How Rival Gardens of Eden in Iraq Survived ISIS, Dwindling Tourists, And Each Other
Jennifer Percy Against all odds, Iraq’s religious tourism infrastructure has endured. Thirty-five miles north of Mosul, Iraq, about an hour’s drive from Islamic State territory, was the Garden of Eden. I stood with my interpreter, Salar, a local Iraqi journalist. “See that smoke between the mountain…
Against all odds: using the SDGs to overcome fragility
Gary Milante and Kate Sullivan As evidence demonstrating the relationship between conflict and underdevelopment mounts, the task of building and sustaining global peace seems almost unattainable. This relationship is particularly precarious in countries experiencing high levels of fragility, where a…
Why Renewables Are Not Enough
Ajay Mathur and Adair Turner At the United Nations in New York on April 22, world leaders ratified the global climate agreement reached in Paris last December. One hundred ninety-five countries, ranging from richest to poorest, have now agreed to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-indu…
European financing for the European refugee crisis
Guntram B. Wolff As countries are struggling to implement the EU-Turkey deal on refugees, the debate on how to finance EU migration policy is heating up. Italy has proposed issuing ’EU Migration Bonds’ to fund migration in EU countries, while Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble has proposed…
The sun has not set on oil and mining industries in Africa
Olusegun Obasanjo Mining and oil is not a sunset industry in Africa. The sector holds great promise — Africa has a big comparative advantage in its store of mineral wealth and human capital. But unlocking this needs policies that encourage long-term, generational investment, not shortsighted resourc…
Why Corruption Matters
William J. Burns, Michael Mullen Pope Francis has called corruption “the gangrene of a people.” US Secretary of State John Kerry has labeled it a “radicalizer,” because it “destroys faith in legitimate authority.” And British Prime Minister David Cameron has described it as “one of the greatest enem…
Africa’s Vaccination Test
In February in Addis Ababa, African health ministers signed a widely celebrated declaration of their commitment to keeping immunization at the forefront of efforts to save the continent’s children from death and disease. Fulfilling that commitment will be no easy feat. Immunization is not just a hea…
A world ill prepared for warming
Doug Saunders The Fort McMurray wildfire catastrophe is a singular tragedy in Canada, but its community-destroying plumes of smoke and flame are not the only sign that this year’s unusually strong El Nino Pacific current, and the resulting hot, dry weather, is spreading danger around the world. Nor …
New Politics for Clean Energy
Jeffrey D. Sachs The diplomats have done their job, concluding the Paris climate agreement in December. And political leaders gathered last week at the United Nations to sign the new accord. But implementation is surely the tough part. Governments need a new approach to an issue that is highly compl…
Al Qaeda Is About to Establish an Emirate in Northern Syria
Charles Lister Al Qaeda has big ambitions in Syria. For the past three years, an unprecedented number of veteran figures belonging to the group have arrived in the country, in what can only be described as the covert revitalization of al Qaeda’s central leadership on Europe’s doorstep. Now the jihad…