Blogs & Opinions

Colombia's Environmental Crisis Accelerates Under Duque

Apr 20, 2020 | Evan King and Samantha Wherry

On 16 February 2020, six gunmen fatally shot Albeiro Silva Mosquera and his brother Luis Hugo and severely injured Indigenous leader and activist Daniel Remigio…

A Gender-Equal Ethiopian Parliament Can Improve the Lives of All Women

Apr 19, 2020 | James Jeffrey

Recent gains by women in the Ethiopian political landscape offer a chance to improve gender equality around the country and put an end to long-standing…

Demilitarizing the Response to Climate Change

Apr 17, 2020 | Peace Science Digest

A range of policy options are available to countries to address and respond to climate change. Looking specifically at the U.S., the authors of this…

Conflict to Conservation: How Guerrilla Fighters Became Environmentalists

Apr 17, 2020 | Eleanor Whitworth

The unlikely protectors of Columbia’s wildlife and flora. They were guerrilla fighters in a lengthy civil war. Now they're protecting Colombia's pristine, richly biodiverse jungles and…

COVID-19 Shows How Reckless Jordan Valley Annexation Would Be

Apr 17, 2020 | Gidon Bromberg, Yana Abu Taleb, and Nada Majdalani

“Cutting off the nose to spite the face” is an apt expression to describe the lack of rationale behind Israeli government policies calling for unilateral…

A Gender Lens for COVID-19

Apr 16, 2020 | Susan Papp and Marcy Hersh

When pandemics strike, world leaders and health responders must adapt quickly to the looming threat. Often the last factor they consider – if it makes…

Women Leaders Are Doing a Disproportionately Great Job at Handling the Pandemic. So Why Aren’t There More of Them?

Apr 15, 2020 | Leta Hong Fincher

CNN’s Alisyn Camerota and former US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power discuss how seven female world leaders are spearheading a strong response to…

Gender Relations in Forestry: Beyond a Headcount

Apr 15, 2020 | Kate Evans

Women can play a huge role as ‘critical actors’ in defending and managing their forests, says Ph.D. candidate and gender researcher Priyanka Bhalla from the…

Pandemic Hits Women Harder, Says WSI

Apr 15, 2020

Is a gender viewpoint needed to examine the COVID-19 risks and impacts on fisheries and aquaculture? According to Natalia Briceño-Lagos and Marie Christine Monfort of…

In Frozen Negotiations over the Donbas, Environment Is Everything

Apr 15, 2020 | Gabriella Gricius

Despite the many issues plaguing negotiations to bring ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine to an end, one aspect that positively contributes to mutual cooperation and…

Environmental Effects of Chinese Projects in Myanmar

Apr 15, 2020 | Megha Gupta

The Chinese “project of the century” — the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is a transcontinental network of roads, railways and ports, covering dams,…

Women, Peace, and Security: Gender and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Apr 13, 2020 | Tracy Beattie, Hal Crichton-Standish, Daria Impiombato, Alexandra Pascoe, and Albert Zhang

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, a number of commentators have stressed the need for gender analysis of the issue. Writing for The Atlantic, Helen Lewis discusses the…

The Greatest Story Never Told

Apr 13, 2020 | Meaghan Parker

“If the pope is interested, everyone is interested,” said Alexandre Roulin, accepting the 2019 Environmental Peacebuilding Research Award in Irvine, California. The University of Lausanne…

COVID-19 & ASM: Illicit Traders Cashing in on Vulnerable Miners in Conflict-Prone Areas

Apr 10, 2020 | Alan Martin and Joanne Lebert

We are particularly concerned about the pandemic’s impact on livelihoods, how it will fuel the illicit trade of minerals, and undermine peace and security in…

Women Leaders Call on UN Security Council to Address Covid-19 Crisis

Apr 9, 2020 | Group of Women Leaders, Voices for Change and Inclusion

This letter to President of the United Nations Security Council Mr. José Singer Weisinger was signed electronically on 8 April 2020 by a growing group…

Unfulfilled Ambition: Yemen's National Action Plan for Women Leaves Much to Be Desired

Apr 9, 2020 | Maha Awadh

As Yemen enters its sixth year of a vicious war, turning it into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, women bear the greater burden of the…

In Wasting Oil Wealth, Baghdad and the KRG Have More in Common Than Meets the Eye

Apr 9, 2020 | Nick Augustijn

With the slump in oil prices, and some analysts forecasting prices to head towards $10 per barrel, yet more hard times are ahead for Iraq and…

From ENMOD to Geoengineering: The Environment as a Weapon of War

Apr 7, 2020 | Gabriela Kolpak

Collateral environmental damage has long been regarded as an inevitable consequence of armed conflicts. But there have also been many examples of the intentional manipulation of…

Evaluating Environmental Peacebuilding: Difficult but Necessary

Apr 7, 2020 | Juha I. Uitto and Amanda Woomer

When you first hear the phrase “environmental peacebuilding,” you may think that these two words are not directly linked. Think again. Many conflicts around the…

India: Climate Change and the Need for Gender-Responsive Policymaking

Apr 5, 2020 | Akanksha Khullar

While climate change in general has negative implications, from a gender perspective, it entails greater risks for women than men. In India, as weather patterns…

Women, Peace, and Security - Challenges and Opportunities in Light of the Corona Pandemic

Apr 4, 2020 | Carmen Niethammer

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Resolution on Women, Peace and Security, also known as UN Resolution 1325. It specifically addresses how…

Opinion: Women Have a Major Role in Rebuilding Somalia-- the Private Sector Must Support Them

Apr 3, 2020 | Alice Laugher

When Zahra Ibrahim began studying at a university in Mogadishu, Somalia, she was told that computer science wasn’t for women. Her parents and teachers wanted…

COVID-19: Why Policymakers Need a Gender-focused Approach for Health and Economic Recovery

Apr 2, 2020 | Julia Arnold, Elizabeth Anderson, Smriti Rao, and Sarah Gammage

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to engulf the world, questions of post-disaster recovery must be at the forefront of the conversation. We’re still far from…

Renewable Energy as an Opportunity for Peace?

Apr 2, 2020 | Vane Moraa Aminga

Growth in global energy demands due to population and economic growth has caused energy-sector emissions to rise and surpass historic records. Clearly, efforts to sustainably mitigate climate…

With the World Pre-Occupied with Coronavirus, Israel Pushes a West Bank Land Grab

Apr 2, 2020 | Evan Gottesman

An emergency unity government to confront coronavirus: that’s been Benjamin Netanyahu’s pitch to his rivals in Kachol Lavan since Israel’s March 2 Knesset elections. Kachol…

Members Urge States and the IUCN to Address Conflicts and Biodiversity

Mar 31, 2020 | Stavros Pantazopoulos

The topic of the protection of the environment in relation armed conflicts (PERAC) is increasingly attracting the attention of the international community. The UN Environment…

Show Me! Laying the Foundation for the Next Generation of Environmental Peacebuilding

Mar 31, 2020 | Carl Bruch

As documented by the New Security Beat, environmental peacebuilding has grown dramatically as a field in recent years. Across the security, development, and diplomatic communities,…

Learning from Dalit Women Fighting for Land Rights in Punjab

Mar 31, 2020 | Tarini Manchanda

Stories about Dalit women often go untold, even though women of this social category continue to face discrimination in the caste system as the most oppressed social…

How Gum Acacia Trees Could Help Build Peace in the Sahel

Mar 30, 2020 | Ousseyni Kalilou

A special type of tree could facilitate peacebuilding in the Sahel. A stretch of semi-arid land south of the Sahara that runs from the Red…

Earth Hour Reminds us Tackling Climate Change Needs Gender Equality

Mar 27, 2020 | Kalpana Giri

Forests are vital to tackling climate change. But if we are to succeed in our efforts to save the Earth, we must think beyond conservation,…