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1. Status of Environmental Justice in Karamoja and West Nile Sub-Regions in Uganda

Author:
Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
Publication Date:
01-2026
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
Abstract:
This report presents a comprehensive assessment of the status of environmental justice in Uganda, with a particular focus on the Karamoja and West Nile regions. These two regions, though distinct in ecological and socio-economic characteristics, are united by their position which is at the frontline of environmental change, governance challenges, and livelihood vulnerability. Karamoja is characterized by semi-arid landscapes and pastoral livelihoods, faces intensifying pressures from climate variability, land degradation, and expanding extractive and conservation activities. West Nile, by contrast, represents a complex humanitarian–ecological interface shaped by one of the largest refugee-hosting contexts in Africa. West Nile is where population influxes are placing unprecedented strain on land, forests, and water resources. These two regions provide a critical lens through which to understand how environmental governance systems shape outcomes like equity, inclusion, and sustainability in Uganda.
Topic:
Climate Change, Governance, Sustainability, Ecology, and Environmental Justice
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

2. Climate Change Budget Compliance Assessment Report

Author:
Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
Publication Date:
05-2025
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
Abstract:
This report presents a compliance assessment of Uganda’s national budget for Financial Year (FY) 2024/25, evaluating the budget’s alignment with climate change priorities that are outlined in the Third National Development Plan (NDP III). The assessment focuses on thirteen (13) priority programmes, selected for their climate change vulnerability, strategic importance, and potential to contribute to climate resilience and low-carbon development. With the Fourth National Development Plan (NDP IV) already approved, this analysis provides insights into the country’s progress with climate-change-sensitive development programming and action, while highlighting gaps in climate finance integration. This effort should inform more robust and inclusive planning for the future. Climate change remains one of the most pressing and persistent global development challenges. It increasingly impacts people’s livelihoods, and its effects are especially worse in vulnerable and least-prepared countries like Uganda. Climate change effects are far-reaching, contributing to environmental degradation, reduced agricultural productivity, health challenges, and disruption of livelihoods. These impacts not only threaten ecosystems and human well-being but also hinder the achievement of sustainable development and social equity, thereby deepening social exclusion. As the climate crisis intensifies, urgent and coordinated global, regional, and national action becomes critical. Effective and timely mitigation and adaptation responses are necessary to minimize harm and contribute meaningfully to the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). On the other hand, delayed or no action on climate change is expected to result in more severe, costly, and irreversible consequences for both natural and human systems. Uganda’s long-term development frameworks, including the Vision 2040, the Third National Development Plan (NDPIII), and various sectoral policies and plans, recognize climate change as a major threat to socio-economic transformation and sustainable development. These frameworks emphasize the need for substantial investments in climateresilient development. The success of Uganda’s ambitions for inclusive growth largely hinges on the effective integration of climate action across all programmes of the country’s development plans, and adequate allocation of resources to finance climate interventions. TThe NDP III (2020/21–2024/25), now in its final implementation year, integrates climate change priorities across all its twenty (20) programmes. It specifies strategic interventions and performance targets, which are reflectedinthePlan’sResultsFrameworkandProgrammeImplementation Action Plans (PIAPs). This was intended to guide the national budgeting process, ensuring budget alignment with climate-resilient development goals. The goal of this assessment is to ascertain the extent to which the national budget of FY 2024/2025 and Budget Framework Paper (BFP) of 2025/2026 comply with planned climate change interventions under NDP III and NDP IV. The assessment involved selection of Programmes that are either most vulnerable to climate change, or have highest potential to contribute to climate change via their high greenhouse gas emission intensity. This selection was informed by Uganda’s National Climate Change priority areas captured in the country’s revised/updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs 2022) and the Uganda Green Growth Development Strategy (UGGDS) 2017-2030. This programme selection was followed by a review and analysis of national planning and budgeting documents, focusing on: (i) adaptation and resilience building; and (ii) mitigation or reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Topic:
Climate Change, Budget, Compliance, and Sustainable Development
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

3. Debating American Primacy in the Middle East

Author:
Marc Lynch, Richard K. Hermann, Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Dana El Kurd, and Elham Fakhro
Publication Date:
02-2025
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
In September 2024, POMEPS and the Mershon Center for International Studies at the Ohio State University convened a workshop with regional experts and international relations theorists to debate the nature of American primacy in the Middle East. The papers in this collection range widely over theoretical approaches and empirical examples to bring out the assumptions and implications of different perspectives. The discussions were shaped by the shadow of Israel’s war on Gaza, in all of its moral and strategic dimensions, with sharp disagreements over the extent to which this represented a fundamental break with or continuity with prior trajectories. We are delighted to present POMEPS Studies 54: Debating American Primacy in the Middle East and hope that it helps to reframe and sharpen the critical ongoing debates about US foreign policy, global order, and the Middle East.
Topic:
Security, Foreign Policy, Cold War, Development, Hegemony, Authoritarianism, Liberalism, Engagement, Unipolarity, Multipolarity, International Order, Russia-Ukraine War, and 2023 Gaza War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Gaza, United States of America, and Gulf Nations

4. Syria After Assad

Author:
André Bank, Marc Lynch, Wendy Pearlman, Ali Hamdan, Haian Dukhan, and Sean Lee
Publication Date:
12-2025
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
Many developments during the past year have given rise to a host of crucial questions about the future of Syria and the Syrian people. To explore them, the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) exchanged with the Arab Political Science Network (APSN), launched a call for papers, and selected more than a dozen emerging scholars to participate in an intensive online workshop in mid-September 2025. Based in eight different countries, many of these researchers are Syrian, and most have years of research experience on Syria or Syrian diasporic communities. The papers resulting from the workshop provide fresh insight into a range of critical issues: decentralization and state consolidation, sectarian violence, refugee return, security sector reform, transitional justice, economic reconstruction, and more.
Topic:
Security, Governance, Reform, Transitional Justice, Syrian War, State, Disability, Decentralization, Autonomy, Tribes, Bashar al-Assad, and Post-Conflict
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

5. Regional Order Making after October 7

Author:
Raffaella A. Del Sarto, Marc Lynch, Simon Mabon, Waleed Hazbun, and Curtis R. Ryan
Publication Date:
07-2025
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
In December 2024, we convened a workshop at the Robert Schuman Center of the European University Institute in partnership with POMEPS and SEPAD to discuss regional changes and their meaning for our book. How did the October 7 attacks, the Gaza war, and Israel’s rapidly expanding military actions from Lebanon to Iran change the region? Were those changes in line with the book’s theoretical predictions? And what would our book have to say to the new aspirants hoping to remake regional order?
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Non State Actors, Alliance, Violence, Armed Conflict, Regional Politics, October 7, and 2023 Gaza War
Political Geography:
Iran, Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Gaza, Lebanon, and United States of America

6. La délation en Turquie (2006-2021) - Un dispositif de surveillance et de répression

Author:
Ayşen Uysal
Publication Date:
03-2025
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
Fieldwork on denunciation in Turkey in contemporary times allows us to understand the way in which the Justice and Development Party (AKP) governs, the different forms of surveillance it relies on, the range of its repressive repertoire and the strategies and ruses of power, as well as its ability to reproduce obedience and to penetrate society. This research exposes the multiple functions of denunciation, as a political technique and a practice of self-discipline and punishment, and the Presidential Communication Center (CIMER), the control apparatus which centralizes the system of denunciation. This research focuses on the reports collected by CIMER, the dedicated entity for denunciations. It examines its archives directly through certain institutions and looks at three written sources: the archives of trial files collected from certain law firms; parliamentary documents, especially written questions from deputies; and press coverage. Additionally, it draws from semi-structured interviews with the victims of the denunciation, as well as with lawyers, to provide further insight.
Topic:
Domestic Politics, Surveillance, Political Science, Repression, and AKP
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

7. Uganda's Mining Legal Regime: Addressing Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs), Risks and Revenue Loss in the Mineral Supply Chain

Author:
Onesmus Mugyenyi, Paul Twebaze, Phoebe Atukunda, Eugene Ssemakula, Peter Watua, and Oscord Mark Otile
Publication Date:
01-2025
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)
Abstract:
Uganda's rich mineral endowment holds immense potential for economic development. However, illicit financial flows (IFFs) risks threaten to undermine this potential by diverting revenue away from critical national priorities. IFFs can occur at various stages of the mineral supply chain, from licensing and exploration to production and exportation. These illicit flows not only deprive the government of the much-needed domestic revenue but also hinder transparency and accountability within the sector. While the mining sector has in the past contributed significantly to Uganda’s economy reaching a peak of up to 30% of export revenue in the 1950S and 1960; the contribution has in the last few years declined to 2.2% of the country's GDP (Nyakabwa & Wepukhulu, 2023). This decline is partly attributed to illicit financial flows. As domestic revenue mobilization becomes increasingly important for Uganda’s long-term development, curbing illicit financial flows in the mining sector remains central to realising this goal. This briefing paper examines Uganda's current mining legal regime and its effectiveness in addressing IFFs risks along the mineral supply chain. It also identifies key, strengths, and gaps in the existing mining legalregime, and proposes recommendations for strengthening the legal and regulatory safeguards. By plugging these leaks in the system, Uganda’s mineral wealth will translate into tangible benefits for its citizens thus achieving economic development.
Topic:
Mining, Risk, Supply Chains, Minerals, Illicit Financial Flows, and Revenue
Political Geography:
Uganda and Africa

8. Unity Versus Division in South East Europe on Global Conflict Issues

Author:
Plamen Plantev
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS)
Abstract:
In the period after the end of the Cold War and especially after the end of the regime of Milosevic the region of South East Europe has been dialectically oscillating and slowly moving to the objective set by the EU in 2003 in Thessaloniki of integrating it in the Union. The Russian invasion and unprovoked full-fledged aggressive war against Ukraine shook the slow movement towards the integration in the geopolitical by nature EU. The realities of the reborn by Russia Nazi behaviour in occupied Ukrainian territories poses fundamental moral questions and requires brave political decisions. Graham Green’s words . in his novel “The Quiet American” – ‘sooner or later ... one has to take sides. If one is to remain human’, could be considered the moral and geopolitical compass and navigator in these turbulent times, including in the region of South East Europe. It is not easy for many people in Europe, including in the Western Balkans to realize that South East Europe has become a front-line region in a war that aims to reverse the course of history and change the way of living in free, peaceful, democratic and increasingly prospering societies. The perception of a rising danger from militarist Russia in the Western Black Sea coastal countries Romania and Bulgaria is a fact of life. The Russian aggression of 24 February 2022 marks a Zeitenwende, a watershed that makes us reconsider older concepts and inclinations. It forces us to think again what is the meaning of minimum standards of international law, how to oppose geopolitical revisionism and how to upgrade our resilience to the level of the one that Ukrainians demonstrate after 15 months of war. Olaf Scholz defined in his speech to the Bundestag on 27 February 2022 the essence of the required resilience in this new situation: “Whether we permit Putin to turn back the clock to the nineteenth century and the age of the great powers. Or whether we have it in us to keep warmongers like Putin in check”1
Topic:
Security, Conflict, Resilience, and Russia-Ukraine War
Political Geography:
Europe and Southeast Europe

9. Race Politics and Colonial Legacies: France, Africa and the Middle East

Author:
Hisham Aïdi, Marc Lynch, Zachariah Mampilly, Baba Adou, and Oumar Ba
Publication Date:
05-2024
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
In February 2020 – the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic – the Project on Middle East Political Science held a preliminary meeting at Columbia University in New York to explore the origins of the Africa-Middle East divides that treat North Africa as part of the Middle East and neglect states such as Sudan and Mauritania. Columbia was an appropriate place to begin such a dialogue. Two decades ago, when two of us (Aidi and Mampilly) were graduate students at Columbia, the Institute of African Studies was in serious crisis. The Ugandan political theorist Mahmood Mamdani arrived and launched an initiative to decolonize the study of Africa to counter Hegel’s partition of Africa by transcending the Saharan and red Sea divides, and by underscoring Africa’s links to Arabia, Asia and the New World. To that end, we co-organized a second conference on racial formations in Africa and the Middle East looking at race-making across these two regions comparatively, including the border zones often left out of both African and Middle Eastern Studies: the Sudans, Amazigh-speaking areas in the Sahel, Arabic speaking areas on the Swahili coast and Zanzibar. This workshop represents the third in our series of transregional studies across the Africa-Middle East divide.
Topic:
Politics, Post Colonialism, Race, History, Colonialism, Islamophobia, and Racialization
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, Europe, Sudan, Middle East, France, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Mauritania, and United States of America

10. The War on Gaza and Middle East Political Science

Author:
Marc Lynch, Ibrahim S. I. Rabaia, Fiona B. Adamson, and Alexei Abrams
Publication Date:
04-2024
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS)
Abstract:
This special issue of POMEPS Studies offers a platform for scholars to think through what feels like a moment of rupture for the Middle East, for Middle East Studies, and for long-standing assumptions about the region’s politics. This POMEPS collection originated as an open call for papers for scholars affected by or invested in these urgent issues, in an initial effort to give a platform and a voice to those in our network who have grappled with these trends. We kept the call intentionally broad, asking potential authors to reflect on the effects of October 7 and the Gaza War on politics or scholarship. As it turned out, most of the contributors wanted to talk about academic freedoms and the conditions of public discourse in their countries – perhaps because of how profoundly they felt this crisis, perhaps because of the availability of other platforms to discuss the war itself. The issues confronting our field have never been more urgent and the need for academic networks and institutions to rise up to defend it has never been greater.
Topic:
Civil Society, Diplomacy, Education, Genocide, Political Science, Institutions, Academia, Houthis, Forced Migration, Activism, October 7, 2023 Gaza War, and Frantz Fanon
Political Geography:
Iraq, Europe, Iran, Middle East, Israel, Yemen, Palestine, Gaza, Germany, Jordan, Czech Republic, and Gulf Nations