China Greens the Global South: A Double-Edged Sword?

No matter how it finally ends, the conflict with Iran likely will drive up green technology profits for China. The war also seems certain to have a lasting energy impact on the many Global South [...]

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How Communities Use Contracts to Shape Critical Mineral Mining

The negative environmental impacts of the Cobre Panamá copper mine sparked massive, nationwide protests in Panama in 2023. Over 100 people were injured in the unrest,  and over 1,200 people were [...]

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Mining in the Shadows: Spiraling Rare Earth Pollution in Laos

In April 2026, a missing herd of cows in the northeast mountains of Laos set off a confrontation between villagers and a Chinese rare earth mining company. The villagers in Houaphanh Province had [......

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Blaming the Weather for the Fire

This article was originally published by African Arguments and has been lightly edited for style. On March 19th, the president undertook a historic two-day trip to London, the first by a Nigerian [......

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When the Rivers Heal: Child Welfare and Ghana’s Anti Galamsey Fight

In Ghana, illegal mining is commonly known as “galamsey,” derived from the phrase “gather them and sell.” It is an informal and unregulated small-scale mining activity that provides alternative [...]

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What Demographic Trends Mean for U.S. Policy

Excerpted from the Environmental Security Program’s new issue brief, What Demographic Trends Mean for U.S. Policy — full brief available on the Stimson Center website. Population dynamics [...]

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Why Pronatalism Fails the Planetary Health Test

This article was cross-posted from The Journal of Population and Sustainability. In a special report published in Bioscience almost 4 years ago (“World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency [...]

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Unpacking New Data on Women’s Autonomy in West Africa: A Conversation with Afrobarometer’s Joseph Asunka and the Ouagadougou Partnership’s Marie Ba

Nearly two-thirds of citizens across seven Ouagadougou Partnership countries say women should be free to decide if and when to marry, but fewer than half believe women should have the same say [...]

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The World Bank Has Invested $3 Billion in Drinking Water. We Don’t Know if the Water Has Lead.

This article was originally published by the Center for Global Development. This spring in Washington, DC, World Bank president Ajay Banga announced a major new initiative, “Water Forward,” with [...]

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Q&A: Penny Beames on the Global Water Security Center’s Analysis of the ‘Super’ El Niño

In the coming months, El Niño is expected to worsen drought, flood, heat, and storm conditions around the world. Despite its potential to amplify existing vulnerabilities and crises, there has [...]

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Connecting Ambition and Capital at the 2026 Blue Economy and Finance Forum

“Only one thing now stands between the ocean and the capital it needs: the decision to act. And a delayed decision is never neutral. The cost of waiting…is paid by those who come after us,” [...]

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Scientists Can Now Measure Climate Change’s Role in Coastal Flooding

This article was originally published on The Science Diplomat. For decades, scientists have warned that rising seas would increase the risk of coastal flooding. What has been harder to determine [...]

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Q&A: Nathalie Pettorelli on the Risks of Climate-Nature Silos

The world is facing compounding environmental crises from biodiversity loss to land degradation to the climate crisis. For decades, policy responses have treated these issues as separate [...]

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Treat Water as an Essential Strategic Resource in the Middle East

De-risking energy is a key element of geopolitical focus in our moment. This is especially true now, as energy security, diversifying supply routes, protecting shipping lanes, and insulating [...]

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Reducing Nitrogen Losses to Protect Food and Environmental Security

The ongoing conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran imposes significant costs beyond the immense loss of life and destruction of vital infrastructure throughout the region. It also [...]

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AI’s Environmental Footprint is a Gendered Security Risk

The infrastructure powering artificial intelligence (AI) has become both a political flashpoint and a signal for strategic warfare with significant military, geopolitical, and international [...]

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Climate Finance as a Tool for Global Stability

The relationship between climate vulnerability and political instability is clear. Twenty-two of the 30 countries ranked as the most vulnerable to climate change in 2025 also were categorized as [...]

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Powering Peace: Can Renewable Energy Help End Africa’s Conflicts?

When armed groups began threatening a community in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that had recently gained access to solar-powered electricity, something unexpected happened. Rather than [...]

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Ofir Drori on how EAGLE Confronts the Criminal Networks Driving Africa’s Wildlife Crisis

Wildlife trafficking is one of the most lucrative and destructive criminal enterprises in the world. Valued at more than $20 billion annually, these criminal networks impact more than 4,000 plant [......

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Before the Waters Rise: Nigeria’s Predictable Flood Crises

Devastating floods in Mokwa, a rural town in Niger State, claimed lives and destroyed homes and livelihoods in May 2025, and displaced many other residents as well. Yet, in Nigeria today, such [...]

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Implications of the War in Iran for Climate Security • Stimson Center

Join us for an online discussion on how the conflict in the Middle East is reshaping environmental and human security across the Middle East and North Africa region.

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A New Oil Crisis Stress-Tests the Global Energy Transition

The US–Israeli war launched against Iran in 2026 may be remembered as the moment fossil-fuel dependence became more than a mere abstraction for the Global South. Brent crude quickly surged past [...]

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Protecting Water in the Mining Rush: A World Water Day Panel

From Zambia to Indonesia, recent headlines about catastrophic toxic mining spills grimly underscore how the global push to secure one set of resources, critical minerals, might be compromising [...]

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Fighting Corruption Is Essential to Effectively Fighting Transnational Criminal Organizations

In March 2026, Earth League International (ELI) published a report: Money Talks: What Criminals Told Us About Corruption. Our study synthesized over a decade of intelligence obtained firsthand by [......

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Complicating Long-Term Stability: Water Security and the Iran War

In the summer of 2025, Tehran almost reached “Day Zero” – a designation for the moment when the city’s municipal water supply was no longer able to meet basic demand through normal distribution [...]

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The Buffalo’s Return: New Partnerships Boost Indigenous-led Conservation in Tribal Lands

Native nations in the United States have played leading roles in some of the country’s most spectacular conservation success stories. For instance, calls by the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa [...]

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Chagos and the Militarization of the Indian Ocean

This article was originally published on South Asian Voices, a publication of the Stimson Center. “Do not give away Diego Garcia,” warned U.S. President Donald Trump on February 19, as the United [......

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No Home in the Dark: Creating an All-Inclusive Rooftop Solar Ecosystem in China

Last fall, I travelled back to my hometown in rural Wen’an County, Hebei Province, and was surprised to find my aunt Lu had installed 12 solar panels on the roof of her house. Because I am a [...]

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