Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel hosts a roundtable meeting with defense ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 2, 2014. (DoD Photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo)
As this week’s report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reminds us, combating climate change requires more than cutting greenhouse gas emissions. We must also prepare for the impacts that we can’t avoid, and the United States must continue to help our allies and partners do the same. That’s what American leadership is about.
That leadership is on display this week in Hawaii, where Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is hosting the 10 defense ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for a first-of-its-kind gathering on U.S. soil. One of the goals of this meeting is to identify how our militaries can work together more effectively to tackle non-traditional security challenges, including climate change and natural disasters.
