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

Bolivian Presidential Vote Raises Environmental Concerns (Associated Press)

Bolivia’s presidential runoff election on October 19 between centrist Senator Rodrigo Paz and right-wing former president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga has seen both candidates promise change. Yet Indigenous and environmental leaders remain skeptical that either hopeful will effectively address Bolivia’s severe environmental crises.

The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 has kept two nuclear-armed rivals – India and Pakistan – in a stable river sharing arrangement for more than six decades. Yet that significant achievement now seems to be at risk.

India’s government has stated it is holding the treaty in abeyance and is threatening to cut off water to Pakistan after a terrorist attack killed more than 20 Indian citizens in late April 2025. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the treaty as a “blunder” and a “betrayal” of India’s dignity committed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and proclaimed that “blood and water cannot flow together.”

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

The Mining Town Funding Congo’s Rebels and Tech Giants (Reuters)

In April 2024, the M23 rebel group seized control of Rubaya, a mining town that produces 15% of the world’s coltan—a critical mineral worth used in mobile phones, computers, and aerospace components. Rebels imposed a parallel administration in the town, and placed a 15% tax on mineral traders that generates $800,000 monthly from levies. Thousands of impoverished miners in the town, however, still work 12-hour shifts in dangerous conditions earning just $5.15 per day.

Global plastic production is increasing almost exponentially.  Not only has it grown 250-fold since the 1950s, but it is on track to double by 2040, and nearly triple by 2060. The waste associated with its creation has accumulated in parallel. An estimated 8 billion metric tons of discarded plastic now pollute the planet, breaking down into micro-and nanoplastic particles (MNPs) that are ubiquitous in the environment.

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

A Water Security Crisis Grips Pakistan’s Indus Delta (Al-Jazeera)

The Indus delta in Pakistan is experiencing severe environmental collapse as seawater intrusion makes farming and fishing impossible. Salinity levels have risen 70% since 1990, forcing tens of thousands from coastal districts. Over 1.2 million people from the broader delta region have abandoned their homes in the past two decades. The construction of irrigation canals and hydropower dams, compounded by the impacts of climate change on glacial melt, has accelerated the crisis and reduced downstream flow by 80% since the 1950s. More than 16% of fertile Indus delta land has become unproductive, as salt crusts cover the ground and boats must transport drinking water to the region’s remaining villages.

Summer is often a time for grim climate milestones, as ever-more intense heatwaves scorch large swathes of the planet. But this year, the bad news arrived earlier than usual when the United States refrained from sending representatives to the UN-sponsored climate talks in Bonn, Germany, for the first time in the talks’ 30-year history. The intercessional talks are in some ways more important ever than the more widely reported on climate COPs because they are where many especially tricky issues are negotiated. The Trump Administration’s unilateral withdrawal from international negotiations is bad news for the climate. But it is even worse news for US national security. Climate diplomacy is a big part of soft power and influence, and Washington is rapidly losing out to Beijing.

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.

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

Low Political Will and Depleted Supplies: Inside Iran’s Water Crisis  (The New York Times) 

Water shortages are a day-to-day reality for many Iranians, as reservoirs shrink, taps run dry for hours, and water pressure remains so low that it doesn’t reach above the second floor. This acute water crisis is driven by a confluence of climatic changes and poor water policies, as Iran’s five-year drought has combined with overdevelopment, excessive dam development, and draining groundwater for agriculture to push already dwindling supplies to the brink.