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31 August 2007 - Book presentation: Can good will contribute to achieve peace in that part of the world by trying to resolve its raging water conflicts? A book entitled ‘WATER RESOURCES IN THE MIDDLE EAST – Israeli-Palestinian Water Issues – From Conflict to Cooperation’, which have been presented to the press on the 31 August 2007 by Dr. Hans Guenter Brauch, a renowned Political Scientist associated to UNU-EHS, is an attempt to cast some light on such a difficult issue. Its editors, Professors Hillel Shuval from Israel and Hassan Dweik from Palestine, have compiled the studies of a host of Palestinian, Israel and international experts offering new perspectives on how to defuse the region’s conflicting interests by considering various geopolitical, environmental, legal, economic, and water resource management approaches.

Two dozen young scientists from 15 countries met with internationally recognised experts at Schloss Hohenkammer near Munich at the end of July to discuss issues relating to the topic “Megacities: social vulnerability and measures to build social resilience”.

The National Science and Technology Council of Guatemala invited Guatemalan scientists working abroad for the CONVERCIENCIA international scientific event taking place in July 2007 in Guatemala.

The United Nations University (UNU) and the Ministry of Education and Research of the Federal Republic of Germany (BMBF) have signed an agreement on the establishment of a UNU Vice Rectorate in Europe (UNU-ViE). UNU-ViE will be located at the UN Campus in Bonn.

UN Secretary-General appoints Prof. Konrad Osterwalder of Switzerland as Rector of United Nations University. Following consultations with the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Koichiro Matsuura, and with his concurrence, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Professor Konrad Osterwalder of Switzerland as the next Rector of United Nations University.

The present issue of InterSecTions is a special one. Control, Adapt or Flee: How to Face Environmental Migration? is the first issue which is written by a team: Fabrice Renaud, Janos J. Bogardi, Olivia Dun and Koko Warner. All authors are staff members of UNU-EHS. The interdisciplinary characteristics of InterSecTions are well emphasized when one looks at the academic background of the authors having degrees in so different areas as soil science, civil engineering, refugee studies and economics.

Download the issue No. 5/ 2007.

Member of the Advisory Committee of UNU-EHS, Prof. Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere has been appointed the Director of the Washington-based International Service for National Agricultural Research, (ISNAR) of the International Food Policy Research Institute (lFPRI).

We would like to announce that effective 1 January 2007, the Secretariat of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), Bonn, is being hosted by the UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) as a new project, having become an integral part of our organisation.

“Perspectives on Social Vulnerability” is a selection of papers from the first Summer Academy on Social Vulnerability, that took place from 22-28 July 2006 in Hohenkammer, Germany. This title suggests some of the fundamental aspects of the multidisciplinary, debate-filled, and policy relevant research surrounding the impact of shocks groups at risk face from multiple stressors.

Download SOURCE No. 6/2007

The UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) in Bonn organises within the framework of the joint UNU-EHS and University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF) an interdisciplinary block course for all Ph.D. candidates starting their studies. The course entitled “The Role of Vulnerability in (Disaster) Risk Management" focuses mainly on water-related hazards (floods, tsunamis, storm surges), vulnerabilities and associated risks and takes place from 26 -31 March 2007 in Bonn/ Germany at ZEF.

UNU-EHS Academic Officer Torsten Schlurmann follows call by the Leibniz University in Hannover to assume post as Chair of the Franzius Institute.

PD Dr.-Ing. Torsten Schlurmann, Academic Officer at UNU-EHS since 15 August 2005, has been appointed by the Leibniz University in Hannover as Chair Professor and Director of the Franzius Institute for Hydraulic and Coastal Engineering. His new duties will start on 1 March 2007.

We would like to thank Torsten Schlurmann for his vigorous engagement and wish him all the best for the future.

UNU-EHS is proud to present the new issue of InterSecTions, written by Professor Dr. Bharat H. Desai. He gives an excellent and thought provoking account of creeping institutionalization of the global environmental governance. His “story” is not only proving that environment is as much a legal as a security issue. It goes well beyond the fields of his legal expertise as he analyses the creeping institutionalization from the point of view of psychology of the state actors. The reader can follow page by page how the growing environmental awareness is being translated into multilateral actions, treaties including the “thickening web” of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and the “softness of hard law”.

Download the issue as a pdf file.

In close cooperation with German Aerospace Center (DLR), UNU-EHS welcomes Dr. Herryal Anwar from the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) on board the GITEWS PostDoc Programme. Jointly with two UNU-EHS Academic Officers Dr. Birkmann and Dr. Schlurmann and in close cooperation with Dr. Strunz and Dr. Post from DLR, Dr. Anwar carries out research to develop a common understanding and methodology on how to measure the vulnerability of coastal communities in Indonesia to tsunami and coastal hazards. He is staying for two months at UNU-EHS, from October to November 2006.