Blogs & Opinions
Classic Geopolitics and Today’s Nexus of Conflict and Climate
Jan 13, 2025
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Gerard Toal
From the outset, geopolitics was about exploiting the Earth. Great power competition was a struggle for space, as well as for strategic locations, resources, and…
Restitution of Lands and Territories to Victims of Violent Dispossession and Displacement in Colombia
Jan 9, 2025
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Lucía Vásquez Celis
Forced displacement in Colombia has a differentiated and accentuated impact on women, the ethnic and peasant population, as well as children and adolescents. Frequently, this…
Beyond ‘Critical’ Minerals, Don’t Forget Gold’s Role as a Driver of Economic Growth — and Conflict
Jan 9, 2025
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Brad Brooks-Rubin
In 2025, consumers and global policy analysts could be forgiven for thinking that all that glitters is…cobalt or lithium. With the intense focus of governments,…
Why Is Afghanistan Part of the Great Extractives Race?
Jan 8, 2025
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Mercena Hunter and Paddy Ginn
Afghanistan’s mineral resources harbour great untapped potential. The country sits on an estimated 2.2 billion tonnes of iron ore, 60 million tonnes of copper, 183…
Water Tensions under the Taliban
Jan 8, 2025
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Ali Mahaqi
Since taking over Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban regime has faced escalating tensions with neighbouring countries, particularly over water issues and regional security. The…
Towards a Climate Security Observatory 2.0: Lessons from a Year of Implementation
Jan 7, 2025
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CGIAR
In 2023, the Climate Security Observatory (CSO) launched its first public version, aiming to bridge the gap between climate science and resilient peace. After a…
The Traumas of Unplanned Decarbonization in Fragile States
Jan 6, 2025
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Alex de Waal and Aditya Sarkar
It is widely recognized that oil states are rarely democratic, and often conflict-prone. As these governments wind down their dependence on this toxic resource as…
National Border Security and Environmental Sustainability
Jan 3, 2025
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Saleem H. Ali
While border security has become one of the most divisive issues of our times, there is an opportunity for both sides of the partisan divide…
Abyei-Twic Conflict: Unresolved Issues and Unheeded Recommendations
Dec 29, 2024
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Morris Kuol Yoll
The root cause of the conflict is a land dispute. The Abyei Administration Area has created and adopted the “Abyei Box” map, which crosses the…
How International Conflicts and Wars Threaten Animals and the Natural World
Dec 28, 2024
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Kimberly Moore
War and conflict not only devastate human lives but also inflict catastrophic harm on animals and the natural world, threatening biodiversity, ecosystems, and the planet’s…
Peace through Shared Challenges: Climate Change in the Middle East
Dec 20, 2024
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Tareq Abu Hamed
Nature knows no borders. Today, Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, and people across the region are facing a more unpredictable climate that threatens natural resources. The region’s…
Liberia: Alliance for Rural Democracy Leads Customary Land Rights Initiative for Affected Communities in SRC and LAC
Dec 19, 2024
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FrontPage Africa
In an effort to address longstanding land ownership issues, the Alliance for Rural Democracy is leading five communities affected by the operations of the Salala…
Why Africa’s Voice on Climate and Conflict Matters More Than Ever
Dec 19, 2024
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Nazanine Moshiri and Liesl Louw-Vaudran
African climate negotiators at the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan have delivered a clear and urgent message – climate diplomacy must hold steady amid escalating global crises,…
Reflections on COP29: What Price Do We Put on Peace and Security?
Dec 18, 2024
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Ellie Kinney
In many ways, peace and security had never enjoyed a higher profile than they did at COP29 in Baku and yet developed countries failed fragile…
Environmental Violence in Peace Research: A Gap and Opportunity
Dec 18, 2024
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Richard Marcantonio
Peace studies as a field of research has historically overlooked critical aspects of the environment in conflict, though scholars in adjacent fields have long highlighted…
For Humanitarians, Climate and Conflict Are Becoming Harder to Separate
Dec 16, 2024
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Will Worley
From flooding in refugee camps in Sudan, to militants in Somalia controlling scarce water, the intersection of climate and conflict is an increasingly important challenge for…
Greenwashing NATO
Dec 13, 2024
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Tamara Lorincz
At the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s recent Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Montréal, officials from the allied states welcomed the establishment of the new Climate Change and Security…
A Livestock-Centred Strategy Will Ensure Peace, Development in North West
Dec 11, 2024
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Junaidu Maina
Investing in the improvement of the large livestock population and the numerous grazing reserves in the North West holds immense potential for restoring peace, advancing…
Peace and Security at COP29
Dec 9, 2024
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Noah Fritzhand and Anna Spear
In November, Azerbaijan hosted the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29). The event’s start was marked by…
The Syrian Civil War Showed How Complicated the Climate Change-Conflict Connection Can Be
Dec 9, 2024
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Dave Levitan
Triumphant rebels now control Damascus, a quick and stunning turn in the 13-year-old Syrian civil war that has seen the Bashar al-Assad regime fall and its…
Cooperation and Conflict in a Changing Climate
Dec 7, 2024
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Juha Uitto
If there are two issues to call the defining challenges of our time, they’d be climate change and the degradation of natural resources and the…
Empowering Women Peacebuilders
Dec 6, 2024
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Editorials
Editorials
After the United States assumed the presidency of the Security Council for December, its first signature event focused on the role of women in peace…
A Vicious Cycle: War and Famine in Sudan
Dec 3, 2024
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Arjun Vohra
The Sudan civil war has done more than devastate lives – it has dismantled the very systems that sustain them. Agriculture, once the backbone of…
Guam and Vanuatu: Different Paths from Environmental Change to Human Insecurity
Dec 2, 2024
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Anselm Vogler
Our present ecocrisis drives human insecurity. Single weather events killed hundreds in 2024, even in wealthy countries such as the United States or Spain. And…
Threat Level Rising: Climate Change, National Security and UK Political Action
Nov 29, 2024
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Tim Clack and Barry Gardiner
Climate change is already impacting global food security. Desertification, drought, and floods, alongside new vectors for pests and expanding disease zones, are throwing global agriculture…
How Climate Change Feeds Our Wars
Nov 28, 2024
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Michele Barnes and Luisa Bedoya Taborda
A twin crisis faces the people of Myanmar, but while the war could end tomorrow, climate change will still shape the futures of millions.
Climate Is Now a Security and Resilience Issue for Countries Everywhere
Nov 27, 2024
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Kaysie Brown and Travis Brubaker
As the world grapples with multiple crises, we cannot afford to overlook the most pressing and global crisis of our time – the climate crisis.…
The 2024 Montreal Climate Security Summit: Four Takeaways
Nov 25, 2024
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Claire Doyle
Hosted by NATO’s Climate Change and Security Center of Excellence (CCASCOE) and the Conference of Defense Associations in October, the summit brought together participants from…
COP 29: The Climate-Peace Nexus Was on the Agenda, but …
Nov 23, 2024
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Volker Boege
This year’s COP 29 in Baku, the capital of the oil state of Azerbaijan (fossil fuels make up 90% of the country’s exports), has been…
The Climate Finance Deal, the Military and DOGE at COP29
Nov 23, 2024
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Saleem H. Ali
The deal which was finally reached at COP29 in Baku for a $300 billion investment for climate change finance for developing countries reflects a zero-sum…