Blogs & Opinions

Will Oil Make or Break the Islamic State?

Sep 18, 2014 | Gatestone Institute

Now, with the Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate having captured key oil wells in the Middle East this year, foreign oil has become an even more…

Climate Cast: Is Climate Change Destabilizing Iraq?

Sep 17, 2014 | Minnesota Public Radio News

The link between what we see as news events and climate change is often obscure. Does a particular extreme weather event, flood, or drought have it’s…

Canada to Vote on Conflict Minerals Legislation, Should Join Support for Mining Reforms and Livelihood Projects in Congo

Sep 16, 2014 | Enough Project

On September 24th, the Canadian House of Commons will hold a Second Reading vote on Bill C-486: The Conflict Minerals Act. The passage of C-486…

Dodd-Frank's Collateral Damage in Africa

Sep 15, 2014 | Wall Street Journal

Reminiscent of the racially discriminatory practice of "redlining" neighborhoods, a little-known measure in the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, designed to stop the trafficking of "conflict minerals"…

Energy Competition in South China Sea: A Front-Burner Issue?

Sep 12, 2014 | Nation Multimedia

The recent clashes between Vietnam and China over the latter's deployment of a deep-water drilling rig in disputed waters have refocused the spotlight on energy…

DRC: Conflict Minerals Movement at a Crossroads

Sep 11, 2014 | Aljazeera

When we think of the Democratic Republic of Congo today, we may think of bloody resource wars where women are being raped by armed groups…

Russia’s Next Land Grab

Sep 9, 2014 | New York Times

WASHINGTON — UKRAINE isn’t the only place where Russia is stirring up trouble. Since the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Moscow has routinely supported…

Natural Resources and Violence in Nigeria

Sep 8, 2014 | Peace Direct

There is much to say about the on-going crisis in Nigeria, but little has been mentioned that goes beyond the kidnapping of a group of…

Climate Security Threat Remains Hidden Behind Current Conflicts

Sep 5, 2014 | Responding to Climate Change

At the NATO summit, the UK distributed leaflets outlining its five priorities for the summit. Number one is, obviously, the crisis in Ukraine. The phrase…

Investing in Collaboration to Manage Environmental Resource Conflict

Sep 2, 2014 | Environment, Conflict and Cooperation

Conflict over environmental resources endangers rural people’s livelihoods and can increase the risk of broader social conflict. Yet joint action to sustain shared resources can…

Combating Illegal Logging with Smartphones and Smarter Shopping

Sep 2, 2014 | Custom Made

Many of us make daily choices to try to live more environmentally conscious lifestyles. But there’s an element probably present in everyone’s home that’s contributing…

Opportunity Costs: Evidence Suggests Variability, Not Scarcity, Primary Driver of Water Conflict

Sep 2, 2014 | New Security Beat

Nearly 1 billion people lack reliable access to clean drinking water today. A report by the Water Resources Group projects that by 2030 annual global freshwater needs…

Opportunity Costs: Evidence Suggests Variability, Not Scarcity, Primary Driver of Water Conflict

Sep 2, 2014 | New Security Beat

Nearly 1 billion people lack reliable access to clean drinking water today. A report by the Water Resources Group projects that by 2030 annual global…

Climate Security Threat Matrix Must Be A Priority

Sep 2, 2014 | Poet Economist

The climate system is a complex of thermodynamic energy transfers, moving between the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Our local experience of weather—hot summers, breezy autumns,…

5 Reasons NATO Needs to Worry About Climate Change

Sep 1, 2014 | Responding to Climate Change

Climate change is likely to receive scant attention at the 2014 NATO summit, which takes place in Newport, Wales, this week.

With Russia and the west…

ISAF’s Environmental Legacy in Afghanistan Requires Greater Scrutiny

Sep 1, 2014 | Toxic Remnants of War

Since 2001, Afghanistan has seen intensive military activities from a number of countries that have contributed to the ISAF stabilisation force. With the drawdown of…

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…