Blogs & Opinions

Blog: Jordan Grapples With The Environmental Consequences Of Its Refugee Crisis

Jun 4, 2016 | Doug Weir

The massive flow of refugees fleeing the violence and atrocities of the Syrian conflict is creating huge political and logistical challenges for neighbouring countries. Amidst…

The Environmental Impact of the Refugee Crisis

Jun 4, 2016 | Anna Stockmore

Media outlets have largely ignored the environmental impacts of the refugee crisis in the Middle East. However, with the current influx of 2.1 Million Syrian…

Over 1,200 Companies File Conflict Minerals Reports with the SEC

Jun 3, 2016 | Enough Team

Enough Project has been tracking the SEC conflict minerals reports since they began rolling in. Among the things they are looking at is who is…

Event Report: Addressing the Environmental Dimensions of Armed Conflict to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Jun 2, 2016 | Jessica Dorsey

During UNEA-2, the TRW Network partnered with Zoi Environment Network, The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and Norwegian People’s Aid on a ‘Green Room’ side event on…

Lee on Young and Goldman, 'Livelihoods, Natural Resources, and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding'

Jun 1, 2016 | SungYong Lee

The linkage between environment, conflict, and peacebuilding is no longer a new agenda. This topic, which was once treated as a niche area, has quickly moved into…

Kalabagh Dam: International Water Disputes (Part 2)

Jun 1, 2016 | Zafar Mahmood

What encouraged me to search for the elusive consensus on KBD Project was the research conducted by Ms. Sjomander Magnusson, Director Trans-boundary Water Management of…

Kalabagh Dam: Fact and Fiction (Part 1)

Jun 1, 2016 | Zafar Mahmood

World over water storage and irrigation projects are no strangers to controversies - but difference of opinion surrounding Kalabagh Dam (KBD) Project has some unique…

Peace After Paris: Addressing Climate, Conflict, and Development

Jun 1, 2016 | Sreya Panuganti

2015 was a historic year for international commitments to sustainable development, climate change action, and new kinds of peacebuilding. For governments and policymakers, now comes…

Can Businesses Police the Behaviour of Global Suppliers?

Jun 1, 2016 | Ken Fireman

A group of activists wanted to shine a spotlight on the opaque supply chain that provides raw materials for cellphones. What they discovered was just…

Post-Conflict in Colombia. Post-War on Drugs

May 31, 2016 | Juan Carlos Garzón-Vergara, openDemocracy

The Havana agreements offer an opportunity to put an end to the war on drugs through an approach from a territorial development perspective to what…

Kurdistan’s Independence Referendum From An Economic Point Of View

May 31, 2016 | Tara Shwan

This is not a political opinion, but an economic point of view. Some people in the Kurdistan Region oppose the proposed referendum for independence just…

The Folly of Lobbying to Carve Up Iraq

May 31, 2016 | Luay al-Khatteeb

"It was the Kurds," wrote Thomas Friedman in 2014, "who used the window of freedom we opened for them to overcome internal divisions, start to…

Global Witness Report on Liberia - Exposure of Ellen’s Corruption Legacy or Foreign Investors Predatory?

May 30, 2016 | FrontPageAfrica

Liberia, especially its densely populated and seemingly clean capital Monrovia, has been gripped with mixed reactions and political in-fights since the exposure of a corruption…

Why Do Land Grabs Happen? Because They Can

May 28, 2016 | Michael Kugelman

In January, over the objections of indigenous groups that live there, the government of Ecuador sold oil exploration rights to 500,000 acres of the Amazon to a…

Beijing is Angering its Only Friend in the Disputed South China Sea

May 28, 2016 | Ralph Jennings

China has upset Asian neighbors from Japan to Vietnam by flexing harder than the rest on its claims to vast swathes of disputed oceans. But Asia’s…

UNEA-2 Passes Most Significant Resolution on Conflict and the Environment since 1992

May 28, 2016 | Doug Weir

After five months of negotiations, a resolution from Ukraine on the protection of the environment in areas affected by armed conflict has been approved by…

Fix Mideast Water Crisis to Advance Peace Process

May 28, 2016 | Munqeth Mehyar, Nader Khateeb, and Gidon Bromberg

Despite continuing disputes over settlements, Jerusalem, borders, and refugees, there is at least one problem on which Arabs and Israelis can still make progress —…

Half Time Analysis on Conflict and the Environment from UNEA-2

May 25, 2016 | Doug Weir

Governments, international organisations and civil society are meeting in Nairobi this week for the second meeting of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-2). The environmental causes…

Conflict, the Environment and Humanitarian Action: a Critical Discussion for the World Humanitarian Summit

May 23, 2016 | Wim Zwijnenburg

This week the much anticipated but also disputed World Humanitarian Summit begins in Istanbul. Its aim is to find ways to improve the global system…

Low Oil Prices Are Making Iraq's Political Crisis Worse

May 22, 2016 | Shwan Zulal

Iraq is exporting around 3.3 million barrels of oil a day from Basrah in the south and around 500,000 barrels from the Kurdish region through…

Protect Myanmar's Marine Resources from Being Pillaged to Point of No Return

May 20, 2016 | Colin Poole

Literally out of sight, the country’s marine resources have been pillaged almost to the point of no return. Research data released in February of this…

Oil Wars: Why Nations Aren’t Battling over Resources

May 19, 2016 | Emily Meierding

When China’s Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig sailed into waters off the Paracel Islands in May 2014, it provoked an international crisis. Hanoi insisted that…

Didn't We Already Solve This Blood Minerals Problem?

May 19, 2016 | Tim Worstall

House of Cards star Robin Wright has launched a campaign with Congolese and American activists to end the pillage of Congo’s vast mineral resources and…

Natural Resources, Plunder and Reparations in the DRC: How the ICJ is Setting Precedents

May 19, 2016 | Eliana Cusato

What might reparations for the illegal exploitation of natural resources in armed conflict look like? This question may soon be answered by the International Court…

Global Security Efforts Must be a Post-Paris Climate Imperative

May 18, 2016 | Nick Mabey and Janani Vivekanada

It often feels as if the times we live in are unprecedented. Certainly, if we look back over the last 18 months, it is not…

A View from Myanmar: Exploring System-Scale Hydropower Planning

May 17, 2016 | Jeff Opperman

Myanmar’s rivers provide a reliable source of water for navigation and irrigation, and support food production and livelihoods. In fact, Myanmar’s freshwater fisheries produce more…

China's Uniformed, Navy-Trained Fishing "Militia"

May 17, 2016 | Conor M. Kennedy and Andrew S. Erickson

On 6 June 2014, Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense newspaper The People's Army stated that China was maintaining between 110 and 115 vessels around China…

Partitioning Iraq: Make a Detailed Case, or Cease and Desist

May 16, 2016 | Ben Connable

Iraq is once again in political turmoil, and once again we are hearing calls to partition the country into three ethno-sectarian cantonments: Shi’a, Sunni, and Kurd. The…

When Climate Change Exacerbates Conflict, Women Pay the Price Says Mayesha Alam

May 13, 2016 | Sean Peoples, New Security Beat

Climate change has the potential to exacerbate conflict and political instability, and women will pay a steeper price than their male counterparts when it does,…

How Climate Change is Driving Nigeria's Herdsmen Conflict

May 13, 2016 | Chidi Oguamanam

Forging national unity has been a perennial challenge to Nigeria’s evolution as a country. Since independence from Britain 56 years ago, the country continues to…