Blogs & Opinions

Liberia: How FDA Allows a Foreign Family to Hoard Forests and Hurts Communities

Oct 21, 2021 | William Harmon and Varney Kamara

In 2018, the Bondi Mandingo Authorized Community Forest signed a logging agreement with Indo Africa Plantation Limited. The community agreed with the company to log in…

Colombians Are Uniting around Land Reform. Here’s Why.

Oct 20, 2021 | Peter Coy

During Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Colombia this week, the issue of land reform will be high on the agenda. Farmers’ lack of…

What an Irrigation Project Reveals about Farmer-Herder Conflict in Northern Nigeria

Oct 20, 2021 | Daniel Adeoluwa Adeniyi

Clashes between herders and local farmers in several communities in Nigeria have increased in recent years. The conflict is impacting the economy negatively. Nigeria loses almost US$14…

Sustainable Responses to Human Mobility, Climate Change, and Conflict

Oct 19, 2021 | Alice Chang

Significant progress has been made in understanding the impacts of climate change on migration and security. However, said Beatrice Mosello, a senior analyst at adelphi, generalized narratives that…

All Systems Go: Integrating Climate Security across the U.S. Government

Oct 18, 2021 | Shruti Samala

President Biden has taken an unequivocal position on climate change: The administration’s first order of business was to issue a series of executive orders aimed…

Bangladeshi Women’s Leadership in Water Governance

Oct 16, 2021

Women in Bangladesh play a crucial role in collecting water, often bearing the brunt of physical labor and household chores. Despite women and girls playing…

How Can Climate Considerations Be Better Integrated into the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda?

Oct 15, 2021 | Adriana Abdenur, Mayesha Alam, Adam Day, Cristal Downing, and Beatrice Mosello

As the impacts of climate change become more clear—starkly outlined this August by the International Panel on Climate Change’s latest report—responses to them will require an…

The Nature-Security Nexus and the UN Security Council

Oct 14, 2021 | Florian Titze

The destruction of nature and the world’s ecosystems presents an unprecedented challenge for humanity. With one million species on the brink of extinction – the…

The Women’s Agenda for Climate Crisis

Oct 14, 2021

80% of the world’s resources are looked after, consolidated by women across the globe. If that is not an agenda that Women Peace and Security…

Focus on Women and Girls Matters as Disaster Risks Shift

Oct 14, 2021 | Riyanti Djalante and Mohammad Naciri

At its heart, ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response has a simple but visionary objective to reduce disaster risks and losses in lives. …

Bringing IHL Home: The Protection of the Environment in War

Oct 12, 2021 | Jani Leino

When international law addresses a particular issue of concern, ultimately the intention is to have some kind of real impact on that issue. In the…

Educating Girls: The Overlooked Solution to Climate Change

Oct 12, 2021 | T. Shawn Taylor

Addressing a global challenge as complex as climate change demands a full suite of solutions and actors, but one powerful intervention is widely overlooked: educating…

Iraq Takes a Step toward Ending Its Resource Curse

Oct 11, 2021 | Leon Kaye

It does not take much online sleuthing to sort out why Iraq, among many other nations rich in hydrocarbons, has long struggled with its very…

Ecological Decline Feeds Conflict in a Deadly Cycle as Climate Crisis Looms

Oct 7, 2021 | Onke Ngcuka

As temperatures rise — with Africa experiencing that increment at twice the global average — the erosion of ecological systems is likely to provide a…

Measuring Success in Transboundary Water Cooperation: Lessons from World Bank Engagements

Oct 7, 2021 | Jennifer J. Sara, Edoardo Borgomeo, and Anders Jagerskog

How do we know when international cooperation is successful? A senior U.N. official once suggested that cooperation is like elephants mating: it all takes place…

Environmental Security of Afghanistan Is Pathway to Regional Peacebuilding

Oct 6, 2021 | Saleem H. Ali

The rapidly changing political landscape in Afghanistan does not change the permanent physical geography of the region. As world leaders gather to discuss climate change…

Analysis: The Lack of Diversity in Climate-Science Research

Oct 6, 2021 | Ayesha Tandon

Publishing research in respected journals, such as Nature or Science, is a key way for academics to share their findings with the scientific community and beyond.

A researcher’s publication…

Women, Peace, and What is Security?

Oct 4, 2021 | Phoebe Donnelly, Gretchen Baldwin, Masooma Rahmaty, and Phesheya Nxumalo

The past year has raised many questions for those focused on the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, as well as highlighting issues that feminist…

The Imperative of Climate Adaption for Africa: Building Resilience Across Societies in an Inclusive Manner

Sep 30, 2021

Empowered women and girls have the capacity to build resilient communities using local solutions to climate change to safeguard lives and ensure a sustainable future…

Addressing Masculinities and Gender Stereotypes to Prevent Violent Extremism and Terrorism

Sep 30, 2021 | Pablo Arrocha Olabuenaga

Fifteen years ago, the General Assembly unanimously adopted the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GCTS), which has served as the backbone for the efforts of States to…

Food as a Pathway to Peace: COVID, Climate, and the Hunger-Conflict Nexus

Sep 28, 2021 | Shruti Samala

Food insecurity, as outlined in the 2021 ISD report, Peace Through Food: Ending the Hunger-Instability Nexus, cuts across multiple crises the world is facing today,…

Women and Climate Justice: It’s Time to Act

Sep 24, 2021 | Leocadia I. Zak and Susan Kidd

The headlines are clear. Human suffering from a changing climate is escalating and projections show clearly how it will worsen. Equally clear is the need…

Abyei Offers Lessons for the Region on Climate-Related Security Risks

Sep 23, 2021 | Kheira Tarif, Emilie Broek, and Katongo Seyuba

The conflict in Abyei—a disputed border region of farmland, desert and oil fields—has its origins in a long-running disagreement between two pastoralist groups, the local Ngok…

Climate Action Must Advance the Rights of Women and Girls

Sep 22, 2021 | Baroness Sugg

As an advocate for gender equality, I believe the most urgent change needed for women and girls is strong action on the climate crisis.

Today is…

It Makes Economic Sense for Women to Lead the Fight Against the Climate Crisis

Sep 22, 2021 | Oladosu Adenike

For the first time ever, the United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world, passed a resolution recognising access…

Climate Crisis Exacerbates Military Legacy Contamination

Sep 21, 2021 | Wim Zwijnenburg

The hazardous remnants of war are re-emerging. They include unexploded ordnance (UXO) and other vestiges of war. These military hazards that climate change can “wake…

Environmental Justice: Why Civil Rights and Protecting the Planet Go Hand-in-hand

Sep 15, 2021

As the global ecological crisis impacts ever-more lives, it is becoming clearer that we cannot talk about cimate change, pollution or biodiversity loss without talking…

Climate Security: It’s about Time

Sep 15, 2021 | Sharon Burke

Like most of us who were alive at that time, Sharon Burke knows exactly where she was on 9/11 when she heard the news. She…

Butterfly Effect: Why Spies Need to Focus on Climate Change

Sep 15, 2021 | Charu Sudan Kasturi

When President Joe Biden and 40 other world leaders gathered for a virtual summit on climate change organized by the U.S. in April, the list…

How Inaction on Climate Change Can Worsen the Crisis in Afghanistan

Sep 15, 2021 | Jariel Arvin

After decades of foreign intervention and violent conflict, the American mission in Afghanistan has ended and the Taliban have announced a new government. But for…