The Security Implications of Global Warming

In considering the implications of global warming, it is important to understand the context in which the problem is arising. It is especially important to understand the historical legacy of the governments that will have to respond to it. In the case of the United States, the legacy was formed in the sequence of events that began with the Great Depression and ended with World War II. As a result of that sequence, the federal government became far more consequential domestically than it had ever been before, and the United States became far more consequential internationally. It was a moment of maturation brought about not merely by the passing of time but in response to momentous events. It gave the country an organizing and energizing focus.