Johan Bergenas is a Senior Associate and Director of the Partnerships in Security and Development program. One of Bergenas’ current primary focus is “natural security” – the interlinkages between environmental challenges and U.S. national and global security – as well as on technology and public-private sector partnerships. His background cuts across a wide range of transnational security challenges – from WMD proliferation, terrorism and transnational organized crime.
In 2014, Bergenas initiated Project Ngulia, a field initiative to build a new gold standard for natural resource protection. He has brought together a dozen public and private sector partners and technology providers on a pilot project in Kenya. Since 2015, Bergenas has also worked closely with a wide range of environmental and defense organizations to bridge the divide between these institutions on issues ranging from illegal fishing to technology capacity building in developing nations.
Bergenas’ work has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy. Prior to joining Stimson, Bergenas worked for the Monterey Institute of International Studies and Oxfam America. He has also been a reporter and a freelance journalist for numerous publications, covering a wide range of international and U.S. domestic issues. He holds an honors M.A. degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and an honors B.A. degree from the University of Iowa.
Follow Johan on Twitter @johanbergenas
Select Publications
- How Safeguarding the Ocean Can Improve Global Security (Cipher Brief, April 21,2016)
- Green Terror: Environmental Crime and Illicit Financing (SAIS Review of International Affairs, Volume 35, Number 1, Winter-Spring 2015)
- Fishing for War: How to Avoid a War with China Over Seafood – and Take a Bite in World Poverty (Politico, April 20, 2015)
- Five Myths About Illegal Wildlife Trafficking (Washington Post, April 17, 2015)
- Sustainable Partnership: Security and the Post-2015 Development Goals (World Politics Review, March 17, 2015)
- Smart Security Through Technology and Innovation (Stimson Spotlight, March 3, 2015)
- Development’s New Best Friend: the Global Security Complex (ISN ETH Zurich, December 12, 2014)
- Make Money, End Poverty (Foreign Policy, June 6, 2014)