The Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) faces simultaneous crises of security, water scarcity and climate change. They are interlinked—the water crisis is exacerbated by climate change and may fuel conflict, while insecurity is an obstacle to dealing with other pressing issues. Together, the three constitute a confluence of crises that need to be addressed together.
This SIPRI Insights seeks to contribute to the operationalization of nuclear disarmament verification. It explores existing solutions to define a baseline for new arms control and disarmament verification regimes, and considers the requirements for verification under the 2017 TPNW.
The Horn of Africa is undergoing far-reaching changes in its external security environment. A wide variety of international security actors—from Europe, the United States, the Middle East, the Gulf, and Asia—are currently operating in the region. As a result, the Horn of Africa has experienced a proliferation of foreign military bases and a build-up of naval forces. The external militarization of the Horn poses major questions for the future security and stability of the region.
This paper assesses the prospects for the 2020 NPT Review Conference and presents two alternative approaches for taking the WMD-free zone process forward—a WMD-free zone process without Israel or the inclusion of such a process as part of a broader regional security and arms control dialogue.
The events of 2014 in Ukraine—the takeover of Crimea by Russia and the start of the internationalized civil war in the east of the country—have refocused attention on the problem of protracted conflicts in the territory of the former Soviet Union (the ‘post-Soviet space’). This paper provides background information on these conflicts, their current status and an analysis of how they influence the security dynamics around the Black Sea.
This paper proposes a definition of a gender perspective in peace processes and introduces a way of operationalizing this definition. The suggested indicators are used to assess two recent peace processes: the Colombian peace process and the Mindanao peace process in the Philippines
This paper discusses two opposing trends defining the current nuclear order: the renewed salience of nuclear weapons and nuclear abolitionism. The paper argues that focus should shift from disagreements over the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) to the shared goal of reducing nuclear threats.
This SIPRI Insights explores and summarizes the findings from a systematic literature review of climate–conflict research on South and South East Asia.
The issue of violent extremism has risen high on the global political agenda, and there is an increased need to understand its prevention. The long tradition of crime prevention (CP) research and policies is one area that could contribute to the understanding of prevention of violent extremism (PVE). This SIPRI Insights describes how and to what extent violent extremism and different forms of crime converge in Nordic PVE and CP strategies and action plans.