Blogs & Opinions

New Wilson Quarterly Features Expert Insights on Climate Migration

Nov 5, 2021 | Shruti Samala

The number of forcibly displaced people doubled between 2010 and 2020. The multidimensional nature of climate migration complicates binary classifications such as “refugee” and “migrant.” The…

Stopping the Violence Devouring Colombia's Forests

Nov 4, 2021 | Bram Ebus

Colombia is the second most biodiverse country in the world, but about 780,000 hectares of primary forest—a territory the size of Haiti—have been cleared since the Revolutionary…

Syria: Killing the Khabur: How Turkish-backed Armed Groups Blocked Northeast Syria’s Water Lifeline

Nov 3, 2021 | Wim Zwijnenburg

With historic mentions by ancient Greek writers and the Bible, the Khabur river and its valley have been an important water source in the region. …

Safe Water and Sanitation: A Challenge for Gender Equality

Nov 1, 2021 | Wahid Bhat

Without clean and safe water there is no gender equality. Although access to water and sanitation has been recognized for more than a decade as…

COP26: Why Are Women Still Missing at the Top Climate Table

Oct 30, 2021 | Bonnie Chiu

When the global face to climate action is Greta Thunberg, it can appear that women and girls are well represented at the top table. As…

Can COP26 Become a Turning Point for Gender Responsive Climate Action?

Oct 26, 2021 | Mohammad Naciri, Samantha Hung, and Sun-Ah Kim

In a recent United Nations poll of young people in South Asia, 78 percent said that climate change has impacted their studies. More girls reported…

Climate Change and Nuclear War: Existential Threats on a “Split Screen”

Oct 26, 2021 | Shruti Samala

In international relations today, we face two truly existential threats in climate change and in nuclear warAt this critical juncture —when “the risk of conflict…

Gendering Just Transition

Oct 22, 2021 | Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt

As policymakers across the world look to shift their power sources away from coal, they must keep in mind the gendered impacts of their energy…

How Gender Matters in the Climate Fight

Oct 22, 2021 | Shia Kapos

When it comes to fighting climate change, it turns out gender matters.

Ahead of a major United Nations climate conference that begins later this month, a new…

How Efforts to Combat Climate Change Created New Security Challenges in the Arctic

Oct 21, 2021 | Andrew Latham

In a little over a week, the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will hold their annual meeting, dubbed COP26,…

Liberia: How FDA Allows a Foreign Family to Hoard Forests and Hurts Communities

Oct 21, 2021 | William Harmon and Varney Kamara

In 2018, the Bondi Mandingo Authorized Community Forest signed a logging agreement with Indo Africa Plantation Limited. The community agreed with the company to log in…

Colombians Are Uniting around Land Reform. Here’s Why.

Oct 20, 2021 | Peter Coy

During Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Colombia this week, the issue of land reform will be high on the agenda. Farmers’ lack of…

What an Irrigation Project Reveals about Farmer-Herder Conflict in Northern Nigeria

Oct 20, 2021 | Daniel Adeoluwa Adeniyi

Clashes between herders and local farmers in several communities in Nigeria have increased in recent years. The conflict is impacting the economy negatively. Nigeria loses almost US$14…

Sustainable Responses to Human Mobility, Climate Change, and Conflict

Oct 19, 2021 | Alice Chang

Significant progress has been made in understanding the impacts of climate change on migration and security. However, said Beatrice Mosello, a senior analyst at adelphi, generalized narratives that…

All Systems Go: Integrating Climate Security across the U.S. Government

Oct 18, 2021 | Shruti Samala

President Biden has taken an unequivocal position on climate change: The administration’s first order of business was to issue a series of executive orders aimed…

Bangladeshi Women’s Leadership in Water Governance

Oct 16, 2021

Women in Bangladesh play a crucial role in collecting water, often bearing the brunt of physical labor and household chores. Despite women and girls playing…

How Can Climate Considerations Be Better Integrated into the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda?

Oct 15, 2021 | Adriana Abdenur, Mayesha Alam, Adam Day, Cristal Downing, and Beatrice Mosello

As the impacts of climate change become more clear—starkly outlined this August by the International Panel on Climate Change’s latest report—responses to them will require an…

The Nature-Security Nexus and the UN Security Council

Oct 14, 2021 | Florian Titze

The destruction of nature and the world’s ecosystems presents an unprecedented challenge for humanity. With one million species on the brink of extinction – the…

The Women’s Agenda for Climate Crisis

Oct 14, 2021

80% of the world’s resources are looked after, consolidated by women across the globe. If that is not an agenda that Women Peace and Security…

Focus on Women and Girls Matters as Disaster Risks Shift

Oct 14, 2021 | Riyanti Djalante and Mohammad Naciri

At its heart, ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response has a simple but visionary objective to reduce disaster risks and losses in lives. …

Bringing IHL Home: The Protection of the Environment in War

Oct 12, 2021 | Jani Leino

When international law addresses a particular issue of concern, ultimately the intention is to have some kind of real impact on that issue. In the…

Educating Girls: The Overlooked Solution to Climate Change

Oct 12, 2021 | T. Shawn Taylor

Addressing a global challenge as complex as climate change demands a full suite of solutions and actors, but one powerful intervention is widely overlooked: educating…

Iraq Takes a Step toward Ending Its Resource Curse

Oct 11, 2021 | Leon Kaye

It does not take much online sleuthing to sort out why Iraq, among many other nations rich in hydrocarbons, has long struggled with its very…

Ecological Decline Feeds Conflict in a Deadly Cycle as Climate Crisis Looms

Oct 7, 2021 | Onke Ngcuka

As temperatures rise — with Africa experiencing that increment at twice the global average — the erosion of ecological systems is likely to provide a…

Measuring Success in Transboundary Water Cooperation: Lessons from World Bank Engagements

Oct 7, 2021 | Jennifer J. Sara, Edoardo Borgomeo, and Anders Jagerskog

How do we know when international cooperation is successful? A senior U.N. official once suggested that cooperation is like elephants mating: it all takes place…

Environmental Security of Afghanistan Is Pathway to Regional Peacebuilding

Oct 6, 2021 | Saleem H. Ali

The rapidly changing political landscape in Afghanistan does not change the permanent physical geography of the region. As world leaders gather to discuss climate change…

Analysis: The Lack of Diversity in Climate-Science Research

Oct 6, 2021 | Ayesha Tandon

Publishing research in respected journals, such as Nature or Science, is a key way for academics to share their findings with the scientific community and beyond.

A researcher’s publication…

Women, Peace, and What is Security?

Oct 4, 2021 | Phoebe Donnelly, Gretchen Baldwin, Masooma Rahmaty, and Phesheya Nxumalo

The past year has raised many questions for those focused on the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, as well as highlighting issues that feminist…

The Imperative of Climate Adaption for Africa: Building Resilience Across Societies in an Inclusive Manner

Sep 30, 2021

Empowered women and girls have the capacity to build resilient communities using local solutions to climate change to safeguard lives and ensure a sustainable future…

Addressing Masculinities and Gender Stereotypes to Prevent Violent Extremism and Terrorism

Sep 30, 2021 | Pablo Arrocha Olabuenaga

Fifteen years ago, the General Assembly unanimously adopted the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (GCTS), which has served as the backbone for the efforts of States to…