Blog post archive

Wednesday, 6 Dec 2023
The Geopolitics of Deep-Sea Mining

Deep-sea mining carries substantial environmental risks and its immediate profitability remains questionable due to several technical difficulties. Yet, amid regulatory pitfalls, a handful of states are rushing to extract raw resources from the seabed. China seems set to dominate deep-sea mining. Minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese are ...

Thursday, 7 Oct 2021
Military Coups d'État and Guinea’s Rocky Road to Political Stability

While the fate of Guinea’s former President Alpha Condé remains unclear following a military coup on September 5, the ongoing political turmoil is most likely a beginning of a repetitive cycle of a semi-democratic military governance observed across West Africa. Security Defection: Domestic vs. International Community Reactions Guinea is, yet ...

Tuesday, 13 Apr 2021
Cobalt and the Congo: A Sustainable Green Energy Transition Cannot Be Built on Human Exploitation

General Motors, one of the United State’s most important automakers, announced in January 2021 that it would phase out petroleum-powered cars and trucks and sell only zero-emission vehicles by 2035. Although one of the auto industry’s most ambitious moves, electric vehicles (EVs) cannot be produced or driven without cobalt, we ...

Monday, 14 Jan 2019
Norway Has Chauvinistic Tunnel Vision When It Comes to Congo. The Country Has Great Possibilities.

On 10 December, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Nadia Murad and to Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynaecologist. For 10 years though, the Norwegian media and politicians, including the prime minister, have viewed the Democratic Republic of the Congo as Joshua French’s prison.* This view derives from a chauvinistic ...