International


Libyan Militia Selling Oil, Defying the Government

Mar 8, 2014 | David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times

CAIRO — A militia group that has blockaded Libya’s main oil ports for more than six months began on Saturday to sell the oil for…


Analysis: Why Russia's Crimea Move Fails Legal Test

Mar 7, 2014 | BBC

The Russian parliament says Crimea can become Russian territory if that is what the region's people decide they want in a referendum set for 16…


Ukraine: How a Fight Over Natural Resources Is Quietly Driving The World’s Response To Ukraine

Mar 6, 2014 | Think Progress

On Thursday, the fast-moving crisis in Ukraine took another surprising turn as the de facto authorities of Crimea, the semi-autonomous Ukrainian republic that is currently…


Afghanistan's Minerals Await Vital Railroads

Mar 6, 2014 | Gopal Ratnam 

At the Naibabad freight terminal near the northern Afghan town of Mazar-e-Sharif, workers rush to unload wheat and construction materials from Uzbekistan that have arrived…


Europe: EU Proposes Responsible Trading Strategy for Minerals from Conflict Zones

Mar 5, 2014 | European Commission

High Representative (HR) of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht today proposed an integrated…


Fight Over the Spoils Leads to Rights Abuses: As Myanmar Gears up for Its Largest Oil and Gas Concessions So Far...

Mar 2, 2014 | Bangkok Post

On a humid July day in Shan state, a 12-year-old girl was playing under the monsoon rains falling over her tiny northern township of Ke…


China/Malaysia/Philippines/Vietnam: Malaysia Joins Forces with Philippines and Vietnam Against China in Sea Dispute

Mar 1, 2014 | Craig Hill, China Daily Mail

The submerged reef would be easy to miss, under turquoise seas about 80 km (50 miles) off Malaysia’s Borneo island state of Sarawak.

But two Chinese…


Sierra Leone: Mining Boom Brings Rights Abuses

Feb 28, 2014 | Human Rights Watch

The government of Sierra Leone and a mining company that is the country’s largest private employer have undermined villagers’ access to food and prevented workers from challenging…


Conflict, Migration Contributing to Food Insecurity in Near East, says UN Official

Feb 27, 2014 | United Nations

Conflict, the flow of refugees and migration are worsening food security in the Near East, along with constraints on food production and a growing dependence…


Nigeria: PPP Records Another Milestone in Land Dispute in Delta State

Feb 26, 2014 | Alliance for Peacebuilding

The communities are Obi Ogadi in Asaba and Ogboli in Ibusa, both in Delta State, Nigeria. The contention involves the legal ownership of a piece…


Asia: Why Are China and Japan Inching Toward War Over Five Tiny Islands?

Feb 25, 2014 | Eric Posner, Slate Magazine

Five tiny uninhabited islands slumber in the Pacific Ocean a short distance from Taiwan, China, and Japan. The Japanese call them the Senkaku Islands. The…


Africa: Effective Water Management Can Prevent Conflict, USAID Says

Feb 25, 2014 | Kathryn McConnell, AllAfrica

Washington — Countries with unreliable supplies of water are more vulnerable to conflict, according to a new report from the U.S. Agency for International Development…


Costa Rica: Ongoing Conflict Over Water in Guanacaste Turns Political

Feb 23, 2014 | Costa Rica News

Guanacaste is the province with the most water difficulties in Costa Rica, and the beach community of Playa Potrero is currently one of the most…


Resource Flows and Trends in Fragile States

Feb 16, 2014 | OECD

Aid has declined by 2.4% in 2011 and will continue its downward trend. Meanwhile, the share of the world’s poor found in fragile states is…


Ivory Coast Joins the African Gold Rush – But It's No Quick Fix for the Economy

Feb 16, 2014 | The Guardian

From the sky, Ivory Coast looks like a patchwork quilt, with fields of varying shapes and shades of green and brown woven together. In the…


UK Government Set to Examine Soco’s Activities in Virunga National Park

Feb 14, 2014 | World Wildlife Fund

It was announced today that a complaint filed by WWF has been accepted, and issues related to respect for human rights and the environment in…


Apple in Conflict Mineral 'Name and Shame' Crackdown

Feb 13, 2014 | BBC

Conflict minerals, as they are known, are mined in areas of fighting or human rights abuses, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The first published…


Nigeria Bank Governor Alleges Oil Subsidy Racket

Feb 12, 2014 | The Financial Times

Nigeria's central bank governor has exposed a multibillion-dollar subsidy racket inside the state-owned oil company that may partly explain huge shortfalls in what Africa’s leading…


SodaStream: conflict bubbles or bridge to peace?

Feb 11, 2014 | On Line Opinion

That Scarlett Johansson is unable to be both the face of SodaStream – an Israeli drinks company with operations in a West Bank settlement, and…


Oil, Libyans’ Bargaining Chip

Feb 11, 2014 | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

There was great hope in early 2012 that oil and gas revenues, which had rebounded fairly quickly after the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi, would allow…


Why global water shortages pose threat of terror and war

Feb 8, 2014 | The Guardian

On 17 January, scientists downloaded fresh data from a pair of Nasa satellites and distributed the findings among the small group of researchers who track…


Pillars of Peace: Understanding the key attitudes and institutions that underpin peaceful societies

Feb 5, 2014 | Institute for Economics and Peace

The Pillars of Peace is a new conceptual framework for understanding and describing the factors that create peaceful societies. This framework defines the national characteristics…


Haiti's wealth of untapped mining resources must benefit the poor

Feb 4, 2014 | The Guardian

In 2012 I wrote about the mining situation in Haiti and the vast potential for this sector. Mining companies could provide an increase in tax…


Elephant Campaign: How Africa’s ‘white gold’ funds the al-Shabaab militants

Feb 3, 2014 | The Independent

Transporting “jihad’s white gold” from the African bush to Asian cities is no small feat, but under the watchful eyes of the Somali Islamist militant…


Water Dimensions of ‘Land Grabbing’

Feb 2, 2014 | Africa UP Close

In recent years, arable land has become a highly coveted commodity in the global market. Emphasizing land as the issue at stake, water dimensions of…


Saving More Than Just Snow Leopards

Feb 1, 2014 | New York Times

THE cold and rugged mountains of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and China seem an unlikely place to find a flourishing combination of new community institutions and…


Initial assessment by the UK National Contact Point for the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises

Feb 1, 2014 | UK National Contact Point


Insight: Surge in Cocaine Trade Undermines Conde's Bid to Revive Guinea

Jan 31, 2014 | Reuters

A surge in cocaine trafficking has transformed Guinea into West Africa's latest drug hot spot, jeopardizing President Alpha Conde's efforts to rebuild state institutions after…


Gaza Warned of Looming Water Crisis

Jan 30, 2014 | The Guardian

Residents of Tel Aviv will wake up in February to discover a huge hourglass full of polluted water standing in the city's central Rabin Square.…


Security Council Adopts Resolution 2136 (2014), Renewing Amocratic Republic of Congorms Embargo, Related Measures Imposed on De

Jan 30, 2014 | United Nations

The Security Council today renewed until 1 February 2015 the arms embargo and related sanctions imposed on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, also requesting the…