As climate change amplifies weather disasters and destabilizes food and water supplies, recent research has confirmed: Our planet’s warming is weakening already fragile states, increasing the risk of violent conflicts and sparking human displacement and migration on an unprecedented scale. USIP is working to understand how climate policy and peacebuilding can work together to ensure that we stay ahead of the climate curve and put affected communities on the path toward long-term peace and stability.

Featured   Publications

What Does the Emerging China-Africa Minerals Consensus Mean for U.S. Initiatives?

What Does the Emerging China-Africa Minerals Consensus Mean for U.S. Initiatives?

Thursday, September 12, 2024

The recently concluded Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) provided a revealing glimpse into the current state of the Africa-China relationship. On the one hand, the official imagery and language of the summit emphasized constancy — a vision of a stable South-South relationship stretching from the past into the future. On the other hand, the summit also projected a relationship that is being reshaped for a new decade.

Type: Analysis

EconomicsEnvironment

At Pacific Islands Forum, Tensions Flare Over Taiwan, Geopolitics and Climate

At Pacific Islands Forum, Tensions Flare Over Taiwan, Geopolitics and Climate

Thursday, September 5, 2024

Last week, the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) met in Nukuʻalofa, Tonga, to discuss the challenges affecting the region. The PIF is an intergovernmental organization with the purpose of enhancing cooperation among the countries and territories of Oceania, including Australia, New Zealand, 14 independent Pacific Island countries, and France’s territories of New Caledonia and French Polynesia. China and the United States interact with the PIF as dialogue partners and the Pacific Islands have emerged in recent years as another arena of great power competition.

Type: Question and Answer

EnvironmentGlobal Policy

Ugandans Wield Faith and Youth Against Climate-Fueled Violence

Ugandans Wield Faith and Youth Against Climate-Fueled Violence

Thursday, July 18, 2024

At age five, Muhsin Kaduyu began following his father, a respected imam in southern Uganda, on missions of peace — constant meetings, mediations, consolations and prayers among Muslims and Christians in their town and surrounding farmlands. So years later, Kaduyu felt sickened when Islamist suicide bombers killed 74 soccer fans in a crowd near his university, deforming and defaming his faith. That bombing, and an anti-Muslim backlash, ignited a life’s mission that has made Kaduyu a prominent peacebuilder among millions of Ugandans who struggle for survival, prosperity and peace amid communal conflicts, violent extremism and growing climate disaster.

Type: Analysis

EnvironmentReligionViolent Extremism

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Current  Projects

Critical Minerals in Africa

Critical Minerals in Africa

Often throughout Africa’s history, natural resource exploitation has brought devastating consequences. However, it’s clear that Africa’s critical minerals will be developed regardless of the risks. The question is: How will critical minerals be developed and to whose benefit?

EconomicsEnvironmentGlobal Policy

Peace and Security Issues in Africa-China Economic Relations

Peace and Security Issues in Africa-China Economic Relations

Much of the research that has been conducted on the impact of China’s economic engagement with Africa has focused on their economic exchanges and security engagements in isolation of one another. But few have sought to understand the interconnections between these themes. These interconnections matter, as some Chinese firms are responsible for environmental degradation, population displacement, corruption and illegal extraction activities — all of which are factors that can drive conflict. 

EconomicsEnvironmentFragility & ResilienceHuman Rights

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