Blogs & Opinions

Re-Envisioning Climate Action to Sustain Peace and Human Security

Nov 17, 2020 | Catherine Wong, Stephen Gold, Samuel Rizk, and Cassie Flynn

A combination of crisis, conflict, climate change and COVID-19 means that we live in truly unprecedented times. In complex contexts, the message of environmental protection…

Global Water Security & Sanitation Partnership (GWSP) – Rising to the Challenges of 2020

Nov 16, 2020 | Jennifer J. Sara

The year 2020 has been shaped by interlocking crises: the COVID-19 pandemic that threatens to roll back years of hard-won development progress, the struggles of…

Masculinity Is the Unspoken Undercurrent in Trumpism and the Fracking Debate

Nov 16, 2020 | Zack Rearick

Deindustrialization emasculates. It hits at men’s pride and devalues a kind of blue-collar physicality that has traditionally been revered (glorified in culture) and rewarded (paid…

Will Bangladesh Ever See An End To Gender-Based Violence?

Nov 16, 2020 | Rosie Pasqualino

Acid and dowry-based attacks have been particularly prominent in the country, though sexual, physical, psychological and economic abuse has been recognized as forms of abuse…

In the Caribbean, Climate Change Is a Gender Issue

Nov 16, 2020

Caribbean countries are vulnerable to climate change and its impacts, including rising sea levels, extreme and unpredictable weather (including natural disasters), drought and flooding, biodiversity…

Integrate Gender When Designing Climate Policy

Nov 16, 2020 | Mara Dolon and Jessica Olson

The team of people tasked with coordinating the global climate change negotiations for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in 2021, we recently learned, consists…

The Ancient Band of Shepherds Taking on a NATO Land Grab in Montenegro

Nov 13, 2020 | Pablo Dominguez

While all eyes were focused on elections in the US, few noticed that a new government was to be sworn in in Montenegro. Shepherds and…

A Danish Approach to the Arctic

Nov 12, 2020 | Zach Simon

Today, climate change has brought Greenland and the Arctic back into the spotlight. Changing conditions, such as diminishing ice sheets, provide new opportunities for Russia…

Digging in the Past: A New Look at the Customary Land Conflict in Liberia

Nov 12, 2020 | D. Otheil Forte

In 2018, the Land Rights Law of Liberia was passed into law. This was a good hundred years after the government formally declared “perfect, complete and absolute”…

A Digital Revolution to Save Nature and Build Peace

Nov 12, 2020 | Wim Zwijnenburg

The revolution in space-based technologies is creating a wealth of opportunities to track environmental degradation and its impact on lives and livelihoods. From rapid urbanisation…

The Psychological Barriers Preventing Environmental Protection in War

Nov 12, 2020 | Gabriela Kolpak and Klaudija Visockyte

It’s a widely held view that environmental damage is inevitable in war. But is it possible for us to better protect it, or are we,…

The Weaponisation of Environmental Information in the Era of Fake News

Nov 12, 2020 | Doug Weir

Environmental disaster? War crime? Ecological terrorism? A polarised and omnipresent social media is turbocharging the manipulation of environmental information during conflicts. While the use of…

South Sudanese Women on the Move: Their Roles in Conflict and Peacebuilding

Nov 2, 2020 | Marisa O. Esnor

Enduring violence, climate change and other environmental crises force people in South Sudan to flee their home towns. Women and girls face gender-specific challenges and…

Protecting Women with More than Words

Nov 2, 2020 | Margot Wallström and Dan Smith

While the global conversation about protecting women and girls has improved in the 20 years since the adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution…

Recent Oil Spills in Central Yemen

Nov 2, 2020 | Eoghan Darbyshire

Report on recent oil spills, including two on land, one at sea with potential impacts on biodiversity, and one near-miss on an oil pipeline pumping…

DRC: A History of Pillage, Destination Unknown

Oct 30, 2020 | Africa Report

Congo's history is a long litany of theft and conflict. From the slave trade, to the brutal Belgian colonisation, to the Cold War manipulation and…

Climate Change Is a Security Issue: An Interview with Geoff Dabelko

Oct 29, 2020 | Cindy Zhou

“Climate change fundamentally impacts the political economic stability of a country,” said Dabelko. In the case of the Syrian Civil War, many experts point out…

How to Build a More Equal World

Oct 26, 2020 | Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Just as the World Health Organization identified COVID-19 as a pandemic, UN Women launched our analysis of the global status of women’s rights, showing limited…

Key Player in War on Climate Change? The Pentagon

Oct 26, 2020 | Michèle A. Flournoy

To its credit, the DoD has already been investing over $1.5 billion of its annual research and development budget in new energy technologies. In the past,…

Climate Change as an Unconvential Security Risk

Oct 23, 2020 | Cullen Hendrix

As security threats go, climate change is not the wolf at the door, threatening to blow the house down. Rather, it is thousands of termites…

The Environmental Collateral Damage of the South China Sea Conflict

Oct 13, 2020 | Ryan McNamara

Tensions in the South China Sea increased last April when a Chinese coast guard ship sank a Vietnamese fishing boat near the Paracel Islands—a fiercely…

COVID-19 Recovery - A Missed Opportunity to Fight Climate Change and Gender Inequality?

Oct 13, 2020 | Sven Harmerling

There is a real risk that women will not be able to take advantage of new green jobs as countries overlook gender in pandemic stimulus.COVID-19…

Why Are North & South India so Different on Gender?

Oct 13, 2020 | Alice Evans

Everyone knows that Southern and Northern India are very different in culture, language and socio-economic development. But the most dramatic regional disparity may be in…

Exploring Gender Inequality in Yemen

Oct 13, 2020 | Lily Jones

Due to structural inequalities, women and girls cannot easily access essential services in Yemen, such as education. The effect of this limited access is poor…

World Leaders Should Champion Gender Equality

Oct 13, 2020 | Nisha Varia

Women’s rights, including the right to live free from violence or to make decisions about their own bodies, are in the crosshairs of reactionary forces…

Introducing “Navigating the Poles”

Oct 8, 2020 | Michaela Stith and Mike Sfraga

The polar regions of Antarctica and the Arctic have long captured the world’s imagination as seas and continents covered in unending ice. But the reality…

Man Pleads Guilty to Violating Kimberley Process Law

Oct 6, 2020 | Rob Bates

The Clean Diamond Trade Act, passed in 2003, says that diamonds cannot be imported into or exported from the United States unless they are accompanied by documents…

COVID-19 and Climate Change are a Perfect Storm for Violent Conflict

Oct 6, 2020 | Beatrice Mosello and Adam Day

The global impact of COVID-19 is already combining with climate change to affect millions of the most vulnerable people in the world, including complicating evacuation…

Gender, Climate and Security in Latin America and the Caribbean: From Diagnostics to Solutions

Oct 6, 2020 | Adriana Erthal Abdenur

Women in the region suffer disproportionately from climate impacts, but they also play an essential role in addressing climate change. With the right policy responses,…

The Importance of Land Rights to Rohingya Repatriation

Oct 2, 2020 | Farhaan Uddin Ahmed

Given widespread confiscation of Rohingya land, it is essential that Myanmar instate changes in property rights to encourage the voluntary return of its displaced Rohingya…