The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the political potential of National Risk Assessments (NRAs). The consistent focus of European NRAs on the risk of pandemics while public attention was glued to terrorism demonstrates their relevance to the question of how to prevent and prepare for future disasters – be they natural or man-made. As a basis for… Read more »
Month: January 2021
Green & Sustainable Mining: Green-Washing in the Extractive Industries?
What is behind the recent push for mining companies to go green and improve the sustainability of their operations? Since around 2017, several policy reports and a growing number of news articles have highlighted how mining companies are increasingly trying to ensure that their operations are more environmentally sustainable and climate-friendly. Mining companies hope to… Read more »
COVID-19: Towards a Digital Fragmentation of the Right to Education?
COVID-19 lockdowns have had momentous impact on children’s lives worldwide and in particular on the right to education. Save the Children reports that more than 1.6 billion learners globally have faced school closures due to the pandemic, resulting in at least 10 million children not returning to school.[1] Among key international stakeholders, there appears to be a consensus… Read more »
An Australian Viking has laid down his pen
Andrew Mack, known to his friends as Andy, died peacefully in Vancouver on 20 January, just before his 82nd birthday. Andy was best known in recent years for his work as the founder and editor of the Human Security Report, with four editions from 2005 to 2013, as well as several shorter Human Security Briefs…. Read more »
Good Reads: Rare Earths and Conflict across Scale
Rare earths metals made a lot of news over the last decade, after most of us spent years forgetting what we once learned their names on the periodic table. Rare earths consist of 17 different metals, from scandium (element 21) down to lutetium (element 71). They are important to a host of high tech and… Read more »
The Differing Masculinities of Trump and Biden
On January 20th, 2021, Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, marking the end of four tumultuous years. It would be an understatement to say that Donald Trump and Joe Biden are two very different leaders, and we can expect that there will be many changes with how the… Read more »
The United States Must Be Viewed as a Flawed Democracy at Significant Risk of Transitioning into Dictatorship
A study of flawed democracies and semi-dictatorships describes a common pattern of events as follows: After having lost an election, the sitting president claims that the election was invalid, whereupon he attempts a coup d’état and his supporters storm the parliament. A few years ago, this sequence of events would have been unthinkable in any… Read more »
Lithium in Zimbabwe: A future boom of doom?
Electric vehicles (EV) sales are on the rise. One of key ingredients for EV batteries is lithium, which is not that easily replaced as a key element in batteries. Thus, the demand in the lightweight mineral will continue to grow – the investment bank UBS estimates it demand will grow eight times by 2030. Considering… Read more »
The Empire Strikes Back
In recent years, nationalist leaders have staked claims on lost territories in order to restore the glory of former empires. Lars-Erik Cederman believes that this rise in revanchist nationalism poses a threat to geopolitical stability. populist nationalists have increasingly expressed a strong sense of longing for their states’ imperial past Imperialism is thought to be… Read more »
A Christmas Message from Afghanistan
For Afghans, Christmas 2020 marked 41 years since the Soviet intervention. Ever since, this poor, mountainous country in Central Asia has been a focus of global attention. Can we now see signs of a peaceful solution? A tweet posted on Christmas Eve by Muska Dastageer, a young Afghan woman with a sound basis for her… Read more »