Blogs & Opinions

What is the Environmental Cost of War?

Aug 30, 2014 | The Guardian

The last time the ecological cost of war was a hot topic we were still worried about the ozone layer and George Michael’s “Praying for…

Learning From China’s Oil Rig Standoff With Vietnam

Aug 30, 2014 | The Diplomat

On May 2, China unilaterally placed an oil-drilling rig in waters 120 miles from Vietnam’s coast – near islands claimed by both countries and well…

The Wars That Really are About the Oil

Aug 30, 2014 | Spectator

Is international conflict really just a fight over oil? It sometimes seems that way. In Syria and Iraq, the militants of the so-called ‘Islamic State’…

NATO Urged to Recognise Natural Resource Governance as Crucial to Afghanistan’s Future Stability and Security

Aug 29, 2014 | Global Witness

NATO’s hopes for stability in Afghanistan – and a lasting legacy from its 11 year combat mission there – will be deeply undermined without action…

Timor-Leste Success

Aug 26, 2014 | Foreign Affairs

The headline of Madhu Narasimhan’s recent piece (“The World’s Youngest Failed State,” August 12, 2014) is dramatic, but his assertion is unfounded and untrue. Over…

East Africa Oil Boom: Resource Curse or Infrastructure Delinquency?

Aug 26, 2014 | Ventures Africa

East Africa is the new oil and gas frontier. Recent discoveries of commercially viable deposits in the last few years in Tanzania, Mozambique, and Uganda…

Mideast Water Wars: In Iraq, A Battle for Control of Water

Aug 26, 2014 | Yale Environment 360

There is a water war going on in the Middle East this summer. Behind the headline stories of brutal slaughter as Sunni militants carve out…

How the Carolinas Fixed Their Blurred Lines

Aug 26, 2014 | New York Times

Border disputes between American states are as old as the republic, but in today’s highly charged political atmosphere they often take an ugly turn.Georgia and…

Somali Refugees Show How Conflict, Gender, Environmental Scarcity Become Entwined

Aug 25, 2014 | New Security Beat

Under international law, someone who flees their country because of conflict or persecution is a refugee, but someone who flees because of inability to meet…

Vietnam Steps Up Efforts to Protect Fishing Fleet

Aug 23, 2014 | Foreign Policy Association

In a time of heightened tensions between Asian nations with claims to the waters of the East and South China Seas, the deployment of an…

Need for Global Energy Security

Aug 22, 2014 | World Policy

The development of a sustainable, long-term solution to meeting the world’s energy needs is one of the defining issues of our time. The risks of…

China Working to Dominate Sea Routes as US Loses Interest

Aug 21, 2014 | Gulf News

The oceans will be the world’s 21st century battlefields as new and old economic powers will struggle to dominate the maritime trade routes along which…

Conflict Minerals Reports are Filed, But What Do They Say?

Aug 20, 2014 | GreenBiz

Most filers in this initial disclosure year were unable to determine the origin of conflict minerals (tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold, known collectively as 3TG)…

Europe Must Do its Bit to Stop the Trade in Conflict Minerals

Aug 20, 2014 | The Guardian

Almost a decade ago, my film Blood Diamond told the story of the illicit diamond trade and its funding of the bloody civil war in…

Tiffany Achieves New Milestone in Conflict-free Diamond Sourcing

Aug 18, 2014 | Just Means

Ethically sourced diamonds are an important means of socio-economic development in the local communities of the diamond-producing countries in Africa. Revenue generated from diamond export…

Ian Kraucunas on Bridging the Science-Politics Divide for Climate Change

Aug 18, 2014 | New Security Beat

“Climate change is not just a far-away thing that affects far-away people,” says Ian Kraucunas, deputy director of atmospheric sciences and global change at the…

Peace is the Only Way to Give Gaza Safe Water

Aug 18, 2014 | DW

Thousands of people in Gaza are without water in the wake of repeated Israeli airstrikes. Environmental scientist and water expert Amir Dakkak tells DW why…

Environmental Peacebuilding: Constructing a More Durable Peace

Aug 15, 2014 | Alliance for Peacebuilding

Natural resources are one of a country’s most critical assets for peacebuilding and post-conflict recovery. Land, forests, minerals, oil, water, and other resources are the…

Kurdish Oil Ban: What it Means

Aug 14, 2014 | Wealth Daily

Divide and conquer – the most effective tactic of any insurrection – seems to be giving the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) all…

Three Ways that Oil Matters for the Crisis in Iraq

Aug 13, 2014 | PeakOil

For months now, Sunni militants from the Islamic State (better known as ISIS) have been seizing control of large swathes of Iraq.

But it wasn’t until they…

The Reason for New U.S. and French Military Involvement In Iraq: Protecting Oil or Minorities?

Aug 13, 2014 | GlobalResearch

Why is Obama now re-committing the U.S. military to Iraq? Why is France strongly backing military action?

Obama says it’s to protect minorities. That’s nothing new.  Obama is…

The ‘It’s About Oil’ Theory in Iraq Is Still Inaccurate

Aug 13, 2014 | Defense One

Whenever the US takes military action in the Middle East, oil surfaces as the supposed primary rationale. So it is with president Barack Obama’s air…

Outsiders Cannot Stop South Sudan's Oil War, Say Observers

Aug 12, 2014 | Anadolu Agency

High-level proposals to use international monitors to oversee South Sudan's precious oilfields are doomed to failure until fighting between factions loyal to the country's president…

Vietnam, China Maritime Disputes: Time For A Paradigm Shift

Aug 7, 2014 | Eurasia Review

Mr Rajaram Panda’s claim that “China’s illegal deployment of Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig is located 60-80 nautical miles deep within the exclusive economic zone…

Artisanal Gold Mining in the Amazon: Small-Scale Actions and Massive Challenges

Aug 6, 2014 | Columbia University

Perhaps the most immediate threat to Peru’s forests comes from illegal small-scale gold mining, which accounts for nearly 20% of all of the country’s gold…

Natural Resources: The Curse of Developing Countries?

Aug 6, 2014 | Rappler

People are dying while sitting on the riches of their lands. This is the horrid reality in most developing countries, particularly in Indonesia. Covering 1,904,570 square…

Climate Change Will Test Water-Sharing Agreements

Aug 4, 2014 | New Security Beat

Many existing water-sharing treaties should be re-assessed in the context of climate change, write Shlomi Dinar, David Katz, Lucia De Stefano, and Brian Blakespoor in…

Industrialization and Global Value Chains in Liberia

Aug 4, 2014 | Afribiz

Liberia has participated in global value chains for decades through its export of primary commodities, and the revitalization of this sector after the war has…

Voices from Nepal: Promoting Women's Climate Leadership

Aug 3, 2014

The magnitude of the problem of climate change and environmental degradation in a mountainous and developing country like Nepal is very alarming.

Rapid population growth and…

An Integrated Approach to Conflict and the Environment

Aug 2, 2014 | Talia Hagerty - World Politics Review

For the better part of their existence, the global anti-war and the environmentalist movements have typically existed side by side, each pursuing noble but separate…