We describe the deep uncertainties affecting Belt and Road Initiative decision making, and identify drawbacks of existing BRI policy analysis in light of its future challenges.
In this paper, RAND researchers provide a framework for understanding how nation-states are developing policies to respond to climate migration and mobility. They review related policies in Bangladesh, Kiribati, Kenya, Norway, the United States, and Vanuatu. These findings can provide policymakers with high-level options when considering the broad needs of climate migrants and their host communities and when designing their own policies.
Arctic states and other stakeholders have long cooperated on territorial, military, and other affairs to avoid or mitigate conflict. In this report, researchers identify potential risks and catalysts that could escalate into conflict in the region, determine which of those cannot be solved by existing governance mechanisms, and identify potential changes to such mechanisms to help mitigate the identified risks.
Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of illegal opium poppy and is a key source for European and Asian heroin markets. The authors summarize the economic and political roles of opiates in Afghanistan. Given the rise and dominance of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids displacing heroin in major drug markets in the Americas, the authors assess what might happen to Afghanistan if demand for its opiates dropped off sharply and permanently.
The prospect of using geoengineering to address the accelerating effects of climate change is becoming more likely, and many of the potential technologies have negative externalities on the global to regional scale. In this Perspective, the authors review the state of different geoengineering technologies, the geopolitical risks associated with geoengineering implementation, and international governance options.
