Dr. Jeff Colgan is Director of the Climate Solutions Lab at the Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs at Brown University, and a keen observer of the interplay between energy and security. His new white paper,  “Letting Europe’s Energy Crisis Go to Waste: The Ukraine War’s Massive Fossil Fuel Costs Fail to Accelerate Renewables,” co-authored by Alexander S. Gard-Murray and Miriam Hinthorn, offers a new window into how an event with the broad potential to reshape energy policy to more sustainable ends has failed to meet the moment. Colgan spoke to us about the institute’s new research and the lessons learned about conflict’s influence on the energy transition more than a year into the Ukraine conflict.

A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program

Thirst for Relief: Prolonged Drought Intensifies Afghanistan’s Humanitarian Crisis

Afghanistan is the world’s sixth most affected country by climate-related threats—and its present acute challenge is water scarcity, intensified by climate change. The country is heavily reliant on agriculture, which makes up a third of its GDP.

The riparian states of the Aral Sea Basin are experiencing growing water demands, land, and environmental degradation, aging and inefficient infrastructure, and the rapid melting of glaciers. These increasing challenges are compounded by the lack of an effective transboundary water governance system.

It is uncomfortably easy to find connections between environmental change and security around the globe. 2023 began with heat records in Europe, a deadly cyclone in New Zealand, and military deployments in response to forest fires ravaging Canada. An untimely early heatwave scorched Spain and endangered its agricultural production. Cyclone Mocha destroyed the livelihoods of thousands in northwestern Myanmar, and Typhoon Mawar caused “significant damage” to a terminal building on Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base.

A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program

Fixing the World’s Broken Food Systems

The United Nations summit on the state of the world’s food systems took place in Rome, Italy, this week, building on the work of a previous convening in 2021. The meeting focused on the environmental impact of agriculture and making food production more sustainable.

In this edition of Wilson Center NOW, Update on Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: The View From Parliament, John Milewski, Moderator of the Wilson Center NOW series, interviews Kira Rudik, Member of Parliament of Ukraine, First Deputy Chairwoman of the Parliament Committee on Digital Transformation, Leader of the Golos Liberal Political Party, and Vice-President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Rudik has spoken with the Wilson Center twice before, as the onset of the war and at its one-year anniversary. This NOW interview centers on updates on the war, the role of government and allies, and the continued resolve of the Ukrainian people.

The great power competition underway between the United States and China has a ripple effect in each nation’s neighborhood. As the United States prepares for possible conflict seven thousand miles away in the Taiwan Strait, China is expanding its economic influence in Latin America.

From individual health risks to geopolitical tensions, climate impacts are relevant to every facet of peace and security.  Focus on these links has sharpened in recent years, as governments and international security organizations like NATO increasingly recognize that climate responses must be part of promoting peace and security.