Blogs & Opinions
Amber: The Hidden Cost of Myanmar’s Gem Trade
May 22, 2025
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Mancunion
Blood amber from Myanmar has yielded endless discoveries and taken the world by storm; the name seems fitting after the human rights atrocities tied to…
Plastic Pollution from Fibre Optic Drones May Threaten Wildlife for Years
May 22, 2025
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Leon Moreland
Russia’s war in Ukraine has encouraged a rapid increase in the deployment of drones that use fibre optic cables to protect them from being jammed…
Is US Conflict Minerals Disclosure Nearing an End?
May 20, 2025
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Michael R. Littenberg, Marc Rotter, and Peter Witschi
SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda took a pretty big swing at the US Conflict Minerals Rule in his prepared remarks yesterday at Practical Law Institute’s annual “SEC…
The US Should Aim Higher in Its ‘Minerals for Peace’ Deal with Congo
May 20, 2025
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Laura Kupe
In a small ceremony with oversized implications, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed his Congolese and Rwandan counterparts to Washington on April 25 for…
The Deadly Global Gold Rush: How to Stop the Illicit Mining and Trade That Fuel War and Repression
May 19, 2025
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Sasha Lezhnev and John Prendergast
Every year, illicit gold worth more than $30 billion flows across the globe, including gold originating in conflict zones and authoritarian states. Much of it…
Terrorists Use Food as a Weapon: How Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab Exploit Hunger
May 18, 2025
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Simone Papale and Emanuele Castelli
Over the last decade, there has been growing international focus on the role of food in conflict, particularly in Africa. The continent has seen an…
ECSA Launches New Working Group on Citizen Science in Areas Affected by Armed Conflict
May 14, 2025
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Anna Berti Suman and Doug Weir
Participatory community environmental research in areas affected by conflict could help empower people, groundtruth remote analysis, and contribute towards accountability processes and environmental peacebuilding.
The Importance of Tackling the Climate Impacts of UN Peacekeeping
May 13, 2025
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Ellie Kinney
To mark this week’s UN Peacekeeping Ministerial in Berlin, Ellie Kinney explains its potential role in improving transparency over the reporting of military GHG emissions…
Vorukh Exclave in the Fergana Valley: How to Overcome the Conflict Created by Stalin
May 12, 2025
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Alexander Shpunt
Judging by the extremely cautious reports in analytical publications of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are at the final stage of the process of delimitation…
Hydrodiplomacy over Hostility: Rethinking Water Sharing amid India-Pakistan Tensions
May 10, 2025
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Hazim El-Naser
In recent weeks, military skirmishes have erupted along the India-Pakistan border, particularly in the disputed region of Kashmir. The escalation followed a militant attack that…
India-Pakistan Conflict over Water Reflects a Region Increasingly Vulnerable to Climate Change
May 9, 2025
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Mehebub Sahana
In an unprecedented move, India recently suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, citing cross-border terrorism. This was one of a series of escalations…
If Illegal Logging Starts Again, Liberia Could Lose More Than Its Beloved Pygmy Hippos
May 9, 2025
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Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Liberia has more than half of west Africa’s remaining forests, which cover almost half of the country, approximately 6.6m hectares (16m acres) based on the…
The Indus Water Treaty Suspension: A Wake-up Call for Asia–Pacific Unity?
May 8, 2025
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Sinéad Barry and Emma Whitaker
On April 23, India suspended the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), a 65-year-old agreement that had been a rare symbol of cooperation between India and Pakistan…
Floodgates to Conflict
May 5, 2025
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Iqra Awan
In a region as volatile as South Asia, where historical animosities simmer beneath the surface of every diplomatic interaction, water has long stood as one…
Is ‘Green Reconciliation’ Coming to the Island of Ireland?
May 5, 2025
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Juneseo Hwang
The signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in 1998 undoubtedly marked a new chapter in the history of the island of Ireland. Yet, the natural…
The Trump Presidency and Climate Security in the Indo-Pacific Region
May 2, 2025
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Tobias Ide
In the first hundred days of his second presidency, Donald Trump has caused considerable turmoil. Radical cuts to federal spending, concerning attacks on democratic guardrails,…
Ukraine Minerals Deal: The Idea That Natural Resource Extraction Can Build Peace Has Been around for Decades
May 1, 2025
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Bridget Storrie
Ukraine has finally signed its minerals agreement with the US. The deal states that Washington will eventually receive a share of the profits from the…
What to Know about the Signed US-Ukraine Minerals Deal
May 1, 2025
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Gracelin Baskaran and Meredith Schwartz
On Wednesday, April 30, 2025, the United States and Ukraine signed a long-awaited deal to establish a joint investment fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine.…
The Rare-Earth Reckoning: What the US-Ukraine Mineral Deal Means for the World
Apr 30, 2025
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Ella Chepak
The US mineral deal with Ukraine was first mentioned earlier last year by the Ukrainian president Zelensky. The deal was a way for the US…
Water a Dimension of Threat to Wars
Apr 30, 2025
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Patial RC
Water conflicts may soon become the main source of discord between nations replacing the ongoing boundary disputes and discords. Brigadier Pervez Musharraf (former Pak Army Chief and President) while at…
Reflections from Recent Convenings
Apr 30, 2025
Energy Peace Partners
Across EPP’s areas of work, the current moment has been characterized by unprecedented levels of disruption. Geopolitical realignment, shifting international priorities, and shrinking public sector…
The Role of Gold in the Sudanese War
Apr 30, 2025
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Sara de Simone
When the civil war broke out in Sudan in April 2023, gold soon became pivotal in analyses of the conflict, both as a means of…
From Alexander using Jhelum River in 326 BC to Dams and Flooding in Modern World: How Rivers Have Been Weaponised to Win Wars and Gain Tactical Advantage
Apr 28, 2025
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Anurag
In April 2025, India announced that it would suspend the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan. It is a 63-year-old water-sharing pact which, interestingly, survived…
Illicit Mineral Supply Chains Fuel the DRC’s M23 Insurgency
Apr 23, 2025
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Clarkson Kamurai, Brad Handler, and Morgan Bazilian
The insurgency by M23 in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the latest example of the damage that can be wrought by…
The Cost of Conflict: Understanding the Health Consequences of War and Displacement
Apr 23, 2025
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Nour Suaaidi Amane
Peace and conflict, two words that are opposite, yet existing in the same world. For some people, life is marked by stability, access to healthcare…
A New Political and Funding Reality for Environmental Peacebuilding
Apr 22, 2025
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Conflict and Environment Observatory
The Trump administration’s January 2025 decision to freeze all foreign assistance funding has had massive and reverberating consequences for humanitarian, development and conservation programmes in…
Conflict-Monitoring Collective Wins European Space Agency Earth Observation Excellence Award
Apr 17, 2025
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Conflict and Environment Observatory
The Decentralized Damage Mapping Group — an international collective of academics and civil society organisations — has advanced the use of satellite analysis to document the…
Negotiations at Gunpoint: Does US Pressure on Ukraine for a Minerals Deal Amount to Unlawfully Procuring a Treaty by Use of Force?
Apr 17, 2025
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Jeremy Pizzi and Maksym Vishchyk
American attempts to coerce Ukraine into giving up its valuable mineral resources are unseemly, but they may also threaten the validity of such a deal…
From Risk to Resilience by Securing Wildlife Stockpiles in Liberia, Sierra Leone
Apr 16, 2025
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Charles Henson
The authors recently traveled to Sierra Leone and Liberia as part of an Elephant Protection Initiative Foundation (EPIF) project to help improve the security of wildlife…
BRICS: An Environmental Cooperation Opportunity for Half the World's Population
Apr 15, 2025
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Shina Ansari
The modern world is grappling with a series of profound environmental and social challenges. Although these issues are frequently mentioned in diplomatic meetings, negotiations, and…