As Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant rebels were steadily pushing into Iraq last month, ultimately threatening the country’s largest dam, water conflict was a popular topic on the blog.

Adaptation, mitigation, or suffering – those are the three choices people the world over face when confronted with climate change, wrote guest contributor Paul Wapner in one of last month’s most popular posts. Joining him were new posts on population, climate, and peacebuilding efforts in Africa and how “smart city” technologies are being applied in growing urban areas around the world.

Have we seen enough of climate change to call it a “catalyst for conflict?” A panel of retired U.S. military leaders think so in a new report from CNA launched at the Wilson Center last month.

Water and women were common themes among the blog’s most popular posts last month.

On the aquatic front, USAID launched a new water and conflict toolkit, guest contributor Cameron Harrington took on the concept of impending “water wars,” and Keith Schneider introduced the “Choke Point: India” project.

Last month brought a slew of major stories, including guest contributor François Gemenne’s take on a new direction for climate change and conflict research, a breakdown of climate change in the U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review, and USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah speaking at the Wilson Center about public-private partnerships. Our sister program, the China Environment Forum, also had a great showing with a new video featurette, infographic, and report launch on the potential of renewable energy.

“Population was long perceived as mainly an issue in terms of people’s resource appetites: more people means more demand for stuff,” said The New York Times’ Andrew Revkin in an interview last month. “But in vulnerable places it actually means a bigger exposure to hazard.”

There are lots of questions for 2014. After another round of devastating natural disasters, is this the year we pin down a definition of the much-ballyhooed concept of resilience? What about “women’s empowerment?” In Africa, will there be signs of accelerating demographic transitions? Will China solve its water-energy choke point? And can other countries too balance natural resource extraction and climate change adaptation with equitable development?

In what’s becoming a trend, another set of devastating natural disasters made headlines in 2013. Typhoon Haiyan enveloped the Philippines in November while the world watched online, and less publicized but just as traumatic, flash flooding in India this summer killed thousands of pilgrims making their way up Himalayan river valleys.