Lateef Johar Baloch is a human rights advocate, researcher, and member of the Human Rights Council of Balochistan (HRCB). With years of experience documenting abuses against marginalised communities and human rights defenders, he focuses on Balochistan’s political landscape, natural resource extraction, and the impacts of state policies on ethnocultural groups. Originally from a rural village…
What happens when the world’s hunger for copper collides with a province where 63% live in poverty, most households lack reliable electricity and water, and dissent is met with disappearance? I’m Dominic Bowen, and this is The International Risk Podcast—where we cut through the noise to examine the risks that leaders have to grapple with…
As demand for clean energy accelerates, copper has become one of the world’s most valuable resources. Electric vehicles, solar panels, transmission lines, and battery storage systems all depend on it—driving a rapid global rush to secure long-term supply. One of the richest deposits sits in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and most resource-rich province, where the vast…
Christina Dixon is the Ocean Campaign Leader at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), responsible for overseeing a team of legal, campaigning and policy experts working on various multilateral, regional and national policy processes related to ocean and plastics governance. Having worked for EIA during the ad-hoc open-ended expert working group process, multiple UNEA sessions and…
“Consensus is worth seeking if it moves us forward, not if it stalls the process” Senimili Nakora, Fiji Delegate at The UN Plastic Treaty Talks in Geneva At 7am on 15 August 2025, the chair of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) on plastic pollution formally closed what was meant to be the final negotiation…
I am Dominic Bowen, and I am the host of the International Risk Podcast. At 7am on the 15th of August, after ten days of marathon sessions and a final overtime session that stretched more than 24 hours, the Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution formally adjourned INC-5.2. What was meant…
Dr Alexandra R. Harrington is a Visiting Scholar at the McGill University Faculty of Law and Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law Agreement on Plastic Pollution Task Force. She is a legal delegate for the IUCN at the Global Plastics Treaty, where she also advises and represents several West African countries, as…
Brian Eyler is the Director of the Stimson Center‘s Southeast Asia and Energy, Water and Sustainability programs. He is widely recognised as a leading voice and expert on transboundary water-energy-food nexus security issues in the Mekong River Basin, having spent more than 15 years living and working in China. Eyler is the Co-Lead of the…
Palmo Tenzin is an Advocacy Officer and Senior Researcher for the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT). She is an experienced researcher and policy officer specialising in Chinese politics and contemporary Tibet, Sino-Tibetan relations and Asia-Pacific security. At ICT, Tenzin focuses on investigating and analyzing developments in Tibet, ranging from land management and environmental policies to…
On 19 July 2025, China began construction on a 60,000-megawatt hydropower project at Medog, with three times the output of Three Gorges and roughly the UK’s entire annual power production. This is a 1.2-trillion-yuan investment (USD 170B) that Beijing frames as clean energy and development. It is located in southeast Tibert, and only 30km upstream…
