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Essays

The resurgence of the Islamic State in Iraq: Political and military responses

Shivan Fazil and Dr Dylan O’Driscoll

The Islamic State (IS) is back, or so the headlines say. The key thing is that IS never left.

Scope for improvement: Linking the Women, Peace and Security Agenda to climate change

Elizabeth Smith

This SIPRI Essay discusses key findings from the Insights on Peace and Security paper ‘Climate Change in Women, Peace and Security Agenda National Action Plans’, which examines how the United Nations Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda national action plans (NAPs) frame climate change, and how may they promote women’s participation in addressing related risks.

The opportunity for local peacebuilding interventions: The case of Kirkuk

Dr Dylan O’Driscoll

SIPRI’s latest Policy Paper ‘Building everyday peace in Kirkuk, Iraq: The potential of locally focused interventions’ provides an understanding of how, when and by whom acts of peace and conflict are carried out at the everyday level, and gives policy recommendations for interventions that would address the local side of peacebuilding. This essay highlights some core areas where there is an opportunity for peacebuilding interventions to affect real change in the everyday lives of Kirkukis.

Reducing the risk of naval incidents

Dr Ian Anthony

This month, 18 countries are participating in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) naval exercise in the Baltic Sea.

The need for an African Union Special Envoy for Climate Change and Security

Vane Moraa Aminga and Dr Florian Krampe

Ahead of the upcoming African Union (AU) Summit in February, SIPRI researchers give an impetus for the AU to refocus on climate-related security risks and build broad support to appoint a dedicated AU Special Envoy for Climate Change and Security.

Key actions to reduce nuclear security risk in the Black Sea region

Dr Ian Anthony

The wider Black Sea region contains both a high degree of nuclear security risk and rich experience in efforts to cooperate on risk reduction. Given that some of the most significant known cases of illicit nuclear trafficking have taken place in the wider Black Sea region, it is important to understand whether recent events, including the conflict in and around Ukraine, have increased existing nuclear security risks or created new ones.

The crumbling architecture of arms control

Dan Smith

At a political rally on Saturday, 20 October, US President Donald J. Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from the 1987 Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles (INF Treaty). This confirms what has steadily been unfolding over the past couple of years: the architecture of Russian–US nuclear arms control is crumbling.

European Union steps up its efforts to become the global leader on addressing climate-related security risks

Dr Malin Mobjörk and Niklas Bremberg

On 26 February 2018 the European Union (EU) adopted its latest Council Conclusions on Climate Diplomacy following a Council Meeting of Foreign Ministers in Brussels.