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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category U.S.S.R..
  • Hydropolitics in the Russian – Ukrainian Conflict

    ›
    Guest Contributor  //  March 1, 2022  //  By Mehmet Altingoz & Saleem Ali
    Dry,Grass,Burns,In,The,Channel,Of,The,Unused,North

    It’s telling that one of the first actions that Russian forces took in their invasion of Ukraine was to blow up a dam on the North Crimean Canal (NCC), allowing water to flow back into Crimea. The current war being waged by Russia in Ukraine has its origins in fractured and contested political history, but there are also key natural resource security questions which often go overlooked. While there are established debates about the extent to which natural resources contribute to conflict, the current conflagration exemplifies a rare use of water as a means of direct leverage in a military standoff. Regardless of the outcome of the conflict, the tensions between Russia and Ukraine over the NCC illustrate the need to consider the role of natural resources—and access to them—in broader diplomatic efforts.

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  • Silently, Quickly, and Completely: The World’s Lakes in Peril

    ›
    September 28, 2016  //  By Cara Thuringer
    AralSea2

    When Lake Poopó, Bolivia’s second-largest lake, dried up last December, an entire community lost their way of life and the scientific community cast their eyes to the map asking, where next? They didn’t have to look far. According to a report prepared by the World Lake Vision Committee, a collaboration between the International Lake Committee Foundation, the Shiga Prefectural Government of Japan, and the United Nations Environment Program, there are very few major lake systems that are not experiencing decreasing water quality, volume, biodiversity, or some combination of the three.

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  • Ruth Greenspan Bell and Barry M. Blechman, Foreign Affairs

    Turning Down the Heat: Progress in the Fight Against Climate Change

    ›
    November 24, 2015  //  By Wilson Center Staff

    The original version of this article, by Ruth Greenspan Bell and Barry M. Blechman, appeared on Foreign Affairs.

    Last week, at a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, the United States, Japan, and several other nations reached an agreement that will restrict financing for overseas coal projects. The deal will limit investment in the dirtiest, coal-fired power plants but will allow some continued investment in more efficient coal technology. Japan is one of the major sources of finance for the coal industry, so the agreement is an important moment in the effort to reduce global emissions.

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  • “No Precedent in Human History”: Ruth Greenspan Bell on Why Climate Change Demands More Than the UNFCCC

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    Friday Podcasts  //  June 19, 2015  //  By Carley Chavara
    bell-small

    The stakes are high for the UN climate conference in Paris later this year, so high in fact, some scholars feel it’s foolish to be putting all our eggs in one basket.

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  • Silver Buckshot: Alternative Pathways Towards Greenhouse Gas Mitigation

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    From the Wilson Center  //  August 27, 2014  //  By Benjamin Dills
    silver_buckshot

    In 1986, global nuclear weapons stockpiles peaked at nearly 70,000 warheads. By the beginning of 2013, there were just over 17,000, with only 4,400 kept operational. This dramatic reduction was the fruit of a negotiation process that began in the late 1940s. In spite of incredible tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, negotiators were able to make progress once they focused on building trust with small, pragmatic steps, rather than starting with the complete elimination of all weapons. [Video Below]

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  • The Missing Link in Understanding Global Trends? Demography

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    Guest Contributor  //  August 11, 2014  //  By Monica Duffy Toft
    Gao_youth_crowd

    Since the end of World War II, a number of the world’s most dramatic political events have resulted from demographic shifts and governments’ reaction to them. Despite this, political demography remains a neglected topic of scholarly investigation.

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  • Time to Get Creative: Cold War Lessons for Climate Negotiators

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    Guest Contributor  //  May 13, 2014  //  By Ruth Greenspan Bell
    artic-ice-melt

    You might wonder what the Cold War has to do with climate change, but as I listened last month to historian James Graham Wilson talk about the “triumph of improvisation” that ended the nearly 50-year stare-down between the United States and the U.S.S.R., I was struck by the parallels. The idea of individual leaders escaping the momentum of conventional approaches and adapting on the fly to solve a major global issue deeply resonated with me. It’s exactly what international climate change negotiations desperately need.

    MORE
 
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