Blogs & Opinions

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…

Climate, Conflict, and Commodities: the Calculus of Peace on a Changing Planet

Jul 7, 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…

U.S. House Votes to Undermine Transparency and Conflict-Free Supply Chains in Democratic Republic of Congo

Jul 7, 2016 | Enough Project

Efforts to support peace, corporate accountability, and transparency in the Democratic Republic of Congo faced a setback today, as the House of Representatives passed an…

Whose Land is it Anyway?

Jul 7, 2016 | Caitlin Pierce

The farmers of Kyon Dayel Village were ecstatic to read in the newspaper that Ayer Shwe Wah was releasing 40,000 acres of land that the…

Military Leaders Urge South Asian Countries to Put Aside Animosities in Face of Common Climate Threat

Jul 6, 2016 | Sreya Panuganti

Despite a long history of confrontation and simmering tensions, three senior retired military leaders from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India urge the nations of South Asia…

Reviving a Jaded Peace Process: Why Natural Resources Must be a Top Priority in Efforts to End Conflict in Kachin State

Jul 6, 2016 | Mike Davis

Delivering peace in Myanmar is the top priority of the country’s first democratically elected government in over 60 years. A close analysis of the recent…

Conservation Efforts Can’t Afford to Shy Away from High-Risk Conflict Zones

Jul 5, 2016 | Edd Hammill, Ayesha Tulloch, Hugh Possingham, Kerrie Wilson, Niels Strange

Between 1950 and 2000, 80% of the world’s armed conflicts took place within biodiversity hotspots. These are places that contain unusually high concentrations of animals…

Can the Liberian Government Protect Citizen Rights in the Dark?

Jul 4, 2016 | Ali Kaba

Recently, the Liberian government arrested senior officials caught in a scandal: the Speaker of the House of Representatives Alex Tyler; Senator Varney Sherman; and a…

Lao Woman Says Shots Were Fired in Land Dispute

Jun 29, 2016 | Radio Free Asia

A Lao police officer and three men associated with country’s military, who are accused of squatting on a three-hectare parcel of land in Luang Prabang…

Vietnam’s ‘Soft Diplomacy’ in the South China Sea

Jun 29, 2016 | James Borton

China’s unilateral sovereignty claims on more than 80 percent of the international sea and massive military build-up on artificial islands over the past two years…

Illegal Trade of Wildlife Intolerable

Jun 28, 2016 | Massouda Qarizada

Most parts of Afghanistan is occupied by the Hindokush Mountains and surrounded by the foothills covered with different types of plants and bushes like pines,…

Timor-Leste: Australia Is Behaving Like China in Disputed Waters

Jun 28, 2016 | Dan De Luce

There’s a major Asian power that refuses to compromise in its far-reaching territorial claims in oil-rich waters, despite appeals from its smaller neighbor to resolve…

The EU Has Acted on Minerals that Underwrite Modern Slavery

Jun 22, 2016 | Seb Dance

After years of campaigning, the European Union has agreed an outline deal to combat the unchecked trade in natural resources, which fuels some of the…

Why the House Must Stop the Last-Second FSGG Rider on Conflict Minerals

Jun 22, 2016 | Sasha Lezhnev and Holly Dranginis

Yesterday, Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) filed an 11th hour amendment to the financial services appropriations bill to de-fund enforcement of the conflict minerals provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall…

Blog: We Need to Talk About Conflict and the Environment

Jun 22, 2016 | Doug Weir

Interest in protecting the environment from the impact and legacy of armed conflicts appears to go in roughly 20 year cycles. The two previous cycles,…