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The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category Afghanistan.
  • Power Play: Can Micro-Hydropower Electrify Remote Afghanistan and Promote Peace?

    ›
    Guest Contributor  //  December 4, 2018  //  By Elizabeth B. Hessami
    Panjshir

    After close to 40 years of armed conflict, Afghanistan may be poised to begin a period of economic recovery. Electrifying remote areas and establishing pervasive political control is critical to its success. India is currently planning and funding several major hydropower projects along the Kabul River and its tributaries. Micro-hydropower is bringing electricity to remote areas such as the Banda Miralamji Village in eastern Nangarhar Province. However, in some areas far from the capital, the central government in Kabul and opposition groups are struggling for control and influence. While electrification of a village often eases poverty, health concerns, and improves communication, it does not always benefit the government in Kabul.

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  • Forever Young: Engaging Youth to Build Stability and Reduce Violence

    ›
    On the Beat  //  July 31, 2018  //  By Amanda King
    Mogadishu-Soccer

    “There are more young people in the world today than in any other time in the history of the world,” said Beza Tesfaye, Senior Researcher at Mercy Corps, at a recent event at the U.S. Institute of Peace on Mercy Corps’ efforts to engage youth in Somalia and Afghanistan in order to promote stability and prevent violence. “As we know, marginalized youths are the ones often to be recruited into violent movements. Not only do we have to focus on conflict, but we also have to put youth at the center of development programs to address these issues.”

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  • As Afghanistan’s Water Crisis Escalates, More Effective Water Governance Could Bolster Regional Stability

    ›
    Guest Contributor  //  July 11, 2018  //  By Elizabeth B. Hessami

     “Kabul be zar basha be barf ne!” This ancient proverb—“May Kabul be without gold rather than snow”—refers to snowmelt from the Hindu Kush Mountains, a primary source of Afghanistan’s water supply. To recover from years of armed conflict, Afghanistan needs a stable water supply, but its sources are increasingly stressed by severe droughts. The Norwegian Refugee Council estimates that today, 2 out of 3 provinces are impacted by drought, putting two million people at risk of hunger. Improving the country’s water governance—the social, legal, and administrative systems that guide how water is distributed and used—may help it avoid both internal and regional conflicts by stabilizing its economy and its citizens’ livelihoods.

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  • Mapping Refugees and Urban Job Opportunities

    ›
    Eye On  //  July 2, 2018  //  By Daniel Lohmann
    Urban refugees

    Although most of us picture refugees living in remote, dusty camps, as many as 2.1 million of the developing world’s working-age refugees reside in major urban areas—where they should have greater access to employment opportunities. However, according to a new report from the Center for Global Development, finding employment remains “one of the major unmet needs identified by refugees.”

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  • 8 Rules of Political Demography That Help Forecast Tomorrow’s World

    ›
    Guest Contributor  //  June 12, 2017  //  By Richard Cincotta
    Venezuela-Protest

    In a world rapidly churning out unpredictable political shocks, intelligence analysts occasionally need to clear their heads of the daily barrage of newsworthy events and instead work with simple theories that discern the direction and speed of trends and help predict their outcomes. Political demography, the study of population age structures and their relationships to political trends and events, has helped some analysts predict geopolitical changes in a world that, from time to time, appears utterly chaotic.

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  • Lukas Rüttinger, A New Climate for Peace

    Insurgency, Terrorism, and Organized Crime in a Warming Climate

    ›
    May 2, 2017  //  By Wilson Center Staff
    Kirkuk

    The original version of this article, by Lukas Rüttinger, appeared on A New Climate for Peace.

    Terrorist groups such as the Islamic State and Boko Haram have been dominating the headlines since 2013.  Both groups have gained international notoriety for their ruthless brutality and their rise is posing new challenges for national, regional, and international security. Such non-state armed groups (NSAG) are not a new phenomenon. Today, however, we can observe an increasingly complex landscape of violent actors with a range of hybrid organizational structures and different agendas that set them apart from “traditional” non-state actors and result in new patterns of violence.

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  • Water and the Rise of Insurgencies in the “Arc of Instability”

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    From the Wilson Center  //  April 12, 2017  //  By Azua (Zizhan) Luo
    Displaced-family

    Water scarcity has contributed to an “arc of instability” characterized by conflict and displacement that stretches from West Africa to the Middle East, said a panel of experts at the Wilson Center on March 1. Two authors from an upcoming compilation of case studies on water security and violent conflict by World Wildlife Fund gave overviews of challenges in Nigeria and Iran and recommendations for U.S. engagement.

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  • Afghanistan’s Water Plans Complicated by Worried Neighbors

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    Guest Contributor  //  March 20, 2017  //  By Elizabeth B. Hessami
    Kajaki-dam

    More than 40 years ago, the Soviet Union attempted to harness hydropower to modernize Afghanistan. Between 1960 and 1968, they poured money and technical knowledge into the 100-meter Naghlu gravity dam outside Kabul and a village for its workers called Sharnak. Although the town has been damaged and the boons of modernity remain elusive for many Afghans, the dam remains a crucial source of power for the capital and is the largest power plant in the country with an installed capacity of 100 megawatts.

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