Energy & Environment

As extreme weather events devastate the central US, the time to prioritize climate resilience is now

By Clinton Britt and Andrea Clabough

The recent disaster in Kentucky marks a continuation of an escalating pattern of catastrophic weather events in the US. With so many lives at risk, climate resilience cannot fall by the wayside. It must be an emphasis now.

The top twelve risks and opportunities for 2022

By Mathew Burrows, Robert A. Manning

With ongoing vaccination challenges in much of the world and the worrying emergence of the Omicron variant, along with supply bottlenecks plus rising inflation and debt, the pandemic continues to exert its relentless push and pull on a beleaguered world.

Welcome to 2030: Three visions of what the world could look like in ten years

By Anca Agachi, Mathew Burrows

Well into the 2020s, COVID-19 will cast a long shadow over communities, workplaces, markets, battlefields, and negotiating rooms. But even as the centrifugal forces driving the world away from multilateralism and toward multipolarity accelerate, the future is not fixed. We humans have agency in shaping it.

Six ‘snow leopards’ to watch for in 2022

By Peter Engelke

Because it receives little attention in the press, the snow leopard does not appear significant enough to warrant much scrutiny as a driver of change and shaper of the future. Yet just like the real cat in the wild, the figurative snow leopard is something that could sneak up and vividly remind us that it exists.

The world must pay attention to Pakistan’s air pollution crisis

By Dawar Butt

In 2021, Lahore was dubbed “the second megacity with the worst air quality” – only second to New Delhi. But air quality is a country-wide, perennial problem in Pakistan, which as a whole has also been ranked as the second worst country in the world in terms of air quality.

State of the Order: Assessing November 2021

The State of the Order breaks down the month's most important events impacting the democratic world order.

Belarus joins Vladimir Putin’s Russia behind Europe’s new Iron Curtain

By Brian Whitmore

Europe’s new Iron Curtain runs along the western frontiers of Russia and Belarus. Over the past year, Putin has successfully solidified Moscow's dominance over Belarus. The Kremlin leader now appears determined to subdue Ukraine by force.