Sharon Burke

New America's Resource Security Group

Jun 4, 2019

Sharon Burke is a senior advisor to New America, focusing on issues of international security, natural resources, and energy security. Sharon has primarily worked in the United States government, most notably as the assistant secretary of defense for operational energy in the Obama Administration, as well as holding positions at the Department of State in the George W. Bush Administration, and as a vice president and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. She attended Williams College and Columbia University, where she was a Zuckerman and International Fellow at the School of International and Public Affairs. Throughout her career, she has been an important force in bringing energy issues and climate change to the forefront of international security and peacebuilding.

Sharon’s Resource Security Program is right at home in New America, a think tank and civic organization dedicated to understanding new governance and ways to live in today’s profound technology shift. “We all talk a great deal about the Internet of Things,” Sharon says, “but my team is looking at the things of the interest. You can’t make it go without the raw materials.” Through this program, Sharon has focused on issues of conflict, natural resources, and energy security, most recently through the Phase Zero project. The Phase Zero project aims to understand the root causes of conflict around natural resources and the environment and shape strategy and prevent conflict before the threat is imminent. Sharon’s work has focused on using cutting-edge data tools to revitalize older ideas about prevention of conflict, particularly conflict modeling around water and precursors to conflict in a joint initiative with the World Resources Institute and the Water, Peace, and Security Partnership. She has also worked on issues of climate change, particularly trying to understand how we can transition away from high-consequence fuels and minerals, while also keeping livelihoods secure and promoting peace as much as possible. In an example of this work, through a partnership with the Resource Security Program and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, she has been working on a project modeling the impact of climate change on China’s strategic decisions, as well as examining the effects of disaster trends in Asia and the Pacific more broadly.

Sharon’s focus on environment and peacebuilding comes largely from a security perspective. She explains, “Peace and security are different words for the same thing. The ultimate goal of any military and any defense system is peace, but we discuss it as building security. Access to resources is a necessary precursor for both security and peace. You can’t have peace without water and food; they are the building blocks of security and peace.” Sharon’s work is particularly focused on the importance and potential of policy instruments in increasing security around natural resources and the environment. She sees policy as a crucial way of engaging with many actors, especially as it can be a more productive way to build secure relationships than military means.

The Environmental Peacebuilding Association provides such a place for actionable research and development of policy instruments. With the Resource Security program as an institutional member, Sharon says, “The known relationship between the environmental underpinnings of peace and security is still growing and the Association is the only professional association for this particular community of practice. It provides a place for those focused on actionable research to come together and engage with different ways of conducting policy research and work.”