The Board of Whatever
World diplomacy reduced to a curtain-raiser. That's how one could sum up the first meeting of Donald J. Trump's Board of Peace, held on Thursday, February 19, at the Donald J. Trump United States of...
Investing in resilience as a development strategy
Stockholm Resilience Centre’s publications are always worth a careful reading. The latest report, “Resilience Science Must-Knows”, focuses on a single concept, widely debated in a ...
The OECD Reshapes the Global Water Agenda: What Is Its Legitimacy?
From the end of World War II, the United Nations and Bretton Woods Institutions dominated the world water order. They facilitated funding for water infrastructure, and they defined norms, institutio...
China, a five-year plan for space
In a video released in November by the CGTN network, five taikonauts (from taikong: space in Chinese) are seen roasting chicken wings on board a space station. “This is the first time in ...
A new index to promote equity in maritime activities
According to UN Trade & Development, between 1995 and 2020, the economic sector associated to maritime activities grew 2.5 times, twice as fast as the global economy. In 2023, the maritime ...
More and more regions around the world are facing water bankruptcy
There were algae, carp, sturgeon, and other fish, fishing boats and canning factories. Along the shores of the Aral Sea, on the border between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, a vibrant community once liv...
Trump keeps digging the grave of transatlantic diplomacy in Davos
“Who the hell wants to defend a licence agreement for a piece of ice?” This may not be the most important sentence in Trump’s long speech in Davos today, 21 January, but it is perh...
Will the Board of Peace replace part of the United Nations?
Is Donald Trump creating a new international organisation in his own image, as an alternative to the United Nations? Over the past few days, the US president has sent invitations to a number of worl...
Crisis
Misinformation, social polarisation, extreme weather events, inequality, erosion of human rights, armed conflicts, pollution. According to the highly influential analysis of systemic risks publ...
The High Seas Treaty takes effect: now international law
With the ratification of the 60th state in September, the 120-day countdown to the entry into force of the High Seas Treaty began, which takes effect today, 17 January. Also known as the BBNJ (Biodi...
Global Risks Report 2026: The “Age of Competition” shapes the future threats
The year ahead opens against a backdrop of accumulated tensions, unresolved crises and shifting global balances. After years marked by pandemics, wars, inflationary shocks and accelerating technolog...
River systems amidst laws, policies and economy: the interviews of RM60
The Think Tank section of Renewable Matter #60, focused on rivers, provides a broad, international overview of the complex interactions between human society and river ecosystems, addressing th...
Free to Flow: The Fragile Success of River Renaturalisation
Within days of the removal of four dams on the Klamath River, on the border between California and Oregon, silver salmon began swimming upstream again, and one year later – after nearly a cent...
My Rivers
My childhood memories are tied not only to strolls under the porticoes of Saronno, a small town in the Milanese hinterland, but also to the local stream, the Lura. Largely covered over, the peculiar...
Cory Doctorow: “The creeping digitisation of society brings forth the enshittification of it”
He was the European Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation for many years; he’s on the front lines for digital rights; an essayist, science fiction writer, and one of the most influent...
Trump's aims for Greenland divide Europe and put NATO at risk
The United States has set its sights on Greenland, and the matter can no longer be dismissed as a far-fetched provocation, especially by the European Union. As White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavi...
Meloni, press conference marked by a pragmatism that suggests a slowdown
A three-hour-long press conference, forty questions. Giorgia Meloni picked the traditional start-of-the-year conference to discuss the latest foreign policy shifts by the US, explain the government'...
Attack on Venezuela: how did China react?
“It was a friendly meeting, reaffirming the strong bonds of friendship between China and Venezuela. In good and bad times!” The last words posted on Nicolas Maduro's social media profile...
Trump's energy imperialism is a danger to the future of the human species
Oil's role in the US military action in Venezuela is first and foremost made clear by figures: the world's leading oil producer has attacked the country with the world's largest oil reserves. But it...
New Nightmare on Elm Street: The “Donroe Doctrine” and Its Implications
In the 1984 slasher film, Nightmare on Elm Street, US Midwestern teenagers fall prey to the evil Freddy Krueger, who after invading the teenagers’ dream worlds turns their dreams of disme...