Women Deliver and conflict minerals top the Beat this month:

1. Dot Mom: Women Deliver in Climate Change Debate

2. Copper in Afghanistan: Chinese Investments in Aynak

3. Rare Earth: A New Roadblock for Sustainable Energy?

4. Guest Contributor Caitlyn L Antrim, Rule of Law Committee for the Oceans: Trillions of Dollars of Minerals? Misuing Geology and Economics to the Detriment of Policy

5. Guest Contributor Michael Kugelman, Wilson Center: Look Beyond Islamabad To Solve Pakistan’s “Other” Threats

6. Afghanistan’s Mineral Wealth: Gold Mine, Curse, or Illusion?

7. Backdraft: The Conflict Potential of Climate Mitigation

8. VIDEO: Peter Gleick on Peak Water

9. The Plundered Planet: A Discussion With Paul Collier

10. Eye on Environmental Security: Natural Resource Frontiers at Sea

Fragile states and food security top the Beat this month:

1. VIDEO—Harriet Birungi: Challenges Facing HIV-Positive Adolescents in Kenya

2. On the Beat: The Food Security Debate: From Malthus to Seinfeld

3. Guest Contributor Michael Kugelman, Wilson Center: Look Beyond Islamabad To Solve Pakistan’s “Other” Threats

4. As Somalia Sinks, Neighbors Face a Fight to Stay Afloat

5. Copper in Afghanistan: Chinese Investment in Aynak

6. Feed the Future: USAID’s Shah Focuses on Women, Innovation, Integration

7. Eye on Environmental Security: USAID Launches GeoExplorer: Connecting Natural Resource Management Activities, Practitioners, and Communities

8. Guest Contributor: Todd Walters, International Peace Park Expeditions: Imagine There’s No Countries: Conservation Beyond Borders in the Balkans

9. DOD Measures Up On Climate Change, Energy

10. Campus Beat: Finding a Home for Political Demography

Peace parks remain at the top for two months in a row, but the rest of April’s faves includes new posts on population and climate change.

1. Guest Contributor Todd Walters, International Peace Park Expeditions: Imagine There’s No Countries: Conservation Beyond Borders in the Balkans

2. Climate Change and Energy in Defense Doctrine: The QDR and UK Defence Green Paper

3. Book Review: Global Warring: How Environmental, Economic, and Political Crises Will Redraw the World Map by Cleo Paskal

4. Guest Contributor Rear Admiral Morisetti: Climate Change: A Threat to Global Security

5. Copper in Afghanistan: Chinese Investment in Aynak

6. VIDEO: Peter Gleick on Peak Water

7. Megatrends: Embracing Complexity in Today’s Population and Migration Challenges

8. VIDEO: Joshua Busby on Climate Change and African Political Stability

9. The Beat on the Ground: Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains — Cassie Gardener Reports on Integrating Population, Health, and Environment

10. Canada Flip-Flops on Family Planning; Will the G-8 Follow?

Spring brings a new crop of top posts, knocking video king Peter Gleick down a few notches:

1. Guest Contributor Todd Walters, International Peace Park Expeditions: Imagine There’s No Countries: Conservation Beyond Borders in the Balkans

2. Guest Contributor Rear Admiral Morisetti: Climate Change: A Threat to Global Security

3. A Forecast of Push and Pull: Climate Change and Global Migration

4. Guest Contributors Cleo Paskal and Scott Savit: How Copenhagen Has Changed Geopolitics: The Real Take-Home Message From Copenhagen is Not What You Think

5. Tapping In: Secretary Clinton on World Water Day

6. Healing the Rift: Mitigating Conflict Over Natural Resources in the Albertine Rift

7. Copper in Afghanistan: Chinese Investment in Aynak

8. VIDEO: Peter Gleick on Peak Water

9. Eye on Environmental Security: World Bank Data Visualization

10. Energy Is a “Constraint on Our Deployed Forces”: DOD DOEPP Nominee Sharon Burke

1. VIDEO: Peter Gleick on Peak Water

2. Can Haiti Change Course Before the Next Storm?

3. Guest Contributors Cleo Paskal and Scott Savit: How Copenhagen Has Changed Geopolitics: The Real Take-Home Message From Copenhagen Is Not What You Think

4. Hardship in Haiti: Family Planning and Poverty

5. Water, Conflict, and Cooperation: Practical Concerns for Water Development Projects

6. Collier and Birdsall: Plunder or Peace

7. VIDEO: UNEP’s David Jensen on Linking Environment, Conflict, and Peace in the United Nations

8. Gates: More Money for Global Health Is Good for the Environment

9. Lessons From the Field: Focusing on Environment, Health, and Development to Address Conflict

10. Land Grab: Sacrificing the Environment for Food Security

1. VIDEO: Peter Gleick on Peak Water

2. Guest Contributor James R. Fleming: Climate Engineering Is Untested and Dangerous

3. Video: Malcolm Potts on Sex and War

4. New UNEP Report Explores Environment’s Links to Conflict, Peacebuilding

5. PODCAST – A Discussion on Climate Change and Security: Arctic Links and U.S. Intelligence Community Responses

6. East Africa Population-Health-Environment Conference Kicks Off in Kigali

7. Food, Water, Energy, Timber, Population: Do Madagascar’s Forests Stand a Chance?

8. Guest Contributor Tod Preston on Pakistan’s Daunting—and Deteriorating—Demographic Challenge

9. VIDEO: Kent Butts on Climate Change, Security, and the U.S. Military

10. Water a National Security Issue, Says Senator Richard Durbin

1. The Campus Beat: Using Blogs, Facebook, to Teach Environmental Security at West Point

2. VIDEO: Peter Gleick on Peak Water

3. Guest Contributor James R. Fleming: Climate Engineering Is Untested and Dangerous

4. Guest Contributor Elizabeth Leahy Madsen: Pakistan’s Demographic Challenge Is Not Just Economic

5. Columbia University’s Marc Levy on Mapping Population and Geographic Data

6. Prostitution, Agriculture, Development Fuel Human Trafficking in Brazil

7. Reporting From Kenya: U.S. Editors Cover Health, Environment, and Security

8. Ethiopia: A Holistic Approach to Community Development Blossoms Two Years After Taking Root

9. On the Beat: Climate-Security Gets “To the Point” Today

10. Covering Climate: What’s Population Got to Do With It?

From climate change to coltan, poverty to population, and water to war: These are the 10 most popular New Security Beat stories of the year. Thanks for your clicks, and we’ll see you in 2009!

1. Desertification Threatening China’s Human, Economic Health

2. PODCAST – Climate Change and National Security: A Discussion with Joshua Busby, Part 1

3. In the Philippines, High Birth Rates, Pervasive Poverty Are Linked

4. Climate Change Threatens Middle East, Warns Report

5. Population, Health, Environment in Ethiopia: “Now I know my family is too big”

6. Guest Contributor Colin Kahl on Kenya’s Ethnic Land Strife

7. Coltan, Cell Phones, and Conflict: The War Economy of the DRC

8. “Bahala na”? Population Growth Brings Water Crisis to the Philippines

9. Population Reference Bureau Releases 2008 World Population Data Sheet

10. Guest Contributor Sharon Burke on Climate Change and Security