Blogs & Opinions

Resource Politics and Why the Democratic Republic of the Congo Echoes Sudan’s Path

May 8, 2026 | Rebecca Mulugeta

A lot of policy writing still returns to a familiar storyline: resource-rich countries slide into crisis because wealth intensifies competition, competition drives instability, and instability…

Is Water the Next Geopolitical Battle?

May 7, 2026 | Tony Maciulis

This spring, the World Bank launched a new initiative to tackle a growing problem plaguing the world’s most fundamental resource: water. The program, dubbed Water…

Roots and Returns: How Value-Added Timber Can Create Jobs and Keep Liberia's Forests Standing

May 7, 2026 | Ngao Mubanga, Alari Hasanatu Ijileyoh Mahdi, Julieta Calcopietro, Henrique B. Zay Zay, and Marcelo Acerbi

Half of Liberia’s population lives within two and a half kilometers of a forest. For most of these families, the forest is not scenery. It…

Espoo Convention: Does Cross-Border Environmental Impact Assessment Work in War Zones?

May 7, 2026 | Polina Tsybulska

In today’s world, where armed conflicts are becoming increasingly frequent, the environmental consequences of war extend beyond national borders, threatening not only local ecosystems but…

The Plow and the Well: Conflict Is Moving to Systems

May 6, 2026 | Russell D. Howard, Alicia Ellis, and Sarah Shoer

Control over water, food, and supply chains is increasingly shaping how power operates in modern conflict with non-state armed groups. When these systems fail, recruitment…

How to Integrate Green Economy Approaches into Peacebuilding Efforts in Africa?

May 5, 2026 | Ibrahim Dibal

Africa stands at a critical intersection where environmental degradation, climate change, and violent conflict converge to create complex crises that demand innovative solutions. As the…

Powering Peace: Can Renewable Energy Help End Africa’s Conflicts?

May 4, 2026 | Andrew Hyde

When armed groups began threatening a community in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that had recently gained access to solar-powered electricity, something unexpected happened.…

Rethinking Funding for Climate and Peacebuilding: Insights from the CCDP and ECCP Community Fund

May 4, 2026 | Geneva Graduate Institute

A new contribution to CDA Collaborative Learning Projects Rebuilding the Anthills: Transformation Prototypes for the Post-Aid World explores this question through the concept of “curiosity-guided…

How Modern Conflicts Are Accelerating the Climate Crisis

May 2, 2026 | Farah Naz

Conflicts have a substantial connection to geopolitics, security, and human tragedy, yet there is another, less-discussed dimension of aggressive conflicts: their impact on the global…

Collective Management of Natural Resources for Post-Conflict Recovery

Apr 29, 2026 | Anna Wallace

How can natural resource management support post-conflict recovery? The second of a two-part blog series draws on evidence from Colombia, Nepal, and Sudan to explore…

Afghanistan Is Surrendering Its Mineral Wealth – and Its Future

Apr 28, 2026 | Javed Noorani and Lynne O’Donnell

Afghanistan is giving away its mineral wealth. Through a pattern of deals that export value at the point of extraction, the country is surrendering control…

A New Oil Crisis Stress-Tests the Global Energy Transition

Apr 22, 2026 | Jewellord Nem Singh

The US–Israeli war launched against Iran in 2026 may be remembered as the moment fossil-fuel dependence became more than a mere abstraction for the Global…

Ethiopia, Egypt, and the Nile: Why International Water Law Is Failing the GERD Dispute

Apr 22, 2026 | Mostafa Ahmed Fouad Makled

The ongoing dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) reflects a deeper structural challenge in international water governance: the fragmentation of legal regimes and…

Why Minerals-for-Security Deals Won’t Save the DRC

Apr 22, 2026 | Bram Verelst

Resource bartering doesn’t deliver stability – it perpetuates institutional fragility and rarely builds public trust and legitimacy in African governments.

The Darkest Shade of Green: Strategic Weaponisation of Environmental Governance by Violent Extremist Organisations

Apr 22, 2026 | Fabrizio Minniti

Over the last few years, a clear and troubling pattern has crystallised: where the state fails to manage water and energy scarcity, violent non-state actors…

Can Climate Change-Induced Resource Scarcity Increase the Likelihood of Conflict?

Apr 21, 2026 | Anna Wallace

How does climate change-induced resource scarcity shape civil conflict? The first of a two-part blog series examines how environmental pressures act as a threat multiplier,…

Landscape: A Human Lens on the Environmental Cost of War

Apr 21, 2026 | Samira Siddique and Simon Watkins

When we talk about the environmental cost of armed conflict, there is often a focus on immediate, measurable and tangible impacts such as the physical…

Why Reviving the Indus Waters Treaty Matters Now; Reimagining Peace through Water

Apr 20, 2026 | Ranjan Solomon

There are moments in history when cooperation survives not because it is easy, but because it is necessary. The Indus Waters Treaty has long been…

Fossil Fuel Transition Talks Must Address Militaries

Apr 20, 2026 | Ellie Kinney

The global energy crisis triggered by the Israeli-US war against Iran has catapulted the relationship between militarism, armed conflict and fossil fuels into the spotlight.…

Green Energy and European Security: Reducing Exposure in an Era of Shocks

Apr 15, 2026 | Chris Kremidas-Courtney

Across Europe, governments are again scrambling to manage exposure. LNG cargoes are being rerouted, emergency measures are under consideration and industrial users are being warned…

Climate Shocks, Information and Risks to Peace

Apr 15, 2026 | UN Office to the African Union

As climate impacts intensify, the information ecosystems through which climate risks are communicated, understood and acted upon are becoming increasingly consequential for peace and security.…

Event Report: Exploring the Potential and Applications of Citizen Science in Areas Affected by Armed Conflicts

Apr 13, 2026 | Elaine Donderer

The European Citizen Science Association (ECSA)’s working group on citizen science in areas affected by armed conflicts was established in 2025, and ECSA’s March 2026…

An Environmental Disaster in Moldova Has Russia’s Fingerprints All over It

Apr 11, 2026 | Paula Erizanu

In the second week of March, the nature vlogger Ilie Cojocari went out to film the arrival of spring on the Nistru (Dniester) river, 70 metres…

The Due Regard Principle in IHL: Protecting the Environment amid Armed Conflict

Apr 9, 2026 | Lydia Millar

Environmental degradation remains one of the most persistent and under-addressed consequences of contemporary armed conflict. International Humanitarian Law (IHL) recognises these dangers and imposes a…

Millions Facing Hunger and Water Crisis in Somalia as World Focuses on War in Middle East

Apr 8, 2026 | Nick Ferris

The start of 2026 has not been easy for the residents of Madina Camp, on the outskirts of the city of Baidoa, in Somalia’s South…

Blood Gold, State Failure, and the Political Economy of Violence in South Sudan

Apr 8, 2026 | Stephen Dhieu Kuach

The massacre at Khor Kaltan is not merely a security lapse. It is an indictment of a state that has abdicated its most basic responsibilities…

Attacks on Civilian Infrastructure – War Crime and Dangerous Escalation

Apr 5, 2026 | William Keenan

The bluntness of the threat is not the issue. The strategic and humanitarian implications are. When a national leader openly signals an intention to strike…

As Wars Rage, a Deeper Crisis Builds beneath Geopolitics: Water Drought

Apr 5, 2026 | A Ravindra

Even as the war between the US, Israel and Iran disrupts the global supply of oil and gas, a far graver danger looms: depleting water…

War's Hidden Victim - the Environment

Apr 3, 2026 | Khalid Mahmood Shafi

As fires raged through Iranian oil depots following recent airstrikes, towering columns of black smoke rose above Tehran. Residents reported what they called "black rain",…

Oil Production in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region: Before the War and Now

Apr 2, 2026 | Mahmood Baban

Wednesday's drone strike on the Sarsang oil field in Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province - the latest in a series of attacks on energy infrastructure across…