We’re happy to have a new project director on-board here at ECSP, and apparently so are you. Roger-Mark De Souza’s welcome post was one of the most popular of last month, despite going up three-quarters of the way through. Wilson Center Scholar Jill Shankleman’s treatise on East Africa’s oil and gas returned to the top spot and was joined mostly by newcomers: the Wilson Center’s climate change and peacebuilding in Africa workshop; Wilson Center Fellow Jeff Colgan’s Petro-Aggression book launch; National Geographic’s “water grabbers” series; the continuation of our Toward Resilience series; an infographic on reproductive health and the environment; and the China Environment Forum’s brief on Yunnan’s coffee industry.

Stretching across northern Africa, the Sahel is a semi-arid region of more than a million square miles covering parts of nine countries. It is home to one of the world’s most punishing climates; vast expanses of uncharted and unmonitored desert; busy migration corridors that host human, drug, and arms trafficking; governments that are often ineffective and corrupt; and crushing poverty. It is not surprising then that the area has experienced a long history of unrest, marked by frequent military clashes, overthrown governments, and insurgency.

“There is a huge gap between climate science, policymakers, and the end-users, in terms of understanding climate change and adaptation, and how that relates to conflict or peace,” concluded 26 experts from more than 10 countries across sub-Saharan Africa at the Wilson Center last fall. But “climate change adaptation is crucial to achieving Africa’s aspirations for peace, security, and sustainable development.”

Not too hot, not too cold – Goldilocks had it right, says Laurie Mazur in a new series on the concept of resilience. Joining her in the top posts last month (measured by unique pageviews) was the World Resources Institute’s water risk atlas, an illustration of the effect of the demographic dividend using new Human Development Index data, and an update on Uganda’s population-development challenges by Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka. The Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum also continued their new Choke Point column with a discussion with activist Wang Canfa on China’s current environmental difficulties.

Cooperation, not conflict; that’s the theme of this year’s World Water Day. Collaboration over water has been the rule rather than the exception over the past 70 years, UNESCO explained in the launch of their International Year for Water Cooperation initiative earlier this year (which the rest of the UN is thoughtfully supporting).

But the fact that there’s need for such an initiative shows that water conflict and other water issues are not far from the minds of global policymakers. Scarcity, drought, climate change, food security, disease – water impacts people and their governments in so many ways. Here’s a rundown of some of our best related posts.

Friction between Japan and China in the East China Sea has escalated this year to the point where jets on both sides have been scrambled and Chinese military vessels have locked their fire control radar onto their Japanese counterparts multiple times. The source of this tension is the Senkaku (as they are known in Japan) or Diaoyu (if you’re in China) Islands – specifically, who owns them.

The National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2030 report maintained its grip as the top post last month (measured by unique pageviews). But it was also joined by new posts on natural resources, conflict, and development with a look at the UN’s “year of water cooperation,” East Africa’s coming natural gas boom, China’s massive west-east electricity transfer infrastructure, the relationship between oil and war, and the changing context of Nile basin negotiations. Chad Briggs also weighed in on the U.S. Air Force’s Minerva Project and how it’s helping the military plan for complex risks.

Newly minted Secretary of State John Kerry would probably prefer his first few months on the job to be a little quieter. But – in addition to everything else – sequestration is bearing down on Washington this week, and the U.S. government is beginning to seriously take stock of what automated cuts might mean. The Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are not spared. Kerry sent a letter earlier this month to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) outlining the projected effects for his charges if the March 1^st deadline should pass without action.