Israel Accelerates Mass Arrest and Torture Campaigns

By Kellie Kuenzle /

The Israeli government has capitalized on public anger and fear following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attacks to justify arbitrary mass arrests of Palestinians, the systemic use of torture, and inhumane prison conditions

A Pacifism for Our Times

By Antonio Patriota / Fall 2024

Growing trends of unilateralism are encouraging violence and threatening a systemic breakdown of international law and order. Change must come, and soon

World Refugee Day Highlights Growing Challenges

By Abigail Flynn /

The growing rate of refugees across the globe constitutes an international crisis. Supporting these displaced people requires acknowledging the consequences of conflict and building resilient frameworks to protect refugee rights

Climate Change, Conflict, and Gender Inequality in the MENA Region

By Zeina Moneer / Spring 2024

Climate change—in the absence of legal and social protections—works as a threat multiplier that perpetuates gender inequalities and worsens socio-economic injustices in the MENA region

Climate Change: A Global Health Emergency

By Ana Davis and Andre Mikhail / Fall 2022/Winter 2023

COP27 Youth Envoy Omnia El Omrani discussed the importance of approaching the climate crisis with human health in mind and co-creating effective policy alongside those most impacted

Inclusion and Implementation at COP27: Just the Beginning

By Ana Davis / Spring 2023

Achieving a COP of inclusion and implementation….

Could the Future of Work be Green? Two Plot Twists

By Ghada Barsoum / May 17, 2023

Given the pressures of climate change could “green” define the future of work? Why are green jobs limited and who is pushing for them to grow?

When Consensus Is Reached

By Miguel Ruiz Cabañas / Spring 2023

The outcome of the UN climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh gives hope for climate justice, but leaves behind many challenges for the upcoming COP28 in Dubai

A Bank of Actions: Making Good on Losses and Damages

By Arunabha Ghosh / Spring 2023

In the seat of the COP27 Presidency, Egypt has the chance to reframe the Conference of the Parties as a forum for action based on accountability

COP27 and the Sustainable City: Global Climate Solution or Mirage?

By Patrick J. Bohlen / Spring 2023

The COP27 meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh highlighted the gap between climate policy goals and climate reality. In the MENA region and globally, cities are key to advancing climate goals

Good to the Last Drop

By Thomas L. Crisman and Zachary S. Winters / Spring 2023

Why nature-based solutions and adaptive management may hold the key to water conservation in the MENA region

Lessons from COP27: Between Progress and Challenges

By Martha Delgado / Spring 2023

While COP27 made progress in the areas of mitigation, adaptation, financing, and incorporating a gender, youth, and human rights perspective, Mexico is putting forward various initiatives to tackle remaining challenges

COP27: Kick the Climate Can Down the Road Another Year

By Peter J. Jacques / Spring 2023

With one COP after another kicking the can down the road, the prospective loss and damage fund is threatened by the same diversionary tactics. To succeed in the climate battle, we need transformative institutions and courageous leadership

Fuelling Transition or Entropy?

By Sarah El-Shaarawi / Spring 2023

Reflections on the politics of climate change, fossil fuels, the destruction of trust, and the narratives we consume

Hearing the Global South in Climate Convos

By Zeinab Shuker / Spring 2023

If progress on climate change is to be made, voices from the most vulnerable Global South and African countries must be heard and included in conversations at climate conferences

Reflections on COP27: How Egypt and India Can Work Together

By Sanjay Verma / Spring 2023

In the face of the global climate crisis, India and Egypt must continue to lead the Global South in pursuing equitable climate action and building on the outcomes of the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties in Sharm El-Sheikh

All Policy is Climate Policy

By Ana Davis / Spring 2023

Scholar and activist Jennie Stephens discusses the future of climate policy, emphasizing a “people-first” perspective and the need for larger societal structural transformation

Timeline: Environmental Diplomacy from Rio to COP27

By Ana Davis and Jamie Ruchser / Spring 2023

Key moments in environmental diplomacy from the historic “Earth Summit” held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992 up to COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in November, 2022.

Why Climate Journalism Must be Mainstreamed in the Arab World

By Sarah El-Shaarawi / Summer 2022

While the issue of climate change journalism is particularly relevant to the Arab World today, as the upcoming COP27 and COP28 will be hosted in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates respectively, climate reporting in the region still lacks a critical lens that reflects the issue’s urgency

From Borno to Aswan: Where Development, Climate and Conflict are Interlinked

By Omar Auf / August 23, 2022

The Aswan Forum, hosted on June 21-22 in Cairo, discussed topics related to African peace and development, including climate change, confronting terrorism, regional security, youth and women empowerment, and more.

Working Towards Sustainable Peace and Development Through Cooperation: An Interview with Ahmed Abdel-Latif

By Omar Auf /

The Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding is a unique Egyptian organization with a mandate for peace through capacity building, convening and research. Director-General Ahmed Abdel-Latif leads the center through its many activities, including serving as the Aswan Forum’s Secretariat.

Prepping for COP27

By David Dumke and Thomas L. Crisman and Zachary S. Winters / Winter 2022

Egypt is a microcosm for the impacts of climate change being felt across the MENA region, with water loss at the very top. It should likewise be high on the agenda when Cairo hosts this year’s UN climate summit

Young People Are Leading Climate Activism in the Middle East

By Neeshad Shafi / Fall 2021

Across the Arab World and the Middle East, young people are mobilizing to raise climate change awareness.

Climate Change and the Global South: The Case of Africa

By Agnes Babugura / Fall 2021

Should climate change continue unaddressed, it is estimated that of the additional 30–170 million people who are likely to suffer from malnutrition or under-nutrition globally in the coming years, three-quarters will be in Africa.

The U.N. Climate Summit and Its Aftermath

By Nabil Fahmy / Fall 2021

Developing countries see the call for equal actions with their richer counterparts as serving the interests of the latter.

Saving a Water-Stressed Middle East

By Neda Zawahri / Fall 2021

Inefficient water management exacerbates water insecurity in the MENA region, already the area most vulnerable to the catastrophic impact of the climate crisis. Building adaptive capacity is critical to ensure national and individual water security.

For A Worse Tomorrow

Fall 2021

Journalist Dahr Jamail stresses the severity of the climate crisis—and asks everyone to start acting like it.

Who Feels Climate Anxiety?

By Sarah Jaquette Ray / Fall 2021

In the simplest terms, the answer is: it depends on who perceives it as a threat, and what “anxiety” means to them.

Locked-in Emissions: The Climate Change Arms Trade

By Wendela de Vries / Fall 2021

With militaries’ locked-in fossil fuel systems and looming climate chaos, the arms industry continues to take advantage of nefarious profit opportunities.

A Climate Crisis in Africa: The Case of South Sudan

By Nhial Tiitmamer / Fall 2021

The African continent will be the most severely affected by climate change. Within Africa, the least developed and politically unstable nations like South Sudan are likely to be the hardest hit. What can be done, and who should be at the forefront of these changes?