Blogs & Opinions

Friendships Rescue DRC’s Gorilla Reserve from Ruin

Aug 5, 2016 | Eugene Yiga

Launched in 2013, the Virunga Alliance invests at least 30% of the Virunga National Park revenues into community development projects such as clinics, schools and…

Oil Won't Save Libya

Aug 4, 2016 | George Ward

Libya is precariously split between several factions vying for control. The UN-backed Government of National Accord, also called the unity government, formed in early 2016…

How the Paris Climate Agreement Can Drive Colombia’s Fledgling Peace – and Keep Liberia’s Peace Alive

Jul 28, 2016 | Steve Zwick

For as long as Pablo Vieira Samper can remember, his native Colombia has been in a state of civil war – sometimes raging and sometimes…

Governance in Focus: Insights from the International Expert Forum on Climate Change and Conflict

Jul 28, 2016 | Austin Miles

The International Expert Forum (IEF) is a series of seminars meant to facilitate dialogue between experts and policymakers on peace and security. Meeting in Stockholm…

Human Conflict is Pushing Gorillas Into Extinction – What You Can Do to Save These Animals

Jul 26, 2016 | Jerald Pinson

The DRC contains two-thirds of the Congo rainforest, and the many years of governmental neglect and conflict has led to the near extinction of one…

At the Eye of the Storm: Women and Climate Change

Jul 26, 2016 | Aimee Jakeman

Struggling to save their failing crops. Walking farther afield to fetch clean water. Protecting their families from devastating storms and violent conflicts. “Women are usually…

Does Egypt Need Israel to Help Negotiate Nile Water Allocation from Ethiopian Dam?

Jul 26, 2016 | Dana Sanchez

After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from a four-country trip to Africa, he got a visit from the Egyptian foreign minister, and those familiar with Israeli-Egyptian…

Countering Drug-Gun Nexus Vital

Jul 26, 2016 | S. M. Tanoli

Pakistan and Afghanistan have recently observed the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. The day was established by the UN General Assembly, in…

How Infrastructure Helps Determine the Risk of Violence Following Drought

Jul 25, 2016 | Adrien Detges

One fear of climate change is that more variable weather conditions will lead to violence and chaos in some places. But looking at it methodically,…

Returning to Everyday Life

Jul 23, 2016 | Gregor Maaß and Mario Pilz

The success of Colombia’s peace talks will depend substantially on how the state chooses to address the needs of the 8 million people who were…

Myanmar: China Gets the Wrong Answer

Jul 23, 2016 | Strategy Page

There is general agreement that there should be a major effort to expand the 2015 NCA (nationwide ceasefire agreement) to include all rebel groups operating…

Sorting Through Water Wars Rhetoric

Jul 22, 2016 | Geoffrey Dabelko

The eye catching headlines are familiar.  “Water Wars” are imminent or already underway in the latest drought or dam-building hotspot. Such “wars” often extend to…

EU’s Conflict Minerals Framework a 'Missed Opportunity'

Jul 20, 2016 | Leigh Stringer

Trade body and NGOs criticise plan for excluding end products

A Decades-Old Idea for the South China Sea Resurfaces: Make a Contested Area a Marine Park, Instead

Jul 20, 2016 | Steve Mollman

One of the sea’s main areas of contention is the Spratly archipelago, an area the size of Tunisia featuring emerged rocks, tiny islands, and hundreds…

How a New Source of Water is Helping Reduce Conflict in the Middle East

Jul 20, 2016 | Rowan Jacobsen

Just a few years ago, in the depths of its worst drought in at least 900 years, Israel was running out of water. Now it…

Illegal Mining in Colombia is a Modern Day Gold Heist

Jul 18, 2016 | Kal Kotecha

It seems like an odd kind of crime, especially considering the sheer scale it’s operating on. Illegal gold mining has become a serious problem in…

Colombia’s Former Guerrillas Need New Jobs. Why Not in Conservation?

Jul 18, 2016 | Clare Fieseler

The government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, declared a ceasefire after 50 years of fighting. Almost 7,000 FARC guerrilla-style…

Hague Ruling Presents Vietnam with Opportunities and Dilemmas

Jul 18, 2016 | Le Hong Hiep

The Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling on the Philippines’ case against China is a historic milestone in the evolution of the South China Sea dispute.…

Pak-Afghan Hydro Diplomacy

Jul 17, 2016 | Syed Muhammad Abubakar

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have never been great. They have been subjected to various complexities over the past few decades — the issues in…

Liberia’s Ineptitude on the Arts of Fine Prints

Jul 15, 2016 | Front Page Africa

In 1926, Liberia negotiated a Firestone Concession Agreement and two additional agreements, obtaining a one-million acre concession for a 99-year period, granting the company exclusive…

What’s at Stake in China’s Claims to the South China Sea?

Jul 14, 2016 | Scott L. Montgomery

While the South China Sea has been a source of territorial dispute for many years, involving all of its bounding nations, China has been particularly…

Australia is Guilty of Same Misconduct as China Over Our Treatment of East Timor

Jul 14, 2016 | Tom Clarke

For 14 years now, Australia's tiny neighbour, East Timor, has been consistently requesting Australia to negotiate the establishment of permanent maritime boundaries between the two…

What is the Future of the South China Sea?

Jul 12, 2016 | M. Taylor Fravel, Jessica Chen Weiss, Peter Dutton, Orville Schell, Edward Friedman, Tom Nagorski

On July 12, a court based at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague rejected China’s sweeping claims over much of the South China Sea. The…

Oil, Greed, and Grievances in the Middle East and North Africa

Jul 12, 2016 | Axel Dreher and Merle Kreibaum

Political scientists Indra de Soysa and Eric Neumayer, among many others, have shown that countries rich in oil have a higher risk of civil war…

Oil and ISIS: If We Hadn’t Needed One, the Other Wouldn’t Exist

Jul 11, 2016 | Ian Reifowitz

The moral responsibility for murders lies solely with those who carried them out, those who ordered them, and those who encouraged them. But beyond responsibility…

New Approach Needed for Urban Planning in Yangon

Jul 10, 2016 | Sithu Aung Myint

IN LATE May, U Phyo Min Thein, the chief minister of Yangon Region, declared that he would rid Myanmar’s largest city of squatters as a…

There is a Fourth Option on the Myitsone Dam

Jul 9, 2016 | Joern Kristensen

In his column in the June 16 edition of Frontier, Sithu Aung Myint wrote that the Chinese Ambassador, Mr Hong Liang, with a delegation from…

Illegal Mining is Fuelling Conflict in Afghanistan and China Can Play a Major Role in Curbing This

Jul 9, 2016 | Stephen Carter

For 6,500 years, Afghanistan has been famous for the brilliant blue lapis lazuli, coveted by everybody from the Egyptian pharaohs to the common jewellers of…

UN Legal Experts Consider Principles Guiding Environmental Protection After Conflicts

Jul 8, 2016 | Doug Weir

UNEP’s 2009 report on the state of legal protection for the environment in relation to armed conflicts found that numerous bodies of law may provide…

War, Peace, and Climate: How Carbon Trading Can Help Avert Resource Wars

Jul 8, 2016 | Steve Zwick

Liberian environmentalist Silas Siakor knows all too well what can happen to a fragile nation when a dictator hijacks its commodity sector, as warlord Charles…