Blogs & Opinions
Global Assessment Highlights Growing Environmental Risks to Human Security
Apr 25, 2019
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Doug Weir
The Sixth edition of UN Environment’s Global Environment Outlook – GEO6 – was published to coincide with the fourth UN Environment Assembly in March. As…
Top Funders and NGOs Think Empowering Women Farmers Can Reduce Hunger. Are They Right?
Apr 24, 2019
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Michelle Sieff
In 2017, about 11 percent of the world’s population—around 821 million—was undernourished, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This data confirms a recent…
Left Behind- the Mongolian Herders Living at Home With Mum
Apr 23, 2019
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Narangerel Yansanjav
“I am one of the woman-headed households in this soum. I have been a herder for many years. For me life is still good, because…
To Mitigate Climate-Fragility Risks, Build Preventative Capacity in Fragile States
Apr 23, 2019
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Truett Sparkman
States facing major climate hazards, such as flooding, drought, and sea level rise, will be forced to contend with the cost of humanitarian and adaptation…
Blockchain Is Great, but It Can't Solve Everything. Take Conflict Minerals.
Apr 23, 2019
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Fritz Brugger
Blockchain technology can help trace a product as it moves through a supply chain, but it cannot create trust where it’s often most needed.
Bloody Gold in Zamfara: Threat to Stability or Development Opportunity?
Apr 22, 2019
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Donald Inwalomhe
Although Zamfara gold should provide development opportunities but renewed gold interest in Zamfara represents a real threat to stability in a still vulnerable conflict in…
Was the Fate of Sudan's Ruler Sealed When Oil Prices Fell?
Apr 21, 2019
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Robin Mills
When Sudan shut down the pipeline from South Sudan in 2013, the new state was plunged into economic crisis within two years. Now, one of the…
Is It Times to Consider a More Federalized Iraq?
Apr 19, 2019
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Paul Iddon
Could granting more autonomy to the oil-rich region of Basra help its residents improve their livelihood? asks Paul Iddon.
Science Diplomacy and Environmental Peacebuilding: Overcoming Political Boundaries by Leveraging Science and Protecting the Environment in Cyprus
Apr 18, 2019
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Carla Isobel Elliff, Sunitha Anup, and Dhanasree Jayaram
This webinar series on science diplomacy and environmental peacebuilding seeks to explore the role of science diplomacy in environmental peacebuilding. The first webinar focused on Cyprus, which is…
Opinion: What More Than 150 Members of ISIS Taught Us about Water Security
Apr 17, 2019
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Anne Speckhard and Ardian Shajkovci
Former ISIS members have described in detail how water plays into terrorism and terrorist strategy. The authors have conducted interviews with more than 150 ISIS…
Titling Priorities
Apr 16, 2019
Maritza Losada moved to Puerto Guadalupe, Meta five years ago when her husband found a job with a large biomass energy company that grows sugar cane. She…
The Essential Triad: Water, Gender and Integrity
Apr 15, 2019
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Anga Timilsina
Water is critical for socio-economic development, energy and food production, healthy ecosystems, and human survival. Although 2.6 billion people have gained access to improved drinking…
Why Women Led the Uprising in Sudan
Apr 12, 2019
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Nasredeen Abdulbari
The protests that led to the ouster of Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, have been dominated by women. Day after day on the streets of Khartoum,…
Craft and the Council: Will Kelly Knight Craft End Climate Action at the UN Security Council?
Apr 11, 2019
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Oli Brown
In late February, Donald Trump announced Kelly Knight Craft, a 57-year-old Kentucky native, as his pick to succeed Nikki Haley as US Ambassador to the United…
Afghanistan's Transformation into a Narco-State
Apr 11, 2019
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Gareth Rice
As though Afghanistan’s problems couldn’t get any worse, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s most recent Afghanistan opium survey (released in November last year) was a…
Four Climate Change Factors That Might Contribute to Existing or Future Conflicts
Apr 10, 2019
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Loic Tchinda
According to the SIDA Report (2017), climate change might not have a clear and linear relationship with violent conflict but under certain circumstances, climate-related change can…
Pig Pens Power a Solution to Climate Change in Vietnam
Apr 9, 2019
When Trin Gim first started her biogas digester business, she raised many eyebrows. In the little district of Ung Hoa, located south of Viet Nam’s…
Gender Equality? Add Water
Apr 9, 2019
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Sonia Lowman
Imagine having to wait all day to defecate in the dark, just to get the tiniest semblance of privacy—and then getting raped because you went…
For Planet and Country: National Security's Climate Moment
Apr 9, 2019
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Jon Powers and Kevin Johnson
It is no overstatement that the greatest threat facing America’s national security and the world at large is climate change. Denials of science and fossil…
The Case for Planetary Stewardship
Apr 9, 2019
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Georg Kell
We know with scientific certainty that the impact of climate change will soon force governments to take bolder steps, both in terms of reducing emissions…
China’s Assertive Maritime Policy Is Older Than Xi
Apr 9, 2019
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Andrew Chubb
The toughening of China’s policies in the South and East China Seas is widely regarded as a defining characteristic of Xi Jinping’s foreign policy. But…
Vietnam Wants a South China Sea Dispute Resolution Pact with Teeth, Not More Politics
Apr 9, 2019
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Le Hong Hiep
Asean member states and China are a step closer to forming a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea after years of operating a…
Better Water Security Translates into Better Food Security
Apr 8, 2019
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Kyla Peterson
“Food production is the largest consumer of water and also represents the largest unknown factor of future water use as the world’s population continues to…
Environmental Issues Are Ravaging the Middle East - Why Aren't Newsrooms Taking It Seriously?
Apr 7, 2019
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Bel Trew
Safe water is the most basic need for humans. It is life. And yet water crises – which are often man made and have solutions – never get…
From Bolivian Cocaine to Colombian Gold, Low-Level Involvement in Illicit Economies Is Often Driven by Poverty and Marginalisation
Apr 5, 2019
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Allan Gillies
Across Latin America, many impoverished communities rely on income from illicit economies for their survival, yet international development agencies and NGOs have long been reluctant…
South Sudan, Where a Water Crisis Is Leading to Child Kidnappings and Rape
Apr 4, 2019
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Bel Trew
For a split second it looked like the young South Sudanese woman and her baby, swaddled in a cloth-carrier on her back, were taking a…
How to Avoid Flawed Minerals-for-Infrastructure Deals Like DR Congo and China's Sicomines Pact
Apr 3, 2019
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Adoni Maiza Larrarte and Gloria Claudio-Quiroga
It was confidently billed at the time as the "deal of the century." The Sino Congolaise des Mines (Sicomines) was the most significant Chinese investment project…
Lancang-Mekong Cooperation: Blessing or Curse?
Apr 3, 2019
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Jason Thomas
The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) marked its third anniversary last week with the announcement that China’s trade with the five Mekong member countries – Cambodia, Lao,…
Land Is Power: How Land Rights Can Enfranchise Liberia's Women
Apr 3, 2019
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Loretta Alethea Pope Kai
Liberia is in the throes of finalising one of Africa’s most progressive land rights laws but its potential will be thwarted if women are excluded. So…
From Joseph Kony to Nile Perch: Complex Links Hook Armed Conflict to Fisheries
Apr 1, 2019
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Sarah Glaser and Cullen Hendrix
Fisheries are complex systems, so numerous factors like human population growth, climate change, and changing lake chemistry come into play. But as our recent article…