Political Geography: Global Focus

51. From Seeds to Suffering: Herbicides, Environmental Degradation and Slow Violence

Author:: Alexandra Pacheco Hardwicke
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:: Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:: Warfare almost always results in the destruction of the environment, yet the devastation extends far beyond the immediate physical consequences of battle. Historically, natural environments have played an integral role in human conflict, from land disputes to armed conflict and terrorism. Starving the enemy through attacking livestock, contaminating water resources, and scorched earth tactics are a few of the many ways in which the environment has been weaponized during war. Environmental security, particularly in the context of armed conflict, is an evolving field. The incorporation of slow violence may provide a critical framework to analyze post-war impacts and long-term ecological harm in ways traditional security studies tends to overlook.
Topic:: Environment, Violence, Environmental Security, Warfare, and Herbicides
Political Geography:: Global Focus

52. Analysis of Emerging Powers Joining to International and Regional Organisations: Intentions and Implications

Author:: Mojtaba Eskandari, Farhad Farahani, Somayeh Hamidi, and Sara Torabian
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:: Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:: The significant growth of regional and global cooperation in economic, military, and ideological areas is a common feature of modern diplomacy, as states have been continuously expanding these efforts. In today's geopolitics, these collaborations are not limited to specific regions but extend to superregional and global levels; this is evident in emerging powers that seek to increase their global influence through mutual agreements and the creation of regional or international organisations. The goal of this research is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the strategic considerations behind emerging powers' involvement in multilateral frameworks. Being part of international and regional organisations allows them to coordinate efforts and play a vital role in shaping the international order. To achieve this goal, a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis will be used, including analysis of documents, policies, expert reviews, and historical case studies.
Topic:: Diplomacy, International Organization, Regional Cooperation, International Order, and Emerging Powers
Political Geography:: Global Focus

53. Dignity, Responsibility and Reciprocity: A Framework for Non-International Armed Conflicts

Author:: Samuel Jesus
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:: Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:: This research aims to integrate Mario Bettati's Critical Globalist Theory within the framework of non-international armed conflicts, alongside Jean-Pierre Dupuy's ethical relationalism, particularly in the application of International Humanitarian Law. Human dignity stands as the fundamental focus of ethics amid the complexities of non-international armed conflicts. The Law of Armed Conflict faces challenges due to human objectification that arises from ruthless utilitarian armed interventions. In this context, conflicting parties must establish minimum moral limits for warfare and regulate global institutions to ensure human rights and accountability. Reciprocity, rooted in recognising globalising concepts, demonstrates that one actor's actions affect others and the global community. In this light, the isolationism, utilitarianism, and mercantilism of warfare used as state hermeneutic criteria for population protection are supplanted by dignity, responsibility, and reciprocity, thereby contributing to the renewal of global humanism and the minimum guarantee of protection within the realm of armed conflict.
Topic:: International Humanitarian Law (IHL), Armed Conflict, Dignity, and Reciprocity
Political Geography:: Global Focus

54. Advancing the Science of Outcome Measurement in Child Sexual Violence Prevention: Results of a Rapid Review

Author:: Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Lakshmi Neelakantan, and Mpho Silima
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: The Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI)
Abstract:: This rapid review synthesises the outcomes and measures used to evaluate interventions addressing child sexual violence (CSV) across the prevention–response continuum, drawing on 362 primary studies and using the WHO INSPIRE strategies as an organising framework. It maps the current landscape of CSV outcome measurement, highlighting dominant trends – particularly the reliance on education, life skills, and attitudinal measures – and the relative scarcity of measures capturing experiences of victimisation and perpetration. The review also underscores significant geographical and population imbalances, with most evidence originating from high-income countries and focused on adolescents. By identifying key gaps in definitions, measurement approaches, and alignment between the problem of CSV and how it is evaluated, this review provides a critical foundation for developing a more coherent, globally relevant framework for CSV outcome measurement. Ultimately, it aims to strengthen comparability across studies, improve the assessment of intervention impact, and ensure that outcome measurement better reflects the lived realities of children and communities, particularly in low- and middle-income settings.
Topic:: Children, Sexual Violence, and Public Health
Political Geography:: Global Focus

55. Non-Violent Parenting and Faith: Reclaiming sacred teachings for child dignity, protection, and flourishing

Author:: Selina Palm and Noor ur Rehman
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI)
Abstract:: This Dialogue Brief, the second in a series co-produced by SVRI’s Working Group on Faith & Violence against Children of the Faith & GBV Community of Practice, draws on practice-based insights from participants in the Working Group’s 12-week educational course, Faith and Helping Children Thrive without Violence, on non-violent parenting. Authored by Dr Selina Palm and Mr Noor ur Rehman, the brief reflects on the importance of engaging in conversations with four groups: survivors, families, theological experts, and gender experts. It recommends four key shifts for faith to become a positive resource, not a roadblock, in the shared task of addressing violent discipline and supporting non-violent parenting.
Topic:: Religion, Children, and Parenting
Political Geography:: Global Focus

56. Slavery and Abolition in Islamic Law (Episode 57)

Author:: Sahar Aziz and Bernard Freamon
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Video
Institution:: Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR), Rutgers University School of Law
Abstract:: The complex history of slavery within Islamic legal traditions spans from pre-Islamic times through the nineteenth century, revealing how religious law intersected with economic and social systems that perpetuated human bondage across centuries and cultures. This comprehensive examination of Islamic jurisprudence demonstrates how Western abolitionist efforts, while well-intentioned, ultimately failed to address the theological and legal foundations that allowed slavery to persist within Muslim societies, rendering the notion of abolition nothing more than a cruel illusion. Join host Sahar Aziz (https://saharazizlaw.com/) and Professor Bernard Freamon (https://law.rwu.edu/faculty/bernard-f...) as they explore the groundbreaking legal history detailed in his book "Possessed by the Right Hand: The Problem of Slavery in Islamic Law and Muslim Cultures (https://brill.com/display/title/36502) ." The contemporary revival of slavery by extremist groups like ISIS and Boko Haram represents a disturbing exploitation of these historical legal precedents, highlighting how ancient justifications for human trafficking and enslavement continue to find expression in modern conflicts. This legal and historical analysis reveals the urgent necessity for Islamic scholars and communities to confront their own juridical traditions and achieve true abolition through internal reform rather than external pressure. Biography: Professor Freamon is Professor of Law Emeritus at Seton Hall Law School and Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law. Professor Freamon has taught Islamic Jurisprudence at New York University School of Law and brings his unique perspective as an African-American Muslim scholar to examine slavery's persistence within Islamic legal frameworks. Professor Bernard Freamon founded Seton Hall's Center for Social Justice, litigating civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, and representing underrepresented persons in constitutional law matters involving religious minorities, prisoners, and criminal defendants. Through his innovative teaching approach, including courses on slavery and human trafficking based in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and his recent election as co-chairperson of the Bristol Middle Passage Port Marker Project, Professor Freamon demonstrates how historical scholarship intersects with contemporary justice advocacy to address both past wrongs and present-day human trafficking challenges.
Topic:: Religion, Islamic State, Slavery, Boko Haram, Islamic Law, and Abolition
Political Geography:: Global Focus

57. Opportunity Hoarding in the Age of Inequality with Sheryll Cashin (Episode 56)

Author:: Sahar Aziz and Sheryll Cashin
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Video
Institution:: Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR), Rutgers University School of Law
Abstract:: Opportunity hoarding occurs when advantaged groups secure and monopolize valuable resources—such as high-quality education, exclusive networks, or prime housing—to benefit their own members while restricting access for others. This behavior creates and sustains categorical inequality, often manifesting through exclusionary zoning, preferential hiring, or hoarding educational opportunities. Advantage groups create exclusive networks, secure resources, and develop practices (like exclusionary zoning or elite school networks) that protect their advantages. Such opportunity hoarding contributes significantly to the widening gap between high- and low-opportunity neighborhoods and schools. Join host Professor Sahar Aziz in conversation with Professor Sheryll Cashin about her groundbreaking book White Spaces, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding in the Age of Inequality (https://www.beacon.org/White-Space-Bl...) . Drawing on nearly 2 decades of research in cities including Baltimore, St. Louis, Chicago, New York, and Cleveland, Professor Cashin traces the processes of residential caste as it relates to housing, policing, schools, and transportation. She contends that geography is now central to American caste. Poverty-free havens and poverty-dense hoods would not exist if the state had not designed, constructed, and maintained this physical racial order. Cashin calls for abolition of these state-sanctioned processes. The ultimate goal is to change the lens through which society sees residents of poor Black neighborhoods from presumed thug to presumed citizen, and to transform the relationship of the state with these neighborhoods from punitive to caring. She calls for investment in a new infrastructure of opportunity in poor Black neighborhoods, including richly resourced schools and neighborhood centers, public transit, Peacemaker Fellowships, universal basic incomes, housing choice vouchers for residents, and mandatory inclusive housing elsewhere.
Topic:: Inequality, Opportunity, and Resources
Political Geography:: Global Focus

58. Victimhood Nationalism: History and Memory in a Global Age

Author:: Jie-Hyun Lim, Carol Gluck, Ruth Barraclough, Andreas Huyssen, and Malgorzata Mazurek
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Video
Institution:: Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:: March 26, 2026 — In Victimhood Nationalism, global historian Jie-Hyun Lim examines how nations turn collective suffering into powerful nationalist narratives that continue to shape the world today. Speaker: Jie-Hyun Lim, Distinguished Professor, Sogang University, and Class of ’55 Visiting Professor, Williams College Discussants: Carol Gluck, George Sansom Professor Emerita of History, Department of History, Columbia University; Ruth Barraclough, Korea Foundation Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Department of History, Columbia University; Andreas Huyssen, Villard Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature, Columbia University Moderator: Małgorzata Mazurek, Associate Professor of Polish Studies, Department of History, Columbia University
Topic:: Nationalism, History, and Victimization
Political Geography:: Global Focus

59. When do voters stop caring? Estimating the shape of voters' utility functions

Author:: Aleksandra Conevska and Can Mutlu
Publication Date:: 06-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP)
Abstract:: In this paper, we address a longstanding puzzle over the functional form that better approximates voter utility from political choices. Though it has become the norm in the literature to represent voter utility with concave loss functions, for decades scholars have underscored this assumption’s potential shortcomings. Yet there exists little to no evidence to support one functional form assumption over another. We fill this gap by first identifying electoral settings where the different functional forms generate divergent predictions about voter behavior. We then assess which functional form better matches observed voter and abstention behavior using Cast Vote Record (CVR) data that captures the anonymized ballots of millions of voters in the 2020 U.S. general election. Our findings indicate that concave loss functions fail to predict voting and abstention behavior, and it is the reverse S-shaped loss functions, such as the Gaussian function, that better match voter behavior.
Topic:: Politics, Voting, and Voting Behavior
Political Geography:: Global Focus and United States of America

60. Disrupting Violence, Protecting Lives: Strangulation Laws and Intimate Partner Homicides

Author:: D'ercio de Assis, Arpita Ghosh, Sonia Oreffice, and Climent Quintana-Domeque
Publication Date:: 06-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP)
Abstract:: Non-fatal strangulation (NFS) is a form of intimate partner violence (IPV) and a strong predictor of intimate partner homicide (IPH). We compile NFS statute data, link them to homicide reports, 1990–2019, and estimate effects on IPH using a two-stage difference-in-differences estimator for staggered adoption and heterogeneous effects. NFS laws reduce IPH for ages 18–49, by 0.169 female-victim homicides per 100,000 women and 0.090 male-victim homicides per 100,000 men. We find no effects on IPH for ages 50–70 or on stranger-perpetrated homicides. Evidence from reported IPV incidents is suggestive of changes in reported incident classification and arrest patterns.
Topic:: Law Enforcement, Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, and Strangulation
Political Geography:: Global Focus

61. AI and Propaganda: Nothing Is True, and Everything Is Generated

Author:: Halyna Padalko and Peter Pomerantsev
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Video
Institution:: MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:: A public conversation with Peter Pomerantsev, British-Ukrainian author, journalist, and one of the world's leading voices on propaganda and authoritarian disinformation. His books "Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible," "This Is Not Propaganda," and "How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler" have defined how a generation understands modern information warfare. A senior fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at John Hopkins University, Pomerantsev has spent decades documenting how autocratic regimes weaponize media, narrative, and, now, artificial intelligence to destabilize democracies and erode the very idea of truth. As AI reshapes the information landscape at breathtaking speed, this conversation asks the questions that matter most: How does AI-powered propaganda differ from what came before — and how do new technologies shape public reality? What happens to our collective capacity for critical thinking when personalized, algorithmically generated realities become the new normality? How can AI help us to protect ourselves from information manipulation? Who are the main actors in disinformation as a business, and what can the world learn from Ukraine, which has become an unexpected laboratory for countering disinformation under existential pressure?
Topic:: Propaganda, Artificial Intelligence, Disinformation, and Information Warfare
Political Geography:: Global Focus

62. Starr Forum: New World Disorder: What’s the Humanitarian Perspective?

Author:: David Miliband and John Deutch
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Video
Institution:: MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:: Starr Forum: New World Disorder: What’s the Humanitarian Perspective? | Thursday, April 9, 2026 Speaker: David Miliband, president, International Rescue Committee (IRC), and former foreign secretary for the United Kingdom (2007-2010). He oversees the IRC’s operations in more than 40 crisis-affected countries and its refugee resettlement and assistance programs throughout Europe and the Americas. He is a 1987 graduate of Oxford, with a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics, and earned a master’s degree in political science in 1989 from MIT. Moderator: John Deutch is an American civil servant and physical chemist. He was the United States deputy secretary of defense from 1994 to 1995 and director of Central Intelligence from May 10, 1995, until December 15, 1996. He is an emeritus Institute Professor at MIT.
Topic:: International Relations, Geopolitics, International Order, and Humanitarian Response
Political Geography:: Global Focus

63. GR&P Seminar: Sanction Spillover and Trade Diversification

Author:: Christina L. Davis
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Video
Institution:: MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:: How do sanctions affect third-party states? This research, conducted with Ruofan Ma (Harvard), examines how states respond to the systemic risks caused by sanctions by diversifying their trade portfolios. Analyzing trade concentration and sanction data from 1990 to 2020 and also looking at the specific case of President Trump's 2018 national security tariffs, we find that states diversify their trading partners when sanctions disrupt their existing trade partner networks. These findings highlight the spillover effects of sanctions and the dynamics of trade interdependence.
Topic:: Sanctions, Tariffs, Risk, Trade, and Donald Trump
Political Geography:: Global Focus

64. The Recruitment and Use of Children as a Stand-Alone Crime Against Humanity

Author:: Janine Morna and Laura Perez
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University
Abstract:: As United Nations Member States prepare to negotiate a new Convention based on the Draft Articles on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity (Draft Articles),1 the international community faces a critical opportunity to close a longstanding gap in protection and accountability. Despite decades of prevention efforts, the recruitment and use of children by State and non-State armed actors remains widespread and devastating. Children are forced to serve in a range of roles, including as fighters, porters, messengers and spies in armed conflict and in other situations of violence. The future Convention presents a moment to explicitly recognize the recruitment and use of children as a constituent act of crimes against humanity. This would ensure that such exploitation is punishable as a crime against humanity when it forms part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, regardless of whether the situation is formally classified as an armed conflict. It also offers an important step toward aligning international criminal law with international norms prohibiting compulsory recruitment and direct participation in hostilities of people aged 15 to 17.
Topic:: United Nations, Crimes Against Humanity, Armed Conflict, and Child Soldiers
Political Geography:: Global Focus

65. As US food aid retreats, can BRICS+ and biotechnology fill the world’s food security gap?

Author:: Cullen S. Hendrix
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
Abstract:: Cuts to agricultural development assistance and food aid by the United States and other advanced economies are creating a global vacuum just as climate change and conflict drive global hunger up. Many food-insecure developing economies with significant hunger lack the resources to self-finance agricultural research and development (R&D) and have had to depend increasingly on themselves—and one another—to meet rising food needs. Hendrix argues that the BRICS+ economies—Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia—are well positioned to fill the world’s food security gap.
Topic:: Agriculture, Markets, Foreign Aid, BRICS, Food Assistance, and Biotechnology
Political Geography:: North America, Global Focus, and United States of America

66. Innovation as resilience: Demand-side strategies for critical mineral supply chain security

Author:: Alexis Harmon and Reed Blakemore
Publication Date:: 06-2026
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Atlantic Council
Abstract:: This report, the first in the Redefining Resilience series of publications, examines demand-side innovation for critical mineral supply chains: the set of strategies that reduce how much of a constrained mineral an economy requires and expand the range of viable supply options. It argues that critical mineral supply chain policy has a structural blind spot. It has been organized around the question of where materials come from while largely ignoring an equally consequential set of questions: how much of these materials economies actually need, how that demand is shaped, and who shapes demand. Material substitution, material efficiency, and system and product redesign are not substitutes for supply-side investment, but they are essential complements that remain underused. Drawing on a roundtable convened under the Chatham House Rule by the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, this report examines two sectors, batteries and permanent magnets, to show how demand-side innovation either reaches deployment or stalls. The barriers are concrete and addressable: financing systems poorly structured for first-of-kind technology, procurement frameworks that privilege incumbent materials, qualification processes that slow substitution, and, overarchingly, a policy architecture focused overwhelmingly on supply. Closing these gaps requires targeted interventions: demand-pull mechanisms that bolster markets for alternative technologies, standards reform that enables substitution, and better coordination that brings manufacturers and system designers into supply chain policy alongside miners and processors. The goal is not to replace supply-side interventions but to build the complementary demand-side infrastructure needed to strengthen and de-risk mineral supply chains.
Topic:: Geopolitics, Innovation, Supply Chains, Energy, Energy Security, and Critical Minerals
Political Geography:: Global Focus

67. Does implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) increase resource revenue in developing countries?

Author:: Neerbewendé Abdoul Rachid Pafadnam
Publication Date:: 02-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: United Nations University
Abstract:: The need for developing countries to increase their domestic revenue has always been relevant, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, which weakened their public finances. This paper analyses the dynamic treatment effects of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) implementation on resource revenue mobilization. We use a sample of 83 developing countries from 1995 to 2019, and our empirical strategy relies on the recent dynamic heterogeneity-robust difference-in-differences estimator. Our results show that implementing the EITI increases resource revenue in member countries through improved governance from greater transparency, increased foreign direct investment, and extractive resource exports. These findings are robust to several robustness checks. This study highlights the significant contribution of the EITI implementation in domestic revenue mobilization and the necessity to improve transparency in natural resources management, especially as international demand for critical mineral resources is expected to grow strongly.
Topic:: Development, Political Economy, Natural Resources, Tax Systems, COVID-19, Extractive Industries, and Revenue
Political Geography:: Global Focus

68. From Factories to Ideas: The New Map of Global Power

Author:: Erik van der Marel
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE)
Abstract:: Globalisation is not collapsing but transforming. Rather than retreating, global economic integration is shifting from a system organised around physical goods and factories to one increasingly driven by intangible assets such as data, services, intellectual property, and knowledge-intensive collaboration. Intangible flows are reshaping how integration occurs. Unlike goods trade, these flows are largely weightless, collaborative, scale at near-zero marginal cost, and are far less constrained by physical distance, weakening the traditional link between geography and economic exchange. Distance has been redefined from geographic to geopolitical. In the intangible economy, cross-border exchange depends less on how far countries are apart and more on political trust, security alignment, and institutional compatibility, including shared norms around governance, data, and the rule of law. Economic power is reorganising around “idea blocs.” Because intangible assets are harder to protect than goods, firms and investors increasingly concentrate collaboration among politically aligned countries with strong institutions, producing new groupings that surpass geography and reshape global alliances. This shift demands a new framework for understanding globalisation. Existing models cantered on supply chains and production networks cannot explain current patterns of integration, power, and cooperation; globalisation must instead be understood through the political economy of intangibles, institutions, and trust.
Topic:: Globalization, Intellectual Property/Copyright, Services, Innovation, and Trade
Political Geography:: Global Focus

69. War is a mind game: countering weaponized information

Author:: Marek Havlík and Jiří Horáček
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: NATO Defense College
Abstract:: Cognitive warfare is the weaponization of information that exploits natural cognitive vulnerabilities to disrupt, manipulate and control individuals’ perceptions of reality. NATO’s current countermeasures, such as pre-bunking, strategic communications, and trust-building efforts, don’t fully address the deeper psychological and cognitive vulnerabilities targeted in cognitive warfare. In addition to common cognitive vulnerabilities like emotions, cognitive biases, and uncertainty, other critical traits are being exploited on the cognitive battlefield to manipulate and control vulnerable individuals.
Topic:: Security, NATO, Information Warfare, and Cognitive Warfare
Political Geography:: Global Focus

70. Betting on blue: how to improve NATO military forecasting for acquisitions

Author:: Ben Connable
Publication Date:: 07-2026
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: NATO Defense College
Abstract:: Effective acquisition strategies require a solid, evidence-grounded forecasting methodology and real-world data. But at least for land warfare, that baseline is inadequate. Absent a global understanding of land war – by far the most common and strategically relevant type of conventional and irregular war – NATO acquisitions may not best address even the pressing threat from Russia. Analysis of the new Ground Combat Database shows how important findings and questions relevant to acquisitions can be drawn from longitudinal case data. Even better analytic approaches are readily available, as are better data. Action plan forecasting and acquisitions can be improved with aggressive and evidence-grounded analyses.
Topic:: NATO, Military, and Warfare
Political Geography:: Global Focus

71. Beam me up: leadership skills in space

Author:: Maria Soto
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: NATO Defense College
Abstract:: As NATO nations enhance their space capabilities, there is a critical need for leadership development. Current training focuses heavily on technical skills, often overlooking essential leadership qualities such as creativity, resilience and emotional intelligence, which are crucial for effective command in joint operations. Successful space leaders must cultivate the interconnected qualities of individual agility, trust, resilience and self-awareness to navigate the complexities of this domain. To develop effective space leaders, NATO should integrate leadership training with technical education, prioritize cross-domain collaboration and leverage partnerships with industry.
Topic:: NATO, Partnerships, Leadership, and Space
Political Geography:: Global Focus

72. Research for Community Benefits and Risks from Carbon Credit Project

Author:: Oxfam in Cambodia
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:: This study examines the community-level benefits and risks associated with carbon credit initiatives in Cambodia, with a focus on REDD+ initiatives. The research focuses on the governance and socioeconomic dimensions of these initiatives rather than their technical carbon accounting performance.
Topic:: Climate Change, Governance, Socioeconomics, Carbon Credits, and Carbon Finance
Political Geography:: Global Focus

73. Navigating Grievance Mechanisms: A Pathway to Robust Accountability for Rightsholders

Author:: Maria Romis
Publication Date:: 06-2026
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:: This briefing for business provides practical guidance for companies on how to design and implement effective grievance mechanisms as a core component of human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD). Building on the expectations set by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and emerging regulatory frameworks, it emphasizes that grievance mechanisms are not only a compliance requirement but a critical tool for identifying risks, enabling remedy, and strengthening accountability across operations and supply chains. The paper argues that effective systems must be both people-centered—trusted, accessible, and shaped by rightsholders—and embedded within a broader grievance ecosystem that connects operational, brand, and multi-stakeholder level mechanisms. Each level plays a distinct but complementary role: operational mechanisms provide immediate, site-level access; brand-level systems extend accountability across supply chains and leverage influence to drive remedy; and multi-stakeholder mechanisms enable collective action to address systemic risks. Across all levels, the briefing highlights a consistent implementation gap: mechanisms often remain compliance-driven, fragmented, and underused due to lack of trust, accessibility barriers, and limited rightsholder participation. In contrast, emerging good practices show that when mechanisms are designed with rightsholders, supported by local actors, and linked through clear escalation pathways, they can surface hidden risks, strengthen accountability, and deliver meaningful outcomes. The briefing is structured in four parts: (1) reframing grievance mechanisms as rights-based systems for remedy; (2) examining different types of mechanisms and good practices across operational, brand, and multi-stakeholder levels; (3) exploring how these mechanisms can function together as a layered and complementary system; and (4) outlining practical steps to embed a people-centered approach across all levels. Together, these elements support companies in moving from fragmented, compliance-driven approaches toward integrated systems that enable effective remedy, continuous learning, and long-term risk reduction.
Topic:: Human Rights, Business, Accountability, Due Diligence, Rightsholder Engagement, and Grievance Mechanisms
Political Geography:: Global Focus

74. From Commitments to Communities: Rethinking Climate Finance: How civil society and community participation strengthen accountability, access and equity

Author:: Tallulah Cherry-Virdee and Bertram Zagema
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:: The climate crisis is accelerating, but climate finance is still not reaching the people who need it most. Despite repeated promises and global commitments, funding remains inadequate, fragmented, and too often locked in top-down systems that ignore local realities. Communities on the frontlines and civil society actors are too often shut out of decisions that directly affect their lives — excluded from planning, budgeting, and access to finance itself. This must change. Real climate justice demands finance that is accessible, equitable, and driven by the voices of those most impacted. Drawing on 21 studies from across the Global South, this report exposes systemic barriers in climate finance and shines a light on what works. It highlights how civil society is already driving change, and sets out clear, practical recommendations to make climate finance more accountable, inclusive, and rooted in community realities.
Topic:: Governance, Climate Finance, Participatory Budgeting, Climate Justice, and Fiscal Justice
Political Geography:: Global Focus

75. Resisting the Rule of the Rich

Author:: Alex Maitland, Anjela Taneja, Anthony Kamande, Carlos Brown Solá, Harry Bignell, Max Lawson, and Rune Møller Stahl
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:: Extreme inequality is reaching new heights. In 2025, billionaire wealth increased three times faster than the average annual rate over the previous five years. Meanwhile, one in four people don’t regularly have enough to eat and nearly half the world’s population live in poverty. The super-rich are becoming a new oligarchy, using their extreme wealth to buy politics, the media and justice to defend their fortunes, dismantle and destroy progressive policies and strip away our basic civil and political rights. Siding with the super-rich, increasingly authoritarian governments are supressing dissent, curtailing rights and fuelling division to protect and preserve this extreme inequality. We must resist by building a worldwide people’s movement to defend our rights, and fight for a clear alternative to inequality and oligarchy.
Topic:: Authoritarianism, Inequality, Protests, Tax Systems, Repression, Justice, Freedom, Gender, and Civic Space
Political Geography:: Global Focus

76. Grand Bargain 10 Years on: Protecting quality under scarcity

Author:: Rachel Scott
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:: The Grand Bargain reaches its 10-year mark in 2026 at a moment of acute funding cuts, hyper-prioritization and rising pressure to prioritize quantity over quality. The Facilitation Group are now leading consultations to inform negotiations on how the Grand Bargain evolves beyond 2026. This paper argues that progress since 2016 is real but fragile, and that the next phase must learn from what has enabled and hindered delivery. Oxfam calls for a focused forum that protects hard-won gains, proves progress credibly, accelerates practical change on the ground, and keeps quality and legitimacy non-negotiable under scarcity.
Topic:: Reform, Humanitarian Response, and Grand Bargain
Political Geography:: Global Focus

77. Time to Walk the Talk: The IMF’s tax advice, 2022-2024

Author:: Nabil Abdo
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:: Since the pandemic, the IMF’s leadership has been urging countries to pursue more progressive tax policies, backed up by the Fund’s own research. Despite this encouraging development, the IMF’s policy advice on tax in its Article IV reports since the pandemic has been skewed towards regressive taxation. This indicates its continued insistence on austerity as the default way forward, thereby entrenching gender and economic inequalities.
Topic:: International Monetary Fund, Surveillance, Tax Systems, Austerity, and Wealth
Political Geography:: Global Focus

78. Unlocking water capacity: How AI & Cloud computing applications can increase water supply and reduce water demand

Author:: Oxford Economics
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Oxford Economics
Abstract:: Oxford Economics Australia partnered with AWS to produce a robust, evidence-led report exploring how AI, cloud computing, connected sensors, and advanced analytics can help increase available water capacity across Australia. The project assessed practical opportunities to reduce water losses, optimise consumption, improve operational decision-making, and support long-term water resilience across utilities, households, agriculture, and mining. Deliverables included sector modelling, market sizing, real-world case studies, adoption pathways, and quantified efficiency opportunities.
Topic:: Water, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Consumption, and Supply and Demand
Political Geography:: Global Focus

79. Housing at the Center: Rebuilding the Social Contract for Cities in a Fragmented World

Author:: Anacláudi Rossbach
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: As the world turns its attention to Baku in anticipation of the Thirteenth Session of the World Urban Forum (WEF13), a profound realization is taking hold across governments, institutions, and communities: the future of cities will be determined not only by how they grow, but by how they house their people. Across continents and contexts, housing has emerged as the defining challenge of our urban age. It sits at the intersection of inequality, climate change, economic instability, and social fragmentation. And yet, for decades, it has too often been treated as a sectoral issue—something to be addressed through discrete policies, market adjustments, or targeted programs. It is increasingly clear and consistently emphasized by UN‑Habitat that housing must be understood not as a standalone domain, but as the foundation of the entire urban system. The scale of the challenge is staggering. Over 2.8 billion people worldwide live in inadequate housing conditions. Hundreds of millions experience homelessness, often in forms that remain invisible in official statistics—people living in temporary shelters, overcrowded spaces, or precarious arrangements that offer little security or dignity. More than 1 billion people reside in informal settlements or slums, where access to basic services such as water, sanitation, and electricity is uncertain, and where tenure insecurity leaves communities vulnerable to eviction and displacement. In short, the housing crisis affects nearly 40 percent of the global population.
Topic:: Development, Inequality, Cities, and Housing
Political Geography:: Global Focus

80. From Conflict Zones to Supply Chain Zones: Critical Raw Materials and the Reconfiguration of Global Power

Author:: Han Ilhan
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Baku Dialogues
Institution:: ADA University
Abstract:: The international system is entering a period of heightened fragmentation and strategic realignment. Economic security, supply chain resilience, and industrial competitiveness are increasingly central to national strategy. Within this evolving landscape, critical raw materials (CRMs) have moved from the margins of industrial policy to the center of geopolitical and geo‑economic planning. CRMs are foundational not only to the energy “transition,” but also to advanced manufacturing, digital infrastructure, aerospace systems, and defense technologies. Their strategic relevance derives from both their functional indispensability and the concentration of processing capacity within a limited number of jurisdictions. In several key mineral value chains, supply exposure remains highly concentrated, resulting in vulnerabilities for advanced economies whose industrial bases depend on secure and predictable access. As a result, diversification of supply has become a policy priority across multiple demand‑side economies. Yet the implications of CRMs extend beyond industrial competitiveness. The geography of CRM production and processing intersects with regions historically shaped by political tension, limited economic integration, and uneven development. As global supply chains are reconfigured, CRMs have the potential either to reinforce geopolitical rivalry or to anchor new forms of economic interdependence. Whether CRMs become instruments of intensified competition or foundations of structural stability will depend not only on resource endowment, but on the architecture of cooperation between supply‑side and demand‑side economies. The defining question is therefore not simply who controls resources, but how capital, technology, and long‑term strategy are aligned around them. Understanding the evolving global CRMs landscape requires examining both the policy responses of advanced economies and the institutional models that have shaped the current concentration of supply.
Topic:: Geopolitics, Supply Chains, International System, Raw Materials, and Energy Transition
Political Geography:: Global Focus

81. Poverty Traps

Author:: Oriana Bandiera, Robin Burgess, Anton Heil, and Munshi Sulaiman
Publication Date:: 02-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), Brac University
Abstract:: Poverty traps are among the most influential yet elusive ideas in economics. This chapter reviews the challenges involved in identifying poverty traps and surveys the progress made over the past quarter-century. It examines both individual and societal traps and explores the links between them. Individual traps are feedback mechanisms that make poverty self-reinforcing. Societal poverty traps are interactions between workers or firms that create complementarities and can lead to multiple equilibria at an aggregate level. We also discuss evidence on the mechanisms that underlie each of these traps. We highlight open questions and draw policy implications.
Topic:: Economics, Poverty, and Poverty Traps
Political Geography:: Global Focus

82. The Role of Military Gender Advisers in UN Peacekeeping Operations: Implications for Operational Effectiveness and The Future of Peacekeeping Operations

Author:: Phoebe Donnelly, Anna Naa Adochoo Mensah, and Olivia Parsons
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Peace Institute (IPI)
Abstract:: Implementing the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda and mainstreaming gender have the potential to make UN peacekeeping operations more operationally effective, including by improving situational awareness and strengthening mission planning. Within this effort, military gender advisers (MGAs) play a central role in integrating a gender perspective across the military components of UN missions. This policy paper examines the role of MGAs in UN peacekeeping operations, drawing on interviews and survey data from gender advisers and focal points across missions. It discusses how MGAs are situated within the UN Peacekeeping Gender Architecture, variations in recruitment and training of MGAs, and the wide range of roles and responsibilities of MGAs. Furthermore, the paper identifies persistent challenges, including unclear job descriptions, short deployment cycles, limited training, and difficulties in coordination with civilian counterparts. The paper finds that the effectiveness of MGAs is shaped by factors such as leadership support, professional background, gender and cultural dynamics, and resource constraints. It underscores that as peacekeeping operations face financial pressures and structural reforms, ensuring that gender advisers are adequately trained, resourced, and integrated into mission planning will be critical to maintaining operational effectiveness.
Topic:: United Nations, Peacekeeping, Gender, Military, Women, Peace, and and Security (WPS)
Political Geography:: Global Focus

83. Capitalizing on Digital Financial Services for Clean Cooking Transitions

Author:: Annelise Gill-Wiehl, B. Kelsey Jack, Alex Appiah, Bernard Aryee, and Sule Awuni
Publication Date:: 02-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), Brac University
Abstract:: Over 2 billion people worldwide still rely primarily on polluting solid fuels for cooking. These households often have intermittent incomes and purchase firewood or charcoal day-to-day. In many low and middle income countries, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is the main feasible clean fuel, but requires larger lump sum payments to refill or exchange cylinders. Even when LPG’s total cost matches biomass fuels, liquidity constraints can prevent households from switching. GasPay addresses this barrier — a phone-based digital financial service platform connecting users with LPG suppliers while providing a designated savings vehicle for refills. We describe the platform’s design, the motivation behind it, and estimate its potential impact on charcoal demand, LPG use, and carbon emissions. Our results reveal how digital financial services can unlock clean energy access and advance multiple development goals simultaneously.
Topic:: Gas, Carbon Emissions, Digital Finance, Energy, and Cooking
Political Geography:: Global Focus

84. UN Peace Operations and the Role of the Peacebuilding Fund

Author:: Lauren McGowan
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Peace Institute (IPI)
Abstract:: As the UN reexamines the future of its peace operations amid shifting geopolitical dynamics and financial constraints, greater attention is being paid to how to leverage peacebuilding tools, including to support more coherent and sustainable transitions. In this context, the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) has emerged as a central instrument for bridging operational, programmatic, and financial gaps—particularly in settings where peace operations are drawing down or have recently withdrawn. This policy paper examines the role of the PBF in UN peace operations contexts. Since its inception, the PBF has invested over $1.3 billion through nearly 700 projects in countries hosting UN peace operations. The paper finds that the PBF has been leveraged as a support mechanism, a strategic enabler, and a political tool. It also finds that the PBF has played an important role in supporting sustainable UN transitions. At the same time, while the PBF is a flexible and catalytic instrument, it is not a substitute for peace operations, and expectations regarding its role must remain realistic.
Topic:: United Nations, Peacekeeping, Geopolitics, Finance, and Peacebuilding
Political Geography:: Global Focus

85. The Glass Blue Helmet: Progress and Persistent Challenges for Women Military Peacekeepers

Author:: Lotte Vermeij
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: International Peace Institute (IPI)
Abstract:: Women’s meaningful participation in UN peacekeeping operations has advanced since 2020, but progress remains uneven and fragile. While dedicated training initiatives, peer-support structures, and women’s visibility in leadership roles have expanded, women peacekeepers continue to face structural barriers that limit their operational participation, safety, and career advancement. This policy paper draws on interviews with eighty-five women military peacekeepers from forty-three troop-contributing countries, along with consultations with UN officials, force commanders, and mission personnel. The paper examines the gap between the UN’s commitments on women’s meaningful participation and the realities women encounter in mission environments. It highlights persistent challenges including role misalignment, harassment, exclusion from operational decision making, inadequate equipment, and weak accountability systems. The paper argues that leadership is the decisive variable shaping women’s deployment experiences. It calls for linking training nominations to deployment commitments, tracking participation in substantive tasks rather than headcounts, embedding gender-responsive indicators in leadership evaluations, establishing confidential reporting channels outside national chains of command, and auditing equipment standards before deployment.
Topic:: United Nations, Peacekeeping, Women, Troop Deployment, and Military
Political Geography:: Global Focus

86. Invisible Diaspora Among Koryo-saram Third Culture Kids (TCKs)

Author:: Hayoung Hwang
Publication Date:: 04-2026
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Journal of Korean Studies
Institution:: International Council on Korean Studies
Abstract:: This paper explores the shifting paradigm of security in the era of globalization, emphasizing the limitations of traditional state-centric models in addressing the needs of marginalized diaspora communities. Focusing on Korean Third Culture Kids (TCKs), particularly the Koryosaram in post-Soviet regions, it examines how double marginalization, unstable cultural identity, and a lack of institutional support shape their human, cultural, and community security experiences. By analyzing existing studies and policy frameworks, the study highlights the insufficient recognition and protection of these groups within Korea’s diaspora policy. The paper argues for an expanded understanding of security that encompasses identity, cultural cohesion, and community belonging for diaspora youth, presenting recommendations for more inclusive policy measures to strengthen the security and integration of TCKs as vital contributors to Korea’s global network.
Topic:: Migration, Diaspora, Culture, Human Security, Identity, Third Culture Kids, and Social Belonging
Political Geography:: Korea and Global Focus

87. The Pursuit of Smart Mobility in Urban Nodes: Trends and Innovation for Citizens and Freight

Author:: Carlo Secchi, Giovanni Maria Della Gatta, and Stefano Riela
Publication Date:: 06-2026
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI)
Abstract:: Urbanisation is transforming territories at an unprecedented pace, redefining how people and goods move within, between and beyond cities. As urban areas expand and interconnect, mobility systems are called to respond with greater efficiency, sustainability and resilience. At the core of this transformation are urban nodes – strategic interfaces where local and long-distance networks converge. Here, mobility is evolving from a fragmented set of transport modes into an integrated system shaped by accessibility, seamless connectivity and user experience. At the same time, freight mobility introduces additional complexity, requiring coordinated, multi-actor approaches and a gradual shift toward multimodal and adaptive logistics. Technological innovation is accelerating this transition. Data-driven tools, intelligent infrastructure and emerging solutions such as artificial intelligence and digital platforms are reshaping how mobility systems are planned and managed. Yet, the challenge extends beyond technology. Environmental sustainability, territorial cohesion and the integration of peripheral regions remain critical dimensions of this evolution. Smart mobility is thus emerging as a systemic paradigm – one that links infrastructure, governance and innovation. Its success depends not only on performance and efficiency, but on the ability to create more balanced, inclusive and future-oriented mobility systems.
Topic:: Science and Technology, Infrastructure, Governance, Urbanization, Mobility, Innovation, Transportation, and Cities
Political Geography:: Global Focus

88. Investing for tomorrow: long-term investment, economic scale and the green transition

Author:: Philip Ushchev and Guntram B. Wolff
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Bruegel
Abstract:: We seek to explain positive correlations between green investments and long-term financial holdings, the size of the economy and the variance in GDP. To this end, we develop a model for green investments that expands on a standard non-cooperative private provision of public goods game, with heterogeneous agents and intertemporal choices. Agents differ in, first, time preference and, second, wealth/income. Our model shows that: (a) green bonds tend to account for larger shares of the portfolios of long-term oriented investors, (b) larger economies tend to invest more in climate mitigation, and (c) more heterogeneity among types of agents increases climate investments. Our model has significant implications for climate policy: it points to the importance of long-term investors in the green transition and to the importance of larger groups of countries agreeing on cooperative frameworks, for example, in the form of climate clubs, to increase overall investment in climate mitigation.
Topic:: Climate Change, Investment, Macroeconomics, Sustainability, and Decarbonization
Political Geography:: Global Focus

89. When oil is scarce and debt is binding: policy sequencing under a severe energy supply shock

Author:: Gene Frieda
Publication Date:: 06-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Bruegel
Abstract:: The 2026 Iran energy shock differs categorically from the 2022 episode, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to rerouting of oil and gas supply. The 2026 shock eliminates supply, with a volume loss exceeding 1973-74 and a full energy bill running at two or more times the crude-only estimate. Two features compound the difficulty for the euro area, United States, United Kingdom and Japan: weaker fiscal positions driving term premia higher and a live inflation regime in which tightening is now binding and costly. Narrow fiscal space may therefore force temporary monetary-fiscal coordination: targeted fiscal support to stabilise output, paired with conditional yield anchor operations that prevent financing stress from crowding out that support, while leaving the long end of the curve free to carry the inflation signal. The novelty is the inflation regime. This paper defines the conditions under which such purchases remain credible when inflation, fiscal sustainability and external adjustment bind simultaneously. Three conclusions follow. First, the binding constraint is not the mechanics of bond-buying but the market’s belief in a credible exit and tightening option. Second, that belief depends on initial conditions, so coordination is not universally available: the credibility window is widest for the US, fragmentation-exposed in the euro area, foreign-exchange-cushioned in Japan and narrowest in the UK. Third, if coordination is feasible, it should be pre-committed, conditional and bounded by a published exit rule, otherwise procyclical adjustment analogous to emerging-market sudden stops becomes the default.
Topic:: Oil, Macroeconomics, Fiscal Policy, Public Debt, Energy, and 2026 Iran War
Political Geography:: Global Focus

90. A plan for a World Trade Organization sectoral agreement on semiconductors

Author:: Petros C. Mavroidis and Mario R. Palacios
Publication Date:: 07-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Bruegel
Abstract:: To promote their economic security, or simply to inflict damage on other nations, countries are increasingly weaponising trade policy. To do so, trading nations must sidestep the rules-based system established in the aftermath of the Second World War because this system, in letter and spirit, opposes such behaviour. However, neglecting the rules-based system leads to uncertainty, and uncertainty incentivises trading nations to intensify their pursuit of national economic security, thus undermining the multilateral edifice even more. It does not have to be this way, however. Based on an analysis of trade in semiconductors (a product market in which there is clear weaponisation of trade policy), we argue that, while a comprehensive negotiation on economic security may be currently unrealistic, a sectoral agreement within the World Trade Organization would be both feasible and appropriate, and could provide a template for regulating economic security. Such an agreement should include non-discriminatory trade in high-end semiconductors and a negotiated list of segments of the covered product market, in which signatories will be allowed to erect barriers to protect economic/national security without being obliged to compensate affected parties.
Topic:: Security, Science and Technology, World Trade Organization, Governance, Multilateralism, Trade Policy, and Semiconductors
Political Geography:: Global Focus

91. COVID-19 Slowed but Couldn’t Stop the Fall in Global Inequality

Author:: Chelsea Follett and Vincent Geloso
Publication Date:: 02-2026
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: The Cato Institute
Abstract:: Over the long run, global inequality has declined dramatically across many dimensions as living standards have improved. While a substantial reduction in worldwide inequality occurred between 1990 and 2021, the last two years in that range reveal far slower progress, reflecting pandemic-era stagnation. These findings underscore the vital role of undisturbed markets in sustaining the trajectory of human progress, as well as the vulnerability of political liberty in times of perceived crisis. The Inequality of Human Progress Index reveals that pandemic-driven shocks to the global economy slowed advances, halting the momentum of earlier growth across many measures of human well-being and stalling progress toward the world becoming better off and more equal. Still, long-run global progress has been more substantial and widely shared than previously recognized. These findings challenge popular narratives of rising global inequality. Such views have inspired calls for unprecedented interventions, including global wealth taxes, expanded foreign aid programs, and massive redistributive policies—proposals that would be counterproductive to the continuation of broadly shared human advancement.
Topic:: Inequality, COVID-19, Global Economy, and Human Progress Index
Political Geography:: Global Focus

92. Mainstreamed but sidelined: Global funding for gender equality

Author:: Grace Stanhope
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:: Basic rights and wellbeing outcomes for women and girls globally are regressing or stalling. Cuts to foreign aid and a growing hostility towards gender equality programs risk eroding hard-won gains and turning the trend into a crisis. Rising international aid for gender equality has disguised a stagnation of targeted funding for core issues such as healthcare, education, physical safety, and legal rights. This funding gap is widest in conflict zones and disaster-affected areas, where women and girls are often the most at risk and the least supported. The most effective solution is to “upstream” gender equality aid directly into international development funding of core sectors, rather than treating it as an add-on. Anchoring this approach with a clear funding commitment would help protect these programs and deliver better outcomes for the world’s most vulnerable women and girls.
Topic:: Foreign Aid, Sustainable Development Goals, Gender, Gender Equality, and Gender Mainstreaming
Political Geography:: Global Focus

93. After the compromise: Australia’s COP31 blueprint for the Pacific

Author:: Melanie Pill, Georgia Hammersley, and Alexandre Dayant
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:: Australia’s COP31 compromise with Türkiye, which allows Antalya to host this year’s global climate summit, secures Canberra’s control of official negotiations but weakens its influence over the wider summit, where practical decisions are made. The Pacific-hosted pre-COP is a critical opportunity to build political momentum ahead of COP31 by convening selected global leaders and placing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a visible leadership role to secure high-profile support for Pacific climate priorities. Australia can still deliver meaningful outcomes for the Pacific by aligning regional priorities with those of other climate-vulnerable countries, exercising ambitious leadership through the President of Negotiations, and redirecting hosting-related resources towards climate action in the region.
Topic:: Climate Change, Diplomacy, and Conference of the Parties (COP)
Political Geography:: Australia, Pacific Islands, Turkey, and Global Focus

94. The ungoverned sky: Drones and the domestic extremist threat

Author:: James Paterson and Lydia Khalil
Publication Date:: 03-2026
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:: Domestic extremist actors are incorporating drone technology into operational capabilities and attack plots, taking inspiration from the battlefield. The number of violent plots utilising drones has increased sharply over the past five years. Domestic counter-drone frameworks are mismatched to the threat. Effective protection requires layered, multi-system approaches across potential civilian targets and critical infrastructure. Easy-to-access technologies, such as 3D printing, open-source design files, additive hardware, and AI-assisted navigation are lowering the barriers to modifying and weaponising drones.
Topic:: Security, Violent Extremism, Weapons, Drones, Artificial Intelligence, and 3D Printing
Political Geography:: Global Focus

95. The global sovereign citizen movement

Author:: Lydia Khalil and Keiran Hardy
Publication Date:: 02-2026
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:: The sovereign citizen movement has spread from the United States to more than 26 countries globally. Covid restrictions and digital networks accelerated its growth and created dangerous intersections with other conspiracy movements. The sovereign citizen movement has grown beyond a nuisance, escalating into a national security challenge for many countries around the world. The transnational threat of the movement requires multilateral intelligence coordination, online interventions to counter influencers, narratives, and networks, and globally informed threat assessments.
Topic:: Intelligence, National Security, Social Media, Conspiracy Theory, Political Extremism, and Sovereign Citizens
Political Geography:: Global Focus and United States of America

96. A Practical Guide to LinkedIn Advertising Reach Data for Social Science: Methods, Challenges, and Five Applications

Author:: Saila Naomi Stausholm and Javier Garcia-Bernardo
Publication Date:: 05-2026
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:: LinkedIn data offers a unique way to study how professional groups and organizations underpin economic and political life. This paper shows how LinkedIn’s advertising reach data, which provides anonymized counts of users by job title, skills, employer, and location, can be used to study organizational and professional dynamics relevant to a wide range of issues in political economy and economic sociology. We showcase the potential through five illustrative cases: 1) the revolving doors between Wall Street and US financial regulators; 2) the geography of professionals such as accountants and bankers; 3) the professional composition of interdisciplinary firms such as antitrust consulting firms; 4) recruitment by different industries and specifically big professional services firms in the face of new regulatory demands for sustainability reporting; and 5) the emergence of a profession of cyber security professionals over time. Alongside these examples, we provide a step-by-step guide for implementing the method in practice and discuss how linking professional attributes with geographical or organizational characteristics can provide new answers to various research questions. We hope this paper serves as a helpful practical guide as well as inspiration for new research questions.
Topic:: Data, Advertising, Social Science, Professionals, and LinkedIn
Political Geography:: Global Focus

97. Defending before the International Criminal Court: An Interview with Mylène Dimitri

Author:: Mylène Dmitri, Cailan Cumming, Kate Gibson, and Paul Williams
Publication Date:: 01-2026
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: Public International Law Policy Group
Abstract:: This blog is part of the Defending Justice series, an initiative of the Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG) to promote an eclectic array of voices within the field of international criminal law. As part of our broader efforts to strengthen institutions of justice, this series seeks to create space for dialogue around the varied perspectives and concerns that shape these institutions. With that aim in mind, we interviewed a series of defense practitioners working in international criminal law and distilled their experiences and insights into a series of first-person blogs, preserving the spirit and voice of those interviews.
Topic:: International Law, Interview, and International Criminal Court (ICC)
Political Geography:: Global Focus

98. Contemporary Terrorism: A Theoretical Perspective

Author:: Yoslán Silverio González
Publication Date:: 09-2025
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:: Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:: Studying the impact of terrorism on international relations is of vital importance due to the implications not only local and regional but also within the international system. The phenomenon of terrorism is not exclusive to a region or a country, it can affect everyone in indirect ways. In this sense, it crosses borders and does not understand nationalities. The most dangerous thing is the treatment given to it in international forums, multilateral orga-nizations, and the media since it is presented as a threat to security, but to legitimize military actions by Western powers or to delegitimize governments “not prone to the West”.This article is based on a conceptual proposal that helps to understand the phenomenon of terrorism from a non-Western perspective, criticizing the positions of the United States in this regard. The main objective is to deepen the debate around the concept of terrorism, its erroneous link to Islam, and to nationalist and/or revolutionary movements. It is also pertinent to see how it has been legally defined by international law, through resolutions, conventions, and protocols of different multilateral organizations, including the African Union (AU).
Topic:: International Relations, Terrorism, Violent Extremism, Global South, and African Union
Political Geography:: Africa and Global Focus

99. Reflections on WTO Reform: Lecture series by Ignacio Garcia Bercero

Author:: Ignacio Garcia Bercero
Publication Date:: 01-2025
Content Type:: Commentary and Analysis
Institution:: LSE IDEAS
Abstract:: This special edition of our Expert Analysis presents four lectures (edited for publication) on World Trade Organization reform delivered by the author at LSE IDEAS during June-November 2022 and concluding in May 2023. The paper ends on a postscript reflecting on the perspectives on the different issues discussed in the lectures following the outcome of the 13th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in February-March 2024, as well as the November 2024 re-election of Donald Trump—on the basis of a disruptive trade policy agenda.
Topic:: Reform, Trade Policy, Donald Trump, and WTO
Political Geography:: Global Focus

100. What Does It Mean for Agencies to Be Effective in a Changing Development Landscape?

Author:: Rachael Calleja, Sara Casadevall Bellés, and Beata Cichocka
Publication Date:: 01-2025
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: Center for Global Development (CGD)
Abstract:: For official bilateral development agencies, the realities of providing effective development cooperation are increasingly complex, as competing demands and changing international and domestic contexts are raising fundamental questions around what it means to be an effective agency. This paper explores the concept of agency effectiveness to demonstrate why agencies – and their leadership – should consider how their structures and processes interact with the changing landscape as part of their efforts to remain relevant and resilient. To do so, we consider how the current challenges facing agencies – including the need to respond to climate change, global instability, and changing domestic political environments – affect why agencies act, what they do, and how they do it. We then explore dominant understandings of agency effectiveness, which provide a lens for thinking about what it may mean for agencies to be effective in the years ahead. Overall, we suggest that the challenges facing development agencies in the changing landscape raise key issues for agencies to consider, particularly around what they prioritise, how they are structured, and the capabilities or ways of working needed to respond to complex demands. While there is unlikely to be a single approach for agencies looking to adapt to changing contexts, considering the implications of new – and future – pressures for the work of development agencies will be a necessary first step towards supporting their resilience and relevance in the years ahead.
Topic:: Development, Humanitarian Aid, and Economic Development
Political Geography:: Global Focus

Search

Search Constraints

Search Results

Refine your search

Topic

Political Geography

Content Type

Journal

Publishing Institution

Author

Publication Year

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS