National DefenseUniversity Military Energy Security Forum
The United States is becoming increasingly dependent on imported liquid and gaseous fossil fuels. This threatens our national, energy, and homeland security as well as our balance of trade. The Department of Defense (DOD) is beginning to play a major role in exploring ways to increase energy security at military installations and for deployable units. DOD energy security policy should enable technology and funding options to be leveraged to ensure that energy is available when and where needed to support missions for troop deployments and at installations in the U.S. and overseas. The Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP) at the National Defense University (NDU) established the Military Energy Security Forum to develop policy and programmatic recommendations to aid the Department of Defense in adopting energy technologies and practices that will increase the security and sustainability of its energy resources for operational and installation missions.Military Energy Security Forums are planned to be held annually for senior DoD leadership, government officials, and other key stakeholders.In addition, a curriculum on military energy security will be developed for NDU schools and Service academies.
The first Military Energy Security Forum was held on November 21, 2006 at NDU and served as the capstone for facilitating information exchange among the Services and between logistics and installation missions. The Forum leveraged prior DOD energy security and sustainability efforts to create a working medium for DOD energy security policy and programmatic recommendations.It also presented an alternative energy technology assessment and cost-benefit methodology.Forum outputs support DOD leadership in safeguarding the security and sustainability of energy resources critical to defense missions.
The NDU Military Energy Security Forum was coordinated with the two DoD energy task forces: the Defense Science Board Task Force on DoD Energy Strategy, and the Defense Research and Engineering Power and Energy Task Force.Working with the two Task Forces, the NDU Military Energy Security Forum enables DoD to be a major force in mobilizing the country toward achieving energy security that is economically and environmentally sustainable.
