A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

Rising Food Insecurity is Driving Instability (Foreign Affairs)

Since 2020, the number of people facing acute hunger and chronic food insecurity has increased 130% above existing levels. And supply is not the issue. At present, the world produces enough food to feed nearly 10 billion people, yet there are 720 million people who are food insecure and a further 319 million face acute hunger. Today’s hunger is driven instead by barriers to access.

As COP30 in Belém nears, leaders are calling it the “implementation summit.” Trillions of dollars in climate funding are at stake in Brazil in mid-November. Every sector, from forests to AI, has dedicated Thematic Days. However, one critical issue is noticeably missing from the official agenda: peace.   

A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program 

Corruption Stymies Environmental Crime Fight in the Amazon (Mongabay) 

In the Andean Republics, rampant systemic judicial corruption has challenged the entire justice system, with judges implicated in both bribery and extortion. Because leadership from judges is essential for the success of reform efforts ranging from anti-corruption campaigns to environmental crime enforcement, the result has been damaging to the entire justice system in the region for more than a decade. 

The global energy transition is often framed as a balancing act between climate commitments on one hand, and sufficient energy and economic security on the other. That framing assumes the transition will mean less: less energy, less growth, and a steady decline in fossil fuel use. But this rhetoric is, as Ambassador Anthony Agotha put it at last month’s Berlin Climate Security Conference a “false choice.”

Environmental crime has long been underreported, but globalization and the increased involvement of organized crime involvement is now contributing to a rise in such crime, especially when compared to other types of crime. The financial toll of environmental crimes has been estimated to be hundreds of billions of dollars while the damage they cause to ecosystems compounds the effects of climate change and inflicts a heavy toll on vulnerable communities.

Climate-related catastrophes are posing significant challenges in already-fragile South Sudan. When record-breaking floods again swept across the country in mid-2024, for instance, the disaster affected 1.4 million people, with the cumulative years of flooding submerging two-thirds of the country.

This article is adapted from “Rare Earths and Realpolitik: Kachin Control, Chinese Calculus, and the Future of Mediation in Myanmar,” written by Amara Thiha for the Stimson Center.

As global powers race to secure critical minerals, Myanmar’s rare earths have emerged as both prize and flashpoint. Last week, Reuters reported that the Trump administration has been privately reviewing competing proposals to access Myanmar’s heavy rare earth minerals, including potential engagement with Myanmar’s military junta and direct negotiation with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic armed group that now controls key extraction sites. Since the February 2021 military coup, rare earth mining has surged in northern Kachin State near the Chinese border, where the KIA has seized highly valuable rare earth mines and a critical corridor in the global supply chain. What began as a local insurgency has evolved into resource-backed diplomacy, drawing in China, India, and now the United States.

Somalia’s new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)—the country’s roadmap for climate mitigation and adaptation—does more than outline the country’s climate ambitions. It recognizes the connections between climate change and conflict and charts a course for peace.