Blogs & Opinions
How Climate Change Drives Conflict in Africa
Jun 26, 2019
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Fatima Moosa
Climate change is fast becoming a reality that no person or government can ignore. Yet it is being ignored despite the myriad of ways it…
Why Some Rebel Groups Force Kids to Fight: It Depends on How They Are Funded
Jun 26, 2019
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Roos van der Haer, Beth Elise Whitaker, and Christopher Michael Faulkner
To sustain their operations, armed groups must have a steady supply of recruits. These serve to fill their fighting ranks and to replace those lost…
Kenyan Tribe Divided Over Women's Land Rights After Landmark Ruling
Jun 25, 2019
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Dominic Kirui
A few months ago, the idea of coming home with a hoe in one hand and a sack of freshly harvested potatoes in the other…
Towards a More Resilient Afghanistan
Jun 25, 2019
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Julian Palma and Ditte Fallesen
Across Afghanistan’s vast diversity of natural terrain, communities share a similar complaint: intense and recurring natural hazards too often cause the loss of lives, livelihoods,…
High-Level Roundtable in Jordan: Discussing Humanitarian Policy in Light of Climate Security
Jun 25, 2019
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Planetary Security Initiative
On 19 June, 2019, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Jordan Red Crescent Society (JRCS) co-hosted a policy roundtable on climate…
What Food Price-Related Protests in Sudan and Liberia Tell Us about How Autocracies and Democracies Address Price Crises
Jun 25, 2019
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Cullen S. Hendrix
As one of the world’s most talented footballers of the 1990s, Liberian President George Weah is no stranger to roaring crowds. But recently, these crowds were…
Women's Land Rights: a Journey to Understand Nuances and Explore Challenges
Jun 20, 2019
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Aditya Chaturvedi
Journeys that compel us to introspect and leave us stunned are not beatific odysseys or intrepid sagas peppered with swashbuckling antics, but there is unvarnished…
Serving Refugee Communities with Tech, Energy Access, Entrepreneurship: Mastercard and USAID’s Collective Approach
Jun 19, 2019
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Katrina Pielli and Sasha Kapadia
As we mark World Refugee Day 2019 (June 20) and reflect on the fate of displaced communities all around the world, we are convinced, now…
Climate Change Poses Security Risks, According to Decades of Intelligence Reports
Jun 18, 2019
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Dana Nuccitelli
Intelligence analysts have agreed since the late 80s that climate change poses serious security risks. Aseries of authoritative governmental and non-governmental analyses over more than…
We’ll Never Solve Immigration If We Don’t Solve Climate Change
Jun 18, 2019
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Penny Pritzker
In the recent standoff between the U.S. and Mexico, the Trump administration commingled the issues of trade and immigration. This is the wrong approach, and…
Water for Peace and Development
Jun 17, 2019
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Nisar A Memon
Life without water is inconceivable. Humans are born in water and their body contain about 65 percent water. Life on any planet is not viable…
Water Wars: How Scarcity Exacerbates Conflict
Jun 15, 2019
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Oliver Lees
Around the world, water scarcity is increasingly changing the face of conflict. Beyond its being essential to human survival – one can only live a…
A 'Responsibility to Prepare': A Strategy for Presidential Leadership on the Security Risks of Climate Change
Jun 14, 2019
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Caitlin Werrell, Francesco Femia, and John Conger
Presidential candidates are offering their plans on climate change, and it’s a competition over who’s the most ambitious. That’s good news, given that it’s a major…
Webinar Series: Science Diplomacy and Environmental Peacebuilding
Jun 13, 2019
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Dhanasree Jayaram
Environmental peace building has emerged as a new frontier in interdisciplinary studies, which seeks to go beyond the traditional role of natural resources or environmental…
Inclusive Protection of Civilians During Conflicts: Making a Case for the Environment
Jun 12, 2019
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Wim Zwijnenburg
It is important to take an inclusive and tangible approach to protecting civilians by protecting the environment during armed conflicts. In recent decades, the link…
Colombia's Land Disputes: What the Life and Death of Hugo George Taught Me
Jun 12, 2019
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Mariana Calvo
Hugo George is one of the hundreds of social leaders who have been murdered in Colombia during its peace process. He was also my friend.
I…
Three Surprising Solutions to Climate Change
Jun 10, 2019
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Jeff McMahon
When the analysts at Project Drawdown quantified the impact of 100 solutions to climate change, they were surprised by some of their results, the organization's executive…
3 Pentagon Strategy Documents in 3 Months Highlight Climate Change Risks
Jun 10, 2019
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Caitlin Werrell and Francesco Femia
From April to June of this year, the U.S. military has issued not one, but three strategy documents that highlight climate change risks to the…
The River Is Life
Jun 10, 2019
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Chocó River Stories
For communities living along the Río Atrato, ‘the river is life’. Rivers play a central role in the cultural, economic and social life of the…
The Nature of Social Justice Advocacy and Local Resistance to Land Concession in Liberia: Impact on Land Governance System, Customary Land Rights and State Response
Jun 10, 2019
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Baba Sillah
One of the decisive moments in social justice advocacies for land rights in the recent history of Liberia came in 2011, when rural communities, wrote…
Women as Climate Action Ambassadors in Coastal Districts of India's Odisha State
Jun 7, 2019
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UN Environment
People in the coastal districts of the eastern Indian state of Odisha are increasingly suffering from the effects of climate change. Most households in the…
It's Time for the U.N. Security Council to Take on Climate Change
Jun 7, 2019
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Gregory Meeks and Michael Shank
This year, the United Nations Security Council debated, once again, climate change’s concrete impact on peace and security, noting that climate risks are a reality for…
Reducing Greenhouse Gases Is a Security Issue
Jun 7, 2019
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Joshua Busby
Fifteen years ago, luck would change the trajectory of my professional career. I was a predoctoral fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, so…
27 Women Leading the Charge to Protect Our Environment
Jun 6, 2019
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Veronique Hyland, Naomi Rougeau and Julie Vandal
Scientists have called our current, climate change–threatened era the Anthropocene, but as the eco-economist Kate Raworth once joked, women are left out of the narrative…
Why More Women Should Be Included in the Leadership of Virunga National Park
Jun 6, 2019
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Judith Verweijen, Janvier Murairi, and Esther Marijnen
Since 2014, the number of female park guards serving in Virunga National Park, located in war-ridden eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been gradually…
Champions for Change: The Power of Women Peacemakers and Peacebuilders in Ukraine
Jun 3, 2019
In 2009, Ambassador Ertuğrul Apakan sat in the United Nations Security Council when then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presided over a debate on…
South Asia Needs to Adopt a Gender Mainstreaming Approach in Climate Policy
May 31, 2019
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Dhanasree Jayaram
The disproportionate impacts of environmental and climate change on women are being studied and documented worldwide. However, when it comes to addressing the gender gap…
Non-State Actors and Post-Conflict Emissions Management
May 31, 2019
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Charlotte Collins
Armed conflict, in addition to its human toll, can devastate a nation’s environment and natural resources. Post-conflict instability can lead to increased carbon emissions and…
Without Curbing the Opium Trade, Afghanistan Is Unlikely to See Peace
May 31, 2019
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Saqib Fikree
While the talks between the United States and the Taliban continue, one key factor contributing to Afghanistan’s instability is not discussed — opium cultivation and drug…
Women's Land Rights: Shifting Power for Gender Equality
May 31, 2019
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Beth Roberts
Achieving gender equality requires a fundamental shift in the balance of power over resources. Globally, from urban financial centers to remote communities, from international bodies…