Stand up for the future we want
4 March 2025 - Writing in Sustainable Views, CISL's CEO, Lindsay Hooper, explains why embedding sustainability in national and global security strategies will increase military and environmental resilience.
In recent weeks, multiple Rubicons have been crossed. The western consensus - or certainly the US’s role within it - is fractured. As governments and media pivot sharply from culture wars to real wars, sustainability risks being sidelined unless it is actively embedded in national and global security strategies.
The choices made in the coming weeks and months will shape economies and define security and stability for decades to come. The question is whether sustainability - already weakened by flawed approaches, overly technocratic interventions and entrenched opposition - will become collateral damage or a cornerstone of future economic and security strategy.
This time last year, the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership convened a Global Leadership Summit to examine the implications of geopolitics for our collective ability to coexist on a finite planet. The conclusion was that old ideas and approaches were fraying, but few anticipated how fast the global order would unravel. Now, with geopolitical instability accelerating, sustainability must be recast as a core component of national resilience.
The reality is unavoidable: while climate change and nature degradation remain pressing - and, for some, existential - short-term geopolitical instability has surged to the forefront of government agendas. From Ukraine to the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific, we are seeing a rise of conflicts with increasing global significance, drawing in the interests of major powers and demanding political attention. Pretending otherwise is self-defeating.