Global Outlook

With U.S. and Russian leaders engaged in direct talks in Saudi Arabia over the future of the conflict, many are left wondering whether the Ukraine crisis could become another Afghanistan or Vietnam

In the first thirty days of his second presidential term, Donald Trump and his associates have been engaged in what some have described as a slow-moving political coup. The incoming president has undertaken what amounts to a full-scale attack on institutional checks and balances and on civil and political rights.

For a long time, it seemed refugee law had little relevance to people fleeing the impacts of climate change and disasters. Now, we have a much more nuanced understanding of things. Refugee law (and complementary protection under human rights law) do have a role to play in assessing the claims of people affected by climate change.

A recent publication documents the pathways to human insecurity in the specific political and economic contexts of Vanuatu and Guam. The country-specific political and economic contexts of these Pacific islands translate climate change impacts into different forms of human insecurity.

The Trump administration’s recent freeze on billions in federally authorised funding signals an alarming shift in democratic governance with global ramifications.

Existing policies to tackle environmental challenges fail to take into account that biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution are intertwined crises and produce compounding and intensifying impacts.