% of base closure property became available for transfer and reuse. Ms. Goodman has twice received the DoD medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Gold Medal from the National Defense Industrial Association, and the EPA’s Climate Change Award.
Goodman has served on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee for Committee Chairman Senator Sam Nunn. She has practiced law at Goodwin Procter, as both a litigator and environmental attorney, and has worked at RAND and SAIC.
Goodman serves on the boards of the Atlantic Council, the Council on Strategic Risks, the Marshall Legacy Institute, , Sandia National Labs’ Energy & Homeland Security External Advisory Board, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, served on its Arctic Task Force and chaired the Advisory Committee on Governing Solar Geo-Engineering.
Sherri has testified before numerous committees of the US Congress, and conducted interviews with print, television, podcast, radio and online media. She has published widely in various print and on-line media and in legal and scholarly journals. She is a frequent presenter and lecturer to governments, private and public sector organizations, and academia. In recent years she has spoken at Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School, MIT, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Middlebury College, Virginia Tech, Georgetown University, the Army War College, Naval War College, National Defense University, University of California at San Diego and Irvine, University of Southern California, and the University of Idaho. She has been an Adjunct Lecturer in International Affairs and Security at the Harvard Kennedy School and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Kennedy School’s Center for Science and International Affairs.
A summa cum laude graduate of Amherst College, she earned a law degree from Harvard Law School and a masters in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Amherst College in 2018.
She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Environmental Peacebuilding Association in the Hague in 2024.
Her new book, Threat Multiplier: Climate Change, the Military and Fight for Global Security was published in August 2024.
Headshot taken by Kristina Sherk .
Wilson Center Project
Resilience & Global Security for the 21st Century
Project Summary
This project will examine the national security implications of water both within the US and globally. With primary water sources threatened or degraded, from Flint Michigan, to Sana Yemen, the time is now to consider water as both a strategic resource and an essential human need. No longer can we take the provision of clean water for granted, even in our own country. A 2012 National Intelligence Community (NIC) Assessment on Global Water Security noted that water challenges will increase the likelihood of instability and state failure, promote regional tensions, and prevent countries from achieving food and energy security. The focus of this project is how changes to water availability and accessibility in areas of strategic interest to the US will emerge as national security concerns for the United States and its allies.
Major Publications
OPINION: Abdicating Climate Leadership Harms America's Security Interests in the Arctic, May 16, 2019 https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/444153-abdicating-climate-leadership-harms-americas-security-interests-in#.XN62aRQioAU.twitter
House Foreign Affairs Committee Written Testimony "How Climate Change Threatens U.S. National Security," April 2019. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/goodman.testimony.apr2019.pdf
The Climate and Security Podcast: Episode 6 with the Honorable Sherri Goodman, 2019, https://climateandsecurity.org/2019/01/15/the-climate-and-security-podcast-episode-6-with-the-honorable-sherri-goodman/
Interview – Sherri Goodman, 2019, https://www.e-ir.info/2019/01/24/interview-sherri-goodman/
OPINION: The Jordan River Valley is Running out of Water — And that's Bad for Everyone, 2018, https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/23/chicago-jordan-river
How climate change is fueling conflict around the world, 2018, https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/how-climate-change-is-fueling-conflict-around-the-world-1.4858826
Viewing Climate Change as a Geopolitical Risk, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-09-26/viewing-climate-change-as-a-geopolitical-risk-video
Sherri Goodman presided at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting: “Countdown to Day Zero: Water Scarcity and Security,” on June 1 in Washington D.C., https://www.cfr.org/event/countdown-day-zero-water-scarcity-and-security
Environmental and Climate Security for the 21st Century, 2018, https://www.amherst.edu/news/specialevents/commencement/speeches_multimedia/commencement-2018/conversations-with-honored-guests
China Has Arrived in the Arctic: Q & A with Sherri Goodman, 2018, https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2018/03/china-arrived-arctic-qa-sherri-goodman/
China's Arctic Ambitions: Q&A with Sherri Goodman, 2018, https://seatechnologymagazine.com/chinas-arctic-ambitions-qa-with-sherri-goodman/
Arctic Imperatives: Reinforcing U.S. Strategy on America's Fourth Coast, 2017, http://www.cfr.org/arctic/arctic-imperatives/p38868?cid=otr-marketing_use-ArcticImperatives/
Ocean Action Agenda: Supporting Regional Ocean Economies and Ecosystems 2017, http://www.jointoceancommission.org/en/newsroom/Press_Release/2017-_Ocean-Action-Agenda-Release.aspx
State Dept. ISAB Report on Arctic Policy, September 2016. https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/262585.pdf
"Meet The Woman Whose Two-Word Catchphrase Made the Military Care About Climate," 2015, http://www.buzzfeed.com/danvergano/the-threat-multiplier
National Security and the Accelerating Risks of Climate Change, 2014, https://www.cna.org/mab/reports
National Security and the Threat of Climate Change, 2007, https://www.cna.org/mab/reports
