Blogs & Opinions

Russia Abandons a Treaty: Environmental Protection during Armed Conflict

Oct 17, 2025 | Kelvin S-H Peh

While it may be surprising to hear that wetland ecosystems have become a casualty of war, is it not inevitable when their care is politicised?…

How ‘Conflict-Free’ Minerals Are Used in the Waging of Modern Wars

Oct 17, 2025 | Mark Griffiths and Mohamed El-Shewy

Minerals such as cobalt, copper, lithium, tantalum, tin and tungsten, which are all abundant in central Africa, are essential to the comforts of everyday life.…

Will Rare Earths Cause the Next War (or What Is Common in China vs US, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Africa)?

Oct 13, 2025 | Vinod Janardhanan

The global race for rare earth minerals is igniting geopolitical tensions that could lead to real wars. The tussles and tariff wars between China and…

Farming for Peace: SDG 2 in Colombia

Oct 13, 2025 | Mia Keen

SDG 2 is a development goal set by the UN to create a “world free of hunger by 2030.” Global food insecurity has been increasing…

Resource Diplomacy: Africa’s Critical Mineral Crossroads

Oct 13, 2025 | James Boafo, Rochelle Spencer, and Senyo Dotsey

Critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, rare earth elements, and platinum group metals are essential for modern technologies. They underpin industries ranging from…

Explainer: Why Gender Matters in Disaster Risk Reduction

Oct 13, 2025 | UN Women Europe and Central Asia
UN Women

Disasters are happening more often, costing more, and affecting more lives than ever before. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) is not just reacting when a crisis…

Can Colombia Embrace Clean Energy without Damaging the Amazon?

Oct 13, 2025 | Christina Noriega

At the foot of the Andes, a Canadian firm has plans for one of the country’s biggest copper mines, but many say the carbon-rich forests…

Resource Curse: Why Capitalizing on the Resources Is Actually the Exception?

Oct 13, 2025 | Nadhem Mahmoudi

This phenomenon refers to the paradox of countries with vast natural or mineral resources who fail to translate those resources into economic prosperity. The resource…

The Violence of Hunger: The 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report

Oct 3, 2025 | Eugene Cho

This summer, the 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report gave us the most current look at hunger across the globe. The…

Applying a National Security Lens to the International Court’s Climate Change Opinion

Oct 2, 2025 | Danielle Ireland-Piper

Climate change is widely recognised as a national security risk. Successive defence planning strategies have identified climate change as such. For example, the 2023 Defence…

Pills and Pollution: Captagon Production in Syria

Oct 1, 2025 | Leon Moreland

Captagon is the street name for fenethylline, a synthetic stimulant created by chemically bonding amphetamine, a powerful central nervous system stimulant, with theophylline, a drug…

The Nexus of Conflict, Mining, and Violence in Eastern DRC

Sep 30, 2025 | Ashley Nunes

After decades of bloodshed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, President Félix Tshisekedi recently demanded the country’s parliament and the international community recognize the…

Trump’s Dip into the Nile Waters Dispute Didn’t Settle the Conflict – in Fact, It May Have Caused More Ripples

Sep 26, 2025 | Fred H. Lawson

Nile River water is essential to agriculture and public sanitation in both Egypt and Sudan. Distribution of that water has been regulated by an agreement…

How Water Fuels Conflict in Pakistan

Sep 26, 2025 | Daanish Mustafa

For ten days in April 2025, Pakistan almost came to a standstill. No freight was moving from its only port city, Karachi, towards the population…

South Sudan Can Leverage Oil Revenues to Develop the Wildlife Sector

Sep 25, 2025 | Leek Daniel

The development of a sustainable wildlife sector in South Sudan, leveraging oil revenues, requires a multifaceted approach that addresses conservation, economic diversification, governance, and community…

Blood Minerals and Resource Curse: The Case of Sudan and the DRC

Sep 24, 2025 | Mohammad Mahfuzul Islam

Minerals fuel modern civilization, ensuring comfort and amenities. From electronic devices to machines of all types, various minerals are required to operate them. Should we…

The Environment as Casualty of War

Sep 24, 2025 | Tom Hardy

A 2019 study by Stanford University found that climate change contributed to three to 20 per cent of global conflicts over the past century. As global…

Mud, Memories, and Meaning: Investigating Climate Security in Southwestern Zimbabwe

Sep 22, 2025 | Gracsious Mavisa

This study examines climate security challenges in southwestern Zimbabwe's Tsholotsho district, where communities continue to grapple with the lasting impacts of Cyclones Dineo (2017) and…

Why Liberia Should Approach TotalEnergies’ Production Sharing Contracts with Caution

Sep 19, 2025 | Seltue Karweaye Sr.

TotalEnergies, formerly known as Total, is a major player in the global oil and gas industry, recognized as the fourth-largest publicly traded oil and gas…

How Land Grabbing Harms the Environment and Its Defenders

Sep 18, 2025 | Becca Inglis

The term "land grabs" describes large-scale acquisitions of land that rob communities of access to their homes and livelihoods. While the term has become more…

Prioritize a Holistic Arctic Security Strategy for NATO: A Sketch

Sep 16, 2025 | Laurel Baker

NATO must consider a variety of non-military factors that inform an innovative, accountable, maximally situationally aware, and minimally disruptive Arctic security strategy. This graphic attempts…

Introducing War on Climate, a New Series That Explores How Conflict Interacts with Environmental Issues around the Globe

Sep 11, 2025 | Sam Phelps

The world is the most violent it has been in decades. A report by the Peace Research Institute Oslo recorded 61 conflicts across 36 countries…

We Are Missing the Peace in Climate Action

Sep 9, 2025 | Nazanine Moshiri

Despite the prevalence of climate diplomacy, its policy discussions often have a critical blind spot: The people who are worst affected rarely feature in summits,…

If Linked Mainly to Mineral and Business Deals, Peace Efforts in DRC Congo and Rwanda Will Not Go Far

Sep 7, 2025 | Bharat Dogra

Although a peace process involving Rwanda and DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) is supposed to be in place, this has not stopped eruption of violence,…

Indus Waters Treaty: From Cooperative Vision to Calculated Confrontation

Sep 4, 2025 | Medha Bisht

Instead of believing that strategic patience would breed stability, the Modi government’s strategic escalation has made Indus water flows a tool of coercive diplomacy.

Afghanistan’s Qosh Tepa Canal Could Trigger a Central Asian Water Crisis

Sep 3, 2025 | Galiya Ibragimova

Water shortages have long been a serious problem in Central Asia. They will become even worse when Afghanistan completes a canal diverting significant volumes of…

Economic and Political Fragility and Insecurity: A Climate Triple Threat in South Sudan

Sep 3, 2025 | Rachel Stromsta

Among the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, South Sudan’s crisis is only expected to worsen, as the country lacks the requisite…

Transboundary Water Security in a Warming World: Conflict Risks, Cooperation Pathways, and Policy Imperatives

Sep 3, 2025 | Ashok Swain

Water security—the reliable availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods, ecosystems, and production—has emerged as one of the defining challenges…

Three Reasons Why the Climate Crisis Must Reshape How We Think about War

Sep 3, 2025 | Duncan Depledge

The relationship between war and climate change is complex. But here are three reasons why the climate crisis must reshape how we think about war.

How Unexploded Bombs Cause Environmental Damage – and Why Climate Change Exacerbates the Problem

Sep 3, 2025 | Sarah Njeri

There are a record number of conflicts raging around the world – from Ukraine and Gaza to Sudan and Myanmar. Alongside their devastating human toll,…