Tuesday 31 October New in-depth working-paper from Small Arms Survey: “Isolation and Endurance: Riek Machar and the SPLM-IO in 2016–17” The Mail and the Guardian in-depth investigative report on the leaked audit report: “How South Sudan’s elite looted its foreign reserves” TIME, op-ed: “What the U.S. Must Do to Save South Sudan, a Nation it… Read more »
Month: November 2017
Migrant Smugglers Are Winning. Here’s Why
Migrant smuggling: moving people across borders for profit, is reported to be one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative forms of organized criminal activity. Smugglers crowd their human cargo into shipping containers and onto boats and trucks. Many migrants arrive safely and consider the investment well spent. But migrant smuggling is a dirty business: excessive… Read more »
Climate, Peace and Security
Despite rapid scientific progress, firm knowledge about the societal consequences of global warming remains limited. What are the implications of climate change for peace and security? Should we expect more wars and more political instability as the world heats up? The real concerns linked to climate change are not about shrinking glaciers, eroding coastlines, or… Read more »
Conflict Portrait: Afghanistan
The armed conflict between the Afghan government, along with its international allies, and armed radical Islamist insurgents intensified after 2014. At the end of that year, the mandate of the NATO-led ISAF combat mission expired, and the responsibility for security was officially handed over to the Afghan authorities. ISAF was replaced by a far smaller… Read more »
The Svalbard tragedy illuminates the downside of heavy militarization of Russia’s Arctic policy
Taking ownership of and “conquering” the Arctic are themes Russian authorities love to amplify. But sometimes, the harsh Northern reality interferes. The crash of an Mi-8 helicopter in Svalbard (Spitsbergen), last Thursday (October 26), with eight lives lost, was one such occasion. Norway launched a rescue operation within 30 minutes, while Russian officials continued to… Read more »
Welcome to the Climate & Conflict Blog
The Climate & Conflict blog will publish updates from relevant PRIO-based research projects on security dimensions of climate and environmental change. PRIO presently hosts three research projects that jointly have an overarching goal of addressing the relationship between climate and conflict: CAVE, CLIMSEC, and CROP. Some of the questions these projects ask are: What is… Read more »
What to Expect from India at COP23?
Climate change is not a one-way street of cause and effect. International negotiations on climate change and the reduction of emissions are equally complex. A consistent Indian demand has been green technology transfer from “high-emitting” developed countries. An equally longstanding principle is that of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities, or CBDR-RC. Despite the continuities,… Read more »