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Latest Policy Briefs and Reports
The Climate-Conflict-Food Security Nexus: Pacific Marine Ecosystems
Policy Brief No.58 - November, 2019
Growing scientific evidence indicates that global impacts and flow on effects of climate change are threatening ecosystems and food security. Developing countries, especially coastal communities across the Pacific, are at risk of climate-related food insecurity. This is particularly the case in the context of unprecedented threats posed to the health of marine ecosystems and their capacity to provide protein, income and spiritual connections for Pacific communities. This policy brief advocates for adaptive co-management approaches that integrate traditional and Western knowledge, law, governance, science and technology in a bid to protect nature. Framed by national and global legal and governance systems, it highlights the importance of approaches which empower local communities. The policy brief concludes with five recommendations which focus on the importance of working with local communities, as the ‘front line’ guardians of nature.
Social Media, Technology and Peacebuilding
Social Media and Social Change in Jordan: Opportunities and Threats
Policy Brief No.57 - October, 2019
Over eight million of Jordan’s citizens have access to the internet, and they produce more than half of the digital content available online in the Arabic language. As Jordanians navigate together through an ongoing humanitarian, economic and political crisis, the mainstream social media platforms to which they are active contributors are turning into interactive spaces critical for public debate and socio-political transformation. This policy brief analyses social media impacts on the Jordanian society in 2018-2019 and concludes with three recommendations for the future.
“We Are Therefore We Live”: Pacific Eco-Relational Spirituality and Changing the Climate Change Story
Policy Brief No.56 - October, 2019
While there is overwhelming physical evidence and warning about climate change and conflict, it seems we have succumbed to the shadows of a one-sided story, a story that focuses entirely on the secular physical dimension with the spiritual lost beneath a one-dimensional umbra. Spirituality is critical to a new path for a new climate story.
Social Media, Technology and Peacebuilding
The False Information Ecosystem in India
Policy Brief No.55 - October, 2019
Over the past few years, internet access and adoption in India has grown tremendously, giving Indians more access to the online information ecosystem than ever before. Today, India is one of the largest markets for technology platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook. However, the adoption of these technology platforms has also enabled misinformation and disinformation to spread at scale in the country. This has resulted in the eruption of violence and even the deaths of dozens of people. This policy brief explores the false information ecosystem in India, highlighting the key players and approaches they have implemented to curb the spread of misinformation and disinformation. It also offers a set of recommendations for how these efforts can be improved going forward.
Cooperative Security, Arms Control and Disarmament
The Concert of Europe: A Template for Multilateralism in the 21st Century?
Policy Brief No.54 - October, 2019
History supplies few examples of successful great power cooperation for preserving peace over long periods. For the emerging multipolar structure, one of the rare templates of successful peace-preserving collaboration has been the Concert of Europe (CoE), which emerged in the course of the Vienna Congress of 1815. The CoE worked for a century; it prevented great power war for two long periods and managed at least to avoid all-out war in the interim period of the Crimea War and the Wars of German and Italian unification). This policy brief examines the achievements and shortcomings of the CoE, and discusses how these insights might be applied in light of current global power relations.