Showing posts from category meta.
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Top 10 Posts for June 2011
›Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen joined his former staffers (see “In Search of a New Security Narrative“) on the New Security Beat top 10 list last month after speaking at the Wilson Center in the inaugural Lee Hamilton lecture. Richard Cincotta’s look at Tunisia’s demographics also remained popular, joined by several posts on climate, security, and development, including ECSP’s “Yemen Beyond the Headlines” event.
1. In Search of a New Security Narrative: The National Conversation at the Wilson Center
2. Tunisia’s Shot at Democracy: What Demographics and Recent History Tell Us
3. Connections Between Climate and Stability: Lessons From Asia and Africa
4. Admiral Mullen: “Security Means More Than Defense,” Inaugural Lee Hamilton Lecture at the Wilson Center
5. Climate Adaptation, Development, and Peacebuilding in Fragile States: Finding the Triple-Bottom Line
6. One in Three People Will Live in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2100, Says UN
7. India’s Maoists: South Asia’s “Other” Insurgency
8. Eye on Environmental Security: Where Does It Hurt? Climate Vulnerability Index, Momentum Magazine
9. Helping Hands: An Integrated Approach to Development
10. Yemen Beyond the Headlines: Losing the Battle to Balance Water Supply and Population Growth -
Save the Date: “Maternal Health Challenges in Kenya: What Research Evidence Shows”
›June 8, 2011 // By Ramona GodboleThe Woodrow Wilson Center’s Global Health Initiative, Africa Program, and Environmental Change and Security Program, in coordination with the Maternal Health Task Force and UNFPA, invite you to a livestreamed discussion of:
Maternal Health Challenges in Kenya: What Research Evidence Shows
Tuesday, July 12, 2011, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 a.m
Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC
6th Floor Flom Auditorium
Please RSVP to globalhealth@wilsoncenter.org with your name and affiliation.
The Wilson Center’s Global Health Initiative is traveling to Nairobi to co-host a two-day workshop on July 12-13 with Kenyan policymakers, community health workers, program managers, media, and donors who will discuss Kenya’s maternal health challenges and identify solutions for moving the maternal health agenda forward.Concurrent with the event in Kenya, the Wilson Center will also be holding a meeting with participants livestreaming in from the Nairobi workshop to present new research and highlight lessons learned from the in-country event. Washington-based participants will also have the unique opportunity to interact with the Nairobi workshop and provide feedback to policymakers via live video conference. A full agenda will follow shortly.
About the 2011 Maternal Health Policy Series
As one of the few forums dedicated to maternal health, the Woodrow Wilson Center’s 2011 Advancing Policy Dialogue on Maternal Health series brings together senior-level policymakers, academic researchers, media, and civil servants from the U.S. government and foreign consuls to identify challenges and discuss strategies for advancing the maternal health agenda.
In order to promote greater voices from the field, the 2011 dialogue is partnering with the African Population Health Research Center in Kenya to co-host a two-part dialogue series with local, regional, and national decision-makers on effective maternal health policies and programs. These in-country dialogue meetings will create a platform for field workers, policymakers, program managers, media, and donors to share research, disseminate lessons learned, and address concerns related to policy, institutional, and organizational capacity building.
The Wilson Center’s Global Health Initiative is pleased to present this series with its co-conveners, the Maternal Health Task Force and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and is grateful to USAID’s Bureau for Global Health for further technical assistance.
Photo Credit: Mother and Child, courtesy of flickr user The.Rohit. -
Top 10 Posts for May 2011
›Climate vulnerability, water access, the role of family planning in U.S. foreign policy, and the UN’s latest population projections joined the top ten list last month, while Captain Wayne Porter and Colonel Mark Mykleby’s new national strategic narrative, Tunisia’s demography, and India’s Maoists remained popular.
1. In Search of a New Security Narrative: The National Conversation at the Wilson Center
2. India’s Maoists: South Asia’s “Other” Insurgency
3. Tunisia’s Shot at Democracy: What Demographics and Recent History Tell Us
4. Eye on Environmental Security: Where Does It Hurt? Climate Vulnerability Index, Momentum Magazine
5. Population and Environment Connections: The Role of Family Planning in U.S. Foreign Policy
6. Guest Contributor Paul Rushton: Environmental Action Plans in Darfur: Improving Resilience, Reducing Vulnerability
7. Ten Billion: UN Updates Population Projections, Assumptions on Peak Growth Shattered
8. Family Planning as a Strategic Focus of U.S. Foreign Policy
9. Population Growth and Climate Change Threaten Urban Freshwater Provision
10. The Walk to Water in Conflict-Affected Areas -
Top 10 Posts for April 2011
›The launch of the “Mr. Y” national security narrative here at the Wilson Center topped the list of most popular stories last month, but IFAD’s latest rural poverty report, two interview features on population and development, and Richard Cincotta’s predictions on Tunisia also made the top 10.
1. In Search of a New Security Narrative: The National Conversation at the Wilson Center
2. Rural Poverty: The Bottom One Billion
3. Watch: Roger-Mark De Souza on the Scaling Advantages of Population, Health, and Environment Integration
4. Watch: David Lopez Carr and Liza Grandia on Rural Population Growth and Development in Guatemala
5. India’s Maoists: South Asia’s “Other” Insurgency6. Managing the Mekong: Conflict or Compromise?
7. Tunisia’s Shot at Democracy: What Demographics and Recent History Tell Us
8. What “Lost” Cultures Can Contribute to Management of Our Planet
9. Dot-Mom: Innovations From Development to Delivery: Working With the Private Sector to Improve Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health
10. Tunisia Predicted: Demography and the Probability of Liberal Democracy in the Greater Middle East -
Top 10 Posts for March 2011
›South Asia – from the Mekong to India’s Maoists – was popular last month, along with continuing interest in Tunisia’s demography, the recent rise in staple food prices, and ECSP’s on-the-ground reporting from Ethiopia:
1. Managing the Mekong: Conflict or Compromise?
2. Tunisia’s Shot at Democracy: What Demographics and Recent History Tell Us
3. Eye on Environmental Security: Mapping the Hot Spots of the 2010/11 Food Crisis
4. India’s Maoists: South Asia’s “Other” Insurgency
5. From Ethiopia: The Continuing Challenges of Integrated Development6. Carrying Capacity: Should We Be Aiming to Survive or Flourish?
7. Congressional Report: Avoiding “Water Wars” in Central and South Asia; Scarcity and Stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan
8. DRC’s Conflict Minerals: Can U.S. Law Impact the Violence?
9. Dot-Mom: Celebrating Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things to Improve Gender Equality and Maternal Health Worldwide
10. Guest Contributor Frederick M. Burkle: Reading the QDDR; Civil-Military Interface Still Lacks Operational Clarity -
Top 10 Posts for February 2011
›Continuing turmoil in the Middle East helped keep Richard Cincotta’s political-demographic analysis on Tunisia’s chances of achieving democracy at the top this month, with Bryan McDonald’s piece on food price shocks, comments from demographers on “the age of revolution,” and a look at Pew’s latest iteration of its report on Muslim population growth following close behind:
1. Tunisia’s Shot at Democracy: What Demographics and Recent History Tell Us
2. Guest Contributor Bryan McDonald: Food Price Shocks and Instability Highlight Weaknesses in Governance and Markets
3. The Age of Revolution? Demography Experts Comment on Tunisia’s Shot at Democracy
4. Eye on Environmental Security: Mapping Muslim Population Growth
5. Book Preview: The Future Faces of War: Population and National Security6. Book Preview: Environmental Politics: Scale and Power, Shannon O’Lear, University of Kansas
7. Quantifying the Integration of Population, Health, and Environment in Development: When the Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of its Parts
8. India’s Maoists: South Asia’s “Other” Insurgency
9. Climate-Induced Migration: Catastrophe or Adaptation Strategy?
10. Guest Contributor Richard A. Matthew: Reading the QDDR: Civilian Power in a Complex, Uncertain World -
Top 10 Posts for January 2011
›January 2011 was an eventful month to say the least. Richard Cincotta’s political-demographic analysis on Tunisia’s chances of achieving democracy took top place, followed by a landmark PHE technical study, Joel Cohen on education and population growth, coverage of the first ever QDDR, and India’s continuing conflict with Maoist insurgents:
1. Tunisia’s Shot at Democracy: What Demographics and Recent History Tell Us
2. Quantifying the Integration of Population, Health, and Environment in Development: When the Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of its Parts
3. Watch: Too Few or Too Many? Joel E. Cohen on How Education Can Address Both
4. India’s Maoists: South Asia’s “Other” Insurgency
5. Guest Contributor Frederick M. Burkle: Reading the QDDR: Civil-Military Interface Still Lacks Operational Clarity
6. Reading the QDDR: Women and Youth in 21st Century Statecraft
7. New Insights Into the Population Growth Factor in Development
8. Turning Up the Water Pressure, Part One: How Population Growth Is Straining the World’s Most Vital Resource
9. Restrepo: Inside Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley
10. Pop Audio: From Cancun: Roger-Mark De Souza on Women and Integrated Climate Adaptation Strategies -
End of the Year Edition: Top 10 Posts for 2010
›The New Security Beat’s 2010 top ten (measured by unique pageviews) included guest contributions from Marc Levy, Todd Walters, and the UK’s Royal Society, a post by West Point Cadet Marie Hokenson, a video feature with Peter Gleick, and posts on global enviro-security hot spots Afghanistan, India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Yemen:
1. Watch: Peter Gleick on Peak Water
“The concept of ‘peak water’ is very analogous to peak oil…we’re using fossil groundwater. That is, we’re pumping groundwater faster than nature naturally recharges it,” says Peter Gleick in this short expert analysis from the Environmental Change and Security Program. Gleick, president and co-founder of the Pacific Institute and author of the newest edition of The World’s Water, explains the new concept of peak water.
2. Copper in Afghanistan: Chinese Investment at Aynak
Will new investments by the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) in the Aynak copper mine break Afghanistan out of its poverty trap? Will future revenues from the subsoil assets in Logar Province bring peace and stability to the ongoing conflict?
3. DRC’s Conflict Minerals: Can U.S. Law Impact the Violence?
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, in a personal email posted by Wired, recently tried to explain to a concerned iPhone customer the complexity of ensuring Apple’s devices do not use conflict minerals like those helping to fund the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However much one might be tempted to pile on Apple at the moment, Mr. Jobs is on to something with regard to the conflict minerals trade – expressing outrage and raising awareness of the problem is one thing but actually implementing an effective solution is quite another.
4. India’s Maoists: South Asia’s “Other” Insurgency
The Indian government’s battle with Maoist and tribal rebels – which affects 22 of India’s 35 states and territories, according to Foreign Policy and in 2009 killed more people than any year since 1971 – has been largely ignored in the West. That should change, as South Asia’s “other” insurgency, fomenting in the world’s largest democracy and a key U.S. partner, offers valuable lessons about the role of resource management and stable development in preventing conflict.
5. On the Beat: Climate-Security Linkages Lost in Translation
A recent news story summarizing some interesting research by Halvard Buhaug carried the headline “Civil war in Africa has no link to climate change.” This is unfortunate because there’s nothing in Buhaug’s results, which were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, to support that conclusion.
6. Guest Contributor Todd Walters: Imagine There’s No Countries: Conservation Beyond Borders in the Balkans
International peace parks have captured the imagination of visionaries like Nelson Mandela, who called them a “concept that can be embraced by all.” Such parks—also known as transboundary protected areas—span national boundaries, testifying to the peaceful collaborative relationship between neighboring countries and to the co-existence of humans and nature.
7. Restrepo: Inside Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley
Restrepo, the riveting new documentary film from Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, follows a platoon of U.S. soldiers deployed in the dangerous Korengal Valley of Afghanistan. As a cadet at West Point majoring in human geography, I was fascinated to watch the ways the soldiers confronted and adapted to the challenges posed by the local culture of the remote Afghan community surrounding their outpost.
8. UK Royal Society: Call for Submissions: “People and the Planet” Study To Examine Population, Environment, Development Links
In the years that followed the Iranian revolution, when Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile to Tehran and the country went to war against Iraq, the women of Iran were called upon to provide the next generation of soldiers. Following the war the country’s fertility rate fell from an average of over seven children per woman to around 1.7 children per woman – one of the fastest falls in fertility rates recorded over the last 25 years.
9. Demographics, Depleted Resources, and Al Qaeda Inflame Tensions in Yemen
A second spectacular Al Qaeda attack on Yemeni government security buildings in less than a month is a worrisome sign that the terrorist group may be trying to take advantage of a country splitting at the seams. U.S. officials are concerned that Yemen, like neighboring Somalia, may become a failed state due to a myriad of challenges, including a separatist movement in the south, tensions over government corruption charges, competition for dwindling natural resources, and one of the fastest growing populations in the world.
10. Eye on Environmental Security: Visualizing Natural Resources, Population, and Conflict
Environmental problems that amplify regional security issues are often multifaceted, especially across national boundaries. Obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the natural resource, energy, and security issues facing a region is not fast or easy.
Photo Credit: Collage from individual posts (left to right, top to bottom): Peter Gleick courtesy of ECSP’s Youtube channel; “Yemen pol 2002,” via Wikimedia Commons courtesy of the U.S. Federal Government; “Mutual support,” courtesy of flickr user The U.S. Army; “KE139S11 World Bank,” courtesy of flickr user World Bank Photo Collection; “Mineral and Forests of the DRC” from ECSP Report 12, courtesy of Philippe Rekacewicz, Le Monde diplomatique, Paris, and Environment and Security Institute, The Hague, January 2003; IPPE/Cory Wilson; “Environmental Issues in the Northern Caspian Sea,” courtesy of the Environment & Security Initiative; “Wandering Aesthetic” courtesy of flickr user Wen-Yan King; and “River and Mountains of Logar,” courtesy of flickr user AfghanistanMatters.
