The SIPRI Update for October 2013 is out now — read it online, or subscribe to receive the SIPRI Update in your inbox each month.
In this issue we present two essays. First, Elisabeth Sköns discusses the role of civil society in building peace in Mali, within the context of a new SIPRI project. She writes:
Mali has a vibrant civil society that has been engaged in several peacebuilding processes in the country. During the peace process in the 1990s, civil society took the lead in working out a solution. Women’s organizations, especially in northern Mali, have also played a key role in reconciliation processes between the Tuareg movement and the Malian Government, for example by participating in the process leading up to the 1996 Flame of Peace ceremony in which decommissioned weapons were destroyed in a huge fire..
Read Elisabeth Sköns' full essay online or find out more about SIPRI's Mali Civil Society and Peacebuilding project.
Second, Ekaterina Klimenko discusses the future development of Russia's Arctic region:
In fact, the development of Russia’s Arctic energy resources has actually been more profoundly affected by global energy markets. The emergence of technologies to exploit unconventional hydrocarbon resources has significantly undermined the potential profitability of untapped Arctic shelf resources and diminished their investment attractiveness. The recent shale gas revolution in the United States, which has been driven by these new technologies, has resulted in a significant fall in gas prices and the loss of a potential market for Russian gas, thereby removing the logic for developing the Shtokman project.
Read Ekaterina Klimenko's full essay online.