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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category water security.
  • What’s Next in Climate Security Studies? Exploiting Synergies Between Practice and Research

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    Guest Contributor  //  May 4, 2023  //  By Nina von Uexkull
    49980939608_9f23bfa0a1_c

    The increase in global temperatures by over 1 degree Celsius since preindustrial times is already having broad and significant impacts. An ongoing multi-year drought in Eastern Africa, for instance, has been attributed to global warming. Hunger crises, displacement, and exacerbated conflict between pastoralist groups are some of the reported dire consequences.

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  • China’s Climate Security Vulnerabilities

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    From the Wilson Center  //  April 25, 2023  //  By Angus Soderberg
    Wuhan,china-july,19,2020:water,Level,Of,The,Yangtze,River,At,Wuhan

    Climate change’s ripples reach every corner of the globe, but nowhere is their geopolitical impact more pronounced than in China’s relations with the United States. This is especially the case as the undisputed security risks posed to both nations by climate change become intertwined with broader arcs of political, economic, and military competition on both sides.

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  • How is Climate Change Affecting MENA? Local Experts Weigh In

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    From the Wilson Center  //  April 21, 2023  //  By Khalil Abu Allan, Eslam A. Hassanein, Gokce Sencan & Neeshad Shafi
    Al-chibayish,,Iraq.,November,1st,2018,A,Marsh,Arab,Woman,Collecting

    This article was originally published as part of the Viewpoints Series of the Wilson Center’s Middle East Program.

    For Earth Day 2023, members of the Agents of Change Youth Fellowship answered this question: What is the biggest environmental or climate change related challenge facing your community today? Their responses reveal a pattern of vulnerability facing the MENA region.

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  • USAID’s Revised Water and Conflict Toolkit

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    Guest Contributor  //  March 22, 2023  //  By Ekta Patel & Erika Weinthal
    Screen Shot 2023-03-21 at 5.24.14 PM

    Links between water and conflict seem to crop up everywhere one looks these days. The Horn of Africa will soon face a sixth consecutive failed rainy season in 2023—its worst drought on record. Not only is this drought a consequence of global climate change, but it has also led to widespread food shortages and local civil conflicts. And over the past year in Ukraine, Russian troops have directly damaged that nation’s already vulnerable water systems, including pipelines, pumping stations, and treatment facilities. These repeated attacks on water infrastructure have not only undermined local livelihoods in Ukraine, but they have also polluted surface waters and threatened biodiversity.

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  • The UN Water Conference and Latin American Transboundary Waters: A Case for Better Governance

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    Guest Contributor  //  March 21, 2023  //  By Alexander Lopez
    1600px-City_of_Carauari,_the_Juruá_River_and_its_tributaries,_taken_from_the_International_Space_Station

    In recent decades, the international system has undergone profound changes—especially in terms of the types of threats that destabilize international peace and security. As new threats emerge, a focus on new dimensions of the concept of security is now reaching the top of the international agenda. In this context, the global freshwater crisis is beginning to be perceived as an existential threat to states requiring extraordinary measures to alleviate or solve the problem.

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  • Tracking Conflict and Cooperation Over the World’s International Freshwater Resources

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    Guest Contributor  //  March 20, 2023  //  By Alexandra Caplan, Melissa McCracken, Susanne Schmeier, Zoe Rosenblum & Aaron Wolf
    TFDD_Basins_GlobalMap_color_Cropped

    Waters that cross international political borders can drive the countries that share them to conflict—or encourage cooperation between them. Indeed, since the 1940s, overall trends point to a tendency for countries to cooperate over shared water resources, which stands in stark contrast to media portrayals of “water wars.”

    Yet instances of conflict over water have increased slightly since 2000. Why? Most of them are fueled by water quantity disputes or the unilateral development of dams or other infrastructure. Institutions often play a key role in facilitating cooperation (and reducing conflict) over shared waters, but their growth and adoption have slowed over the last two to three decades.

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  • Book Preview: “Weaponizing Water” by Marcus D. King

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    What You Are Reading  //  March 14, 2023  //  By Angus Soderberg
    Book Covers

    By 2050, two-thirds of the population will face some form of water stress. As a fundamental part of life, water—or a lack of it—influences other parts of life, including conflict. In fact, as author Marcus King notes in his new book, Weaponizing Water: Water Stress and Islamic Extremist Violence in Africa and the Middle East, there is a “correlation between the spheres of influence of violent extremist organizations (VEOs) and the driest lands or areas of sparse vegetation in some of the most arid regions on earth.”

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  • Water and Conflict: Updates from the Russia-Ukraine War

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    From the Wilson Center  //  February 28, 2023  //  By Angus Soderberg
    Screen Shot 2023-02-28 at 2.25.37 PM

    The first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is also a reminder of the long-term challenges faced by that embattled country, including one of the most important resources for human survival: water.

    “For Ukrainians, water has been under fire for nearly a decade,” observed Erika Weinthal, Professor of Environmental Policy and Public Policy at Duke University, at a recent Water @ Wilson Series event: “Water and Conflict: Updates from the Russia-Ukraine War,” co-hosted by the U.S. Water Partnership.

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