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What’s in a Name? States of Fragility and Adjusting Aid to Conflict Zones
›April 13, 2015 // By Lauren Herzer RisiDepending on how closely you pay attention to the OECD, you may have picked up on a subtle but meaningful change in this year’s States of Fragility report. Whereas previous reports were titled Fragile States, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has shifted its framing to focus less on states and more on conditions, less on the binary status of a “fragile state” and more on fragility as a universal condition that can impede development in all countries.
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Interview With Michael Brown, UN Senior Mediation Expert in Natural Resources and Land Conflicts
›April 8, 2015 // By Linnea BennettNatural resources rarely feature during peacebuilding efforts, but there is growing evidence that’s a mistake. Unresolved natural resource management issues can make peace more fragile, while addressing them can act as a bridge toward cooperation.
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Not Enough to Go Around? Tensions Over Land Threaten to Boil Over in Burundi
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High Stakes: Understanding Risk and Why This Year’s Climate Negotiations Are So Important
›Expectations for the upcoming UN climate change summit in Paris are higher than they’ve been in years. Experts expect it will be the best chance to achieve a binding, universal agreement to limit carbon emissions. But the conference is still not getting the attention it deserves from policymakers and the public, given the stakes – and not just for the environment but for the international system writ large, said Nick Mabey, founding director and chief executive of the UK-based environmental NGO E3G at the Wilson Center on February 12.
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Syria Conflict’s Connection to Climate Change, and Avoiding Maladaptation to “Hydro-Climate” Risks
›In a headline–making article in the journal PNAS, Colin P. Kelley et al. write there is evidence that the ongoing conflict in Syria, which has killed at least 200,000, was triggered by climate change. Severe drought from 2007 to 2010 caused a massive rural-to-urban demographic shift which exacerbated pre-existing sociopolitical tensions in Syrian cities already inundated with Iraqi refugees.
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Heat and Hotheads: The Effect of Rising Temperatures on Urban Unrest
›When the first wave of protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting of Michael Brown in August 2014, it looked as if unrest might spread to other American cities, echoing the “long hot summers” of 50 years before.
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Tom Staal on How Resilience Changes the Way USAID Works
›When it comes to international development, a resilience framework is key, says Tom Staal, acting assistant administrator of the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance at USAID, in this week’s podcast.
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World Water Day: A Wellspring for Sustainable Development
›This year’s World Water Day is taking on a broader theme than years past: sustainable development. The theme makes sense as two major international processes – the drafting of the Sustainable Development Goals to replace the Millennium Development Goals, and the most anticipated UN Climate Summit in years – are taking place in 2015. Decisions made over the next nine months will play a huge role in relationships between nations and global development priorities going forward.
Showing posts from category environmental security.