Blogs & Opinions

Women, Peace and Security as Evolving and Contested Terrain: A Review of New Directions

Sep 28, 2020 | Aiko Holvikivi and Sarah Smith

In the WPS agenda’s twentieth anniversary year, New Directions brings academics, practitioners and activists into conversation in a book that demonstrates the evolutionary breadth and depth of…

Gender Equality is Important to Building Resilience and Peace during Disasters and Conflict

Sep 28, 2020 | Cindy Zhou

Conflict and natural disasters are often correlated: approximately 58 percent of deaths related to natural hazards take place in the world’s 30 most fragile states. 

COVID-19 Wipes Out East Timor's Dreams of Oil and Gas Riches

Sep 25, 2020 | Ian Lloyd Neubauer

COVID-19 and the global collapse in oil and gas prices appear to have put the final nail into the coffin of East Timor's long-held dream…

Many Companies Struggle to Comply with Conflict Mineral Reporting Rules

Sep 25, 2020 | Cindy Zhou

Over the past decades, conflict minerals have become lucrative sources of funding for armed groups, fueling some of the deadliest global conflicts since World War II.…

The Space Force's Relevance to the Green Agenda

Sep 19, 2020 | Peter Garretson

When most Americans think about Space Force, they probably imagine epic space battles or sprawling science fiction sagas. Policymakers who are more “in the know”…

Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Ukraine: An Opportunity for Gender-Sensitive Policymaking?

Sep 18, 2020 | Kateryna Busol

The stigma of CRSV, the patchy domestic legislation, and the unpreparedness of the criminal justice system to deal with such cases prevent the authorities from…

Wildfires in the US and Their Effects on Security

Sep 18, 2020 | Dr. Marc Kodack

Wildfires are burning across multiple states in the U.S. For Washington, Oregon, and California, these fires are having devastating consequences for tens of millions of people and their communities.…

Don’t Politicize Water

Sep 17, 2020 | Erika Weinthal and Neda Zawahri

The recently announced peace deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain stop short of repairing the political damage inflicted on the region…

The Global Impact of COVID-19 on Women and Girls

Sep 16, 2020 | Hannah Chosid

“As we face a global pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 800,000 people as of right now around the world, we certainly…

Water Wars: How Conflicts Over Resources Are Set To Rise Amid Climate Change

Sep 10, 2020 | Anastasia Moloney

With the world's population rising and climate change bringing more erratic rainfall, including severe droughts, competition for scarcer water is growing.

Biometrics Could Give More Vivid Picture of Woman’s Workload

Sep 8, 2020 | Allison Floyd

Asking a busy woman to report her daily activities can give researchers insight into how she spends her limited time and whether child-care and other…

Here’s Why We Need a Global Agreement on Cross-Border Science to Beat COVID-19

Sep 4, 2020 | Saleem Ali

The coronavirus pandemic should be a rallying call to policy-makers and scientists everywhere, bringing the world together to confront a common threat. In practice, however,…

Loss and Damage in Rwanda: A Young Climate Activist Reports

Sep 3, 2020 | Ineza Umuhoza Grace

On 8 September 2020, IIED and ICCCAD are hosting a webinar on climate-related loss and damage in the least developed countries. Here one of the speakers,…

Timor-Leste: The Path from Peace to Prosperity

Sep 3, 2020 | Jason Woodroofe

Standing underneath the 27m tall Cristo Rei statue of Jesus and staring back across at the beautiful city of Dili it is hard to imagine…

Unpacking the Revised and Annotated DRC Mining Code

Sep 1, 2020 | Mining Review Africa

In July 2020, the DRC mining registry published an annotated version of the 2002 Mining Code as amended in 2018 (the Revised Code). The announcement…

More Justice, Less Violence Related to Gender

Sep 1, 2020 | Simone Eggler

Although 25 years have passed since the World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, violence against women worldwide is still at alarming levels. Even…

1325: Rhetoric or Reality?

Sep 1, 2020 | Ndeye Sow and Gemma Kelly

Working on Women Peace & Security (WPS) issues since the 1990s, International Alert was directly involved in the global advocacy campaign “From the Village to…

Foundations for Gender Inclusive Peacebuilding

Sep 1, 2020 | Abiosseh Davis

Through years of programming experience in post-conflict contexts, Interpeace has learned first-hand that inclusion, particularly of marginalized and historically excluded groups, is fundamental for the…

Climate Change: A Threat to International Peace & Security?

Aug 29, 2020 | Mark Nevitt

Is the climate-security century upon us?  If so, what are the implications for international legal governance and institutions?  In his recent Opinio Juris essay, based on his provocative and…

Expert's Take: Four Lessons from COVID-19 that Should Shape Policy Decisions Everywhere

Aug 28, 2020 | Laura Turquet

All crises have gendered impacts – simply put, they affect women and men, girls and boys in different ways. COVID-19 is no different. Six months…

Ideas for How to Break Gender Barriers in Colombia's Water Sector

Aug 28, 2020 | Karen Navarro

The relationship between water and women does not come only from mythology. Since ancestral times, women have been responsible for managing water in communities, particularly…

Why Are Women Experts ‘Absent’ From Panels on War & Security?

Aug 27, 2020 | Ruhee Neog

In Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, an Athenian magistrate demands of an assembly of women: “And where do you get off taking an interest in war and peace?” The play, set…

Stopping Fuel Supplies Into Gaza Harms Israel

Aug 21, 2020 | Gidon Bromberg

When Hamas, which seeks to pressure the government of Qatar to continue sending money into Gaza launch rockets and balloon bombs into Israel, not only…

Water Wars Will Increasingly Fuel African and Middle East Conflicts

Aug 21, 2020 | Clive Lipchin and Hussein Solomon

The planet is heating up fast. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle East and Africa where the impacts on water security and…

In Northeastern Syria, Pollution and Conflict Prevent Thousands from Clean Water

Aug 20, 2020 | Elena Bruess

It has been decades since the oil fields in northeastern Syria began poisoning land and water. Production took off in the late 1960s, and before…

Put Gender Equality at the Heart of the Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery

Aug 20, 2020 | Valeria Esquivel

Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 crisis large numbers of women were excluded from the labour market. The pandemic has made things much worse.

It is disproportionately…

To Address Gender-Based Violence, We Need Creativity, Collaboration and Courage

Aug 20, 2020 | Bjorn Andersson

One glaring truth the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced when it comes to gender-based violence is that it is a humanitarian, development and socioeconomic crisis—a…

COVID-19 Exacerbates the Effects of Water Shortages on Women in Yemen

Aug 20, 2020 | Margaret Habib

The UN estimates that gender-based violence (GBV) has affected 33 percent of women worldwide. In Yemen, GBV has increased by 63 percent since the start of the civil war.…

Climate Security: The Role of Climate and Food Systems Science in Conflict Prevention and Peace-building

Aug 19, 2020 | Nam Nguyen

A systemic analysis of the role that climate, natural resource and food systems play in conflict and peace is key to design and implement interventions…

Want More Global Freedom and Prosperity? Include More Women in Leadership

Aug 16, 2020 | Natalie Gonnella-Platts

A century after women secured recognition of their right to vote within our own democracy, we must recommit to ensuring that women and girls around…