(REGISTRATION NOW CLOSED)

(NEW)  WORKSHOP LOCATION: Palais des Congress, Room 511 F

On behalf of the US Air Force, we would like to invite you to participate in a scenario workshop designed to explore future energy and environmental security risks.  The USAF Minerva Initiative on Energy & Environmental Security is tasked with exploring new risk assessment and foresight methods for security planning, including outreach to international partners and allies. As part of this effort, the USAF Minerva team is hosting a series of scenario creation workshops intended to bring together experts from a range of scientific and security backgrounds.

Scenarios are often used by planners to integrate emerging scientific data with risk assessments, to provide glimpses into possible futures. Used by groups as diverse as the IPCC and Dept. of Defense, scenarios provide the backdrop for translating scientific data into action.

The Sunday session, hosted in coordination with the International Polar Year Conference, will offer a background to vulnerability and risk assessment methods for energy and environmental security (EES). The workshop will be structured into small-group discussions that will work towards creating new EES scenarios according to the wide variety of expertise in the room. Now in use by the US Air Force and NATO, this process allows participants to prioritize emerging risks, while tracing complex interactions that may have been previously unnoticed. As a relatively open process, the group is not forced or guided into pre-conceived futures, meaning that each workshop group develops a unique scenario. The Minerva EES program is dedicated to the sharing of free and unclassified information, understanding that collective security risks are complex, and can only be identified in advance by engaging with global, expert communities. As part of the scenario creation process, participants will examine how changing environmental conditions can lead to security risks, and how the scientific community can positively contribute to assessments of human, environmental, and energy security. 

We hope that you can join us on Sunday April 22nd. This will be a 5 hour workshop to begin at 9am and run through to 2pm.  Participants will be responsible for their own lunch.  If you have any questions about this event or would like more information, please contact Tracy Walstrom Briggs (tracy@globalint.org).