Giedrimas Jeglinskas
Developing solutions at the intersection of climate change and international security.
In 1999, Giedrimas Jeglinskas was the first Lithuanian accepted to West Point, kicking off a decade-long career in national security with the Lithuanian armed forces. Nearly two decades later, after a stint with Citigroup, he returned to Lithuania to serve as deputy defense minister. Later, he served as assistant secretary general for executive management at NATO, where he was responsible for the management of NATO headquarters, as well as acting as primary adviser to the secretary general. It was at NATO that Jeglinskas began to identify the connection between international security and climate change; he sees climate change as a “threat multiplier,” affecting geopolitics, civil preparedness, and resilience.
As an Emerson Collective Fellow, Jeglinskas will build General Resilience, an impact organization working at the intersection of security and climate change. Jeglinskas knows that, with weather-related events and warming trends boosting geopolitical competition, climate change will affect inflation, conflict, energy crises, food shortages, as well as other forces. General Resilience will assemble experts in national security, technology, finance, and development, to develop solutions to counter those forces. The General Resilience Lab will research two, primary topics: How to transition to renewable energy while mitigating political fallout, and how to build supply chains that are resistant to international conflicts and climate risks. The goals: To offer thought leadership, and to identify technology solutions for a more stable, climate-resilient world.