Blogs & Opinions

China-Vietnam Relations Fall to a One-Year Low over a New Maritime Dispute

Aug 2, 2017 | Ralph Jennings

After a world court tribunal ruled last year in July that Beijing lacked legal rights to claim most of the South China Sea, it stepped…

Will Afghanistan's Minerals Shape Trump's Policy Toward the Region?

Aug 2, 2017 | Ahmad Shah Katawazai

In addition to Afghanistan’s geopolitical and geostrategic importance, its lucrative mineral resources — estimated to be worth between $1 and $3 trillion  — could be one of the…

Trump’s New Afghanistan Strategy: Keep the Minerals!

Aug 1, 2017 | Eric Levitz

Donald Trump spent most of his campaign sounding like the adult son of George Wallace and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. But every once in…

Afghanistan: All That Glitters Is Not Gold

Aug 1, 2017 | Catherine Putz

The Trump administration would benefit from recalling the cautionary adage “All that glitters is not gold” when contemplating the theoretical wealth of resources hidden in…

How the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty Helped Expose Disarmament’s Weakness on the Environment

Jul 31, 2017 | Matthew Bolton

In this new report from Pace University’s International Disarmament Institute and the Toxic Remnants of War Project, Doug Weir, explores the implications of the new Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty for the…

London Conference Highlights Opportunities to Improve Environmental Response to Conflict Pollution in Iraq

Jul 31, 2017 | Doug Weir

As the dust settles from the battle to recapture Mosul, and the urgent humanitarian crisis reaches its peak with millions of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)…

Joining the Global Transparency Revolution - How Can Environmental Transparency Help Make Mining More Sustainable?

Jul 31, 2017 | Inga Petersen

At first sight, ‘sustainable mining’ is the very definition of a contradiction in terms. How can an industry that digs holes in the ground, extracts…

Water Wars: Jockeying for Black Gold in the South China Sea - China Leverages Its Growing Military Presence, Threatening Vietnam and Building Ties with the Philippines

Jul 31, 2017 | Jimmy Chalk and Sarah Grant

This week China made waves in the South China Sea’s hydrocarbon space, hinting at joint venture opportunities with the Philippines and coercing Vietnam into shutting…

Pushing for Progress on Abyei

Jul 31, 2017 | Enough Project

The six years following the signing of the June 2011 Agreement on Temporary Arrangements for the Administration and Security of the Abyei Area have proved…

Trump Wants to Dismantle Wall Street Reform. Here’s What That Could Mean for…Congo

Jul 27, 2017 | Carol Jean Gallo

The Trump administration’s hostility toward the 2010 Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (aka the Dodd-Frank Act) should come as no surprise, given Trump’s campaign…

Security Links: An Emerging Congressional Common Ground on Climate Change?

Jul 26, 2017 | Lauren Herzer Risi

Earlier this month 46 House Republicans voted with Democrats to protect an amendment in the current National Defense Authorization Act that acknowledges that “climate change is…

To Fight Global Water Stress, U.S. Foreign Policy Will Need New Strategic Tools

Jul 25, 2017 | Anuj Krishnamurthy

Capable of upending rural livelihoods, compromising institutions of governance, and inducing new patterns of migration and crime, global water stress has emerged as one of…

Inside Conflict: What Does Research Reveal About Women's Rights and Changing Gender Roles in Yemen?

Jul 24, 2017 | Suzy Madigan

Until the acceleration of violence in 2015, women in Yemen were making some headway in challenging a system that largely excludes them from public life.…

Reconceptualizing Women's Participation in Water Governance

Jul 24, 2017 | Priyam Das

There is growing emphasis on community-managed water supply and sanitation that embodies a new paradigm in water governance based on demand management. However, projects have…

Congo’s Next Big Crisis

Jul 23, 2017 | Ulrika Blom

DR Congo made headlines this year as it topped the charts for the world’s highest number of people fleeing conflict internally. This year could see…

Beware the Illusion of South China Sea Calm

Jul 21, 2017 | Prashanth Parameswaran

A year after the supposedly game-changing arbitral tribunal ruling on the Philippines’ South China Sea case against China, the region appears to have entered another…

Timber Imports from Conflict Countries to EU Increasing

Jul 19, 2017 | Jade Saunders and Marigold Norman

EU timber imports from conflict countries, which are at high risk of being illegal, have increased 14 percent, despite the European Union’s Timber Regulation (EUTR)…

Smugglers Take Sheen From Uganda’s Bright Gold Refinery

Jul 19, 2017 | Joseph Burite

African Gold Refinery, a Ugandan company, expects to process $1 billion worth of gold a year but is battling would-be smugglers turning to the precious…

This is Not the Time for Kurdish Independence

Jul 18, 2017 | Daniel Serwer

With the Islamic State near defeat in Syria and Iraq, the urgent and sanguinary is crowding out the merely important: the referendum on Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence,…

How Armed Conflicts Impact the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions

Jul 18, 2017 | Doug Weir

Since 1989, the Basel Convention, and later the Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions, have played an important role in international efforts to minimise the health and…

How Climate Change Denial Threatens National Security

Jul 17, 2017 | Nick Stockton

In a cramped meeting room Wednesday on Capitol Hill, House Democrats hosted a roundtable to discuss climate change with several national security experts. In attendance were two former…

How Men Can Promote Gender-Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction

Jul 13, 2017 | Alex Rohlwing

Gender’s importance and the vital roles played by women in all facets of development, humanitarian aid, and disaster response are increasingly recognized. But recognition is…

National Security Implications of Climate Change

Jul 13, 2017 | John Campbell

Climate change certainly has direct implications for the security of the United States, which other participants are exploring this afternoon.  But, we Americans must also…

War of Words Heats up between Iran and Afghanistan over Water Resources

Jul 12, 2017 | Dominic Dudley

A long-running diplomatic squabble between Iran and Afghanistan over shared water resources appears to be intensifying, with the two countries’ presidents trading barbs in speeches…

Afghanistan- Editorial: Smart Move

Jul 12, 2017 | Afghanistan Times

Surely, land grabbing is a lucrative, but black business. In the past 16 years, land grabbing has become a permanent feature of Afghanistan's landscape, at…

Could DRC’s Resource Wealth be the Key to Ending Its Conflicts too?

Jul 10, 2017 | Keith Slack

Africa watchers will know that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is once again poised on the verge of violent conflagration.  How the country got there and…

The Potentially Profound and Widespread Consequences of September's Kurdish Independence Vote

Jul 9, 2017 | Feisal Amin Rasoul Al-Istrabadi

There is so little doubt that the referendum called for September on Kurdish independence from Iraq will pass overwhelmingly that it seems a waste of…

Land Committees: An Opportunity for Inclusion

Jul 7, 2017 | Caitlin Pierce and Ye Yint Htun

Of the long list of legacy woes leftover to the new government after decades of military rule, the issue of land confiscation is one of…

Demining Workshop Helps Families in Afghanistan Return Home Safely

Jul 3, 2017 | Amy OHalloran

People in many communities across Afghanistan face daily dangers from landmines and unexploded ordnance that remain behind as a deadly legacy of over four decades…

Why the New Conflict-Free Gold Program May Be about Far More

Jul 3, 2017 | Rob Bates

Most mineral-tracking schemes—and we have covered quite a few—have a serious downside: They generally work with established mining companies. That threatens the artisanal sector, the…