conflict
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Briefer: One Year Later: Unraveling Climate and Ecological Security in Ukraine
One year after the invasion, this briefer reassesses the war’s implications for the energy transition, as well as global climate, ecological and food security.
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Yellow Card: Global Food Crisis Underscores Need for Systemic Security
By Brigitte Hugh In January 2022, food prices were already higher than normal. Pandemic-driven supply chain and labor complications combined with intensifying climate hazards had negatively affected global food availability. Then Russia invaded Ukraine, which has drastically reduced grain exports from Europe’s breadbasket, compounding the situation. Among other devastating humanitarian consequences, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…
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Do Not Underestimate the Links Between Climate Change and Conflict, Experts Warn
General Tom Middendorp (ret.), Chair of the International Military Council on Climate and Security (IMCCS), is one of more than a dozen leaders in the fields of climate science, peacebuilding, and security to have endorsed a joint statement released on April 27th calling for the links between climate change and conflict to inform a broad…
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A Case Study in the Environmental Risks of War: Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant
By Richard Marcantonio The risks of warfare are complex. Beyond the often-devastating immediate humanitarian implications of large-scale violence, warfare’s impact on the broader environment is multifaceted, posing environmental, social, political, economic, and human health risks. The ongoing violence in Ukraine precipitated by Russia’s invasion has brought to the fore, again, the specter of these broader…
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CSR Receives Major Grant to Address the Rising Risks of Nuclear Conflict
Part of the impetus to launch the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) was our concern that catastrophic risks were rising. The global security environment is experiencing monumental strains, including from the weakening of long-held norms, clear violations of the rules-based international order as exemplified by Russia’s most recent invasion of a sovereign Ukraine, mounting strains…
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A Recipe for Perpetual Insecurity? The Case of a Syrian Protected Area
By Peter Schwartzstein As snapshots of Syria’s environmental degradation go, Jebel Abdelaziz, in the northeastern part of the country, is hard to beat. The mountain’s rocky flanks offer little for livestock. The semi-arid surrounding plain offers little for man or beast. Extending over 50km (31 miles) from Hasakah into the lightly populated scrub in the…
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The Use of Climate as a Scapegoat for Governance Abuses and Failures – and Why That’s a Problem
By Peter Schwartzstein Getting environmental officials to expound on their countries’ crises can be futile in much of the Middle East and North Africa (and well beyond). These officials might not want to talk about pollution because they have no plan – or wherewithal – to tackle it. It can be difficult to draw them…
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Why Water Conflict is Rising, Especially on the Local Level
By Peter Schwartzstein That future wars will be fought over water, rather than oil, has become something of a truism, particularly with regard to the Middle East. It’s also one that most water experts have refuted time and time and time again. But while this preference for cooperation over conflict may (and emphasis on may)remain…
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The Complexity of the Climate Change, Migration and Conflict Nexus
By Dr. Marc Kodack Researchers are actively assessing the interactions between climate/environmental change and migration (here) and, climate change, migration, and conflict (here and here) to increase our understanding of the diverse effects that climate change will have on populations around the world. Understanding the complex interaction between climate change, migration and conflict requires a theoretical model that…