Eliot Higgins is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Bellingcat, the investigative platform that has helped pioneer modern open-source intelligence and digital verification methods. He first gained international recognition through his early work analysing weapons use in the Syrian conflict under the pseudonym “Brown Moses“, before establishing Bellingcat in 2014 following the downing of…
You might’ve seen the recent Inside the Manosphere documentary by Louis Theroux. About a year ago we had this episode with Dr. Allysa Czwerinsky discussing this exact topic! Misogyny is no longer confined to the fringes, it’s part of the mainstream. Find out more about who is harmed, how online rhetoric shapes real-world consequences, and the blurred…
Professor Mark Galeotti is one of the leading experts on modern Russia, with particular expertise in its security politics, intelligence services, organised crime, and political warfare. He is Director of Mayak Intelligence, an Honorary Professor at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Institute of International Relations Prague,…
In this episode, we host Professor Mark Galeotti to explore how Russia wages political warfare against the West beyond the conventional battlefield. Drawing on decades of work on Russian power, intelligence, organised crime, and state coercion, Professor Galeotti explains why Moscow’s challenge to Europe is not best understood simply through hard power but rather through sabotage, disinformation,…
In this episode of The International Risk Podcast, Dominic Bowen speaks with Cedric de Coning and Andrew E. Yaw Tchie about the complex relationship between climate change, conflict, and human security in the Lake Chad Basin. Once a vital lifeline for millions of people across Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, the region has become a…
The Lake Chad Basin has become one of the world’s most frequently cited examples of how climate change, insecurity, and governance pressures intersect. With over 50 million people across Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, the region supports livelihoods that depend almost solely on natural resources, particularly fishing, farming, and pastoralism. Over the past six decades,…
Andrew E. Yaw Tchie is a Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) and Manager of the Training for Peace Programme. His research focuses on African-led peace support operations and stabilisation missions, United Nations peacekeeping operations in Africa, partnerships between the United Nations, the African Union, and regional organisations, as well…
Cedric de Coning is a Research Professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), where his research focuses on strengthening the resilience and sustainability of social-ecological systems under pressure from climate change and other global stressors. His work examines the intersection of climate change, governance, and conflict, applying an adaptive peacebuilding perspective to international,…
Iran is facing what many experts describe as a looming state of “water bankruptcy”— a crisis where demand has so profoundly outstripped supply that the very foundations of economic stability, social cohesion, and national security are under strain. From drying reservoirs in Tehran to collapsing aquifers and land subsistence, water is no longer just an…
Milad Jafari is an Iranian political scientist, researcher, and policy analyst specializing in water diplomacy and governance with a water science and engineering background. He holds two master’s degrees: one from Tarbiat Modares University, where he focused on the phenomenology of water governance issues in Tehran and also transboundary water challenges of the Helmand River,…
