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Bridging the science-policy divide in peace and climate governance demands more than improved communication. It requires sustained, trust-based collaboration, interdisciplinary integration, and adaptive approaches. This article explores the science-policy interface as a dynamic space where knowledge is co-produced through iterative engagement, rather than linearly transmitted. It argues that institutional support for embedded research roles, long-term relationships, and integrative training is essential to align scientific insight with policy needs. In complex, fragile settings, where uncertainty and political constraints are high, adaptive governance and interdisciplinary collaboration offer more resilient pathways than static, blueprint-based approaches. The article highlights the importance of tailoring outputs, building shared platforms, and investing in trust as foundations for effective engagement. By rethinking how research is generated, communicated, and used, we can transform the science-policy interface into a space that meaningfully contributes to sustainable peace and climate resilience.

This chapter offers insight into the geopolitics of water agreements by discussing the contributions to peace. Upholding equitable and reasonable sharing of water is imperative for enhancing access to water as well as ensuring its peaceful management. Existing arrangements for shared water management are threatened by climate change and the increased mining activities which exacerbate the risk of water conflicts. The chapter provides an overview of water interactions and agreements and highlights the impact of water agreements on regional cooperation, sub-national water conflicts, and justice for the marginalized and weaker parties. The chapter also underscores the increasing pressure on water resources from climate change and climate action, particularly the demand for critical minerals for climate mitigation. We conclude that geopolitics complicate water interactions, while the potential of water agreements to overcome geopolitical limits to water cooperation requires further examination.

 Climate change increasingly shapes how groups share—or fight over—water-dependent resources. Synthesizing 235 peer-reviewed studies published between 1980 and 2022, this article clarifies when water scarcity fuels communal conflict and when it sparks cooperation. Rather than treating water scarcity as a purely physical condition, the review conceptualizes it as a socially and politically mediated process that shapes, and is shaped by, access, governance, and inequality. Evidence is concentrated in farmer–herder settings across 30 countries, yet more than half of all work focuses on five African nations and relies on single-case designs. The analysis shows that water scarcity alone rarely drives violence. Instead, outcomes depend on how water and water-dependent resources are accessed, governed, and contested across social and institutional settings. Water governance thus emerges as a central arena of power and social justice, shaping whether environmental stress produces conflict or cooperation. The same shocks foster negotiation over water resources when customary rules remain legitimate and include marginalized users. For practitioners and policymakers, strategies like conflict-sensitive adaptation, fostering institutional pluralism, and implementing early-warning systems that integrate climate forecasts with social indicators may transform water stress into opportunities for collaboration rather than sources of confrontation.

Water stress is intensifying under climate change, demographic growth, and socio-political pressures, raising urgent questions about how shared waters are governed. This article has a dual aim: to take stock of scholarship on water, conflict, and cooperation, and to frame the contributions of this Special Issue on “Water, Environment, and Security.” We combine a bibliometric mapping (2010–2024) with a thematic synthesis to trace field-level trends and recurring debates. The review highlights seven focal areas: power and hydro-hegemony; river-basin organizations; climate change framing on compound risks; environmental peacebuilding across scales; technological innovations; justice and equity; and the targeting of water in war. We show that conflict and cooperation frequently coexist and are mediated less by hydrology than by institutions, power relations, and inclusion. As a whole, the Special Issue advances this research agenda through diverse epistemologies and methods, conceptual frameworks, comparative and ethnographic studies, and large-N analyses, linking outcomes from households to basins. Looking ahead, we outline research frontiers in water research, including open hydrology data, justice-centered governance, war impacts, and translating transboundary commitments into local practice. Together, these insights point to pathways for more equitable, resilient cooperation over shared waters.

The detrimental impacts of wars on human development are well documented across research domains, from public health to micro-economics. However, these impacts are studied in compartmentalized silos, which limits a comprehensive understanding of the consequences of conflicts, hampering our ability to effectively sustain human development. This article takes a first step in addressing this gap by reviewing the literature on conflict impacts through the lens of an inter-disciplinary theoretical framework. We review the literature on the consequences of conflicts across 9 dimensions of human development: health, schooling, livelihood and income, growth and investments, political institutions, migration and displacement, socio-psychological wellbeing and capital, water access, and food security. The study focuses on both direct and indirect impacts of violence, reviews the existing evidence on how impacts on different dimensions of societal wellbeing and development may intertwine, and suggests plausible mechanisms to explain how these connections materialize. This exercise leads to the identification of critical research gaps and reveals that systematic empirical testing of how the impacts of war spread across sectors is severely lacking. By streamlining the literature on the impacts of war across multiple domains, this review represents a first step to build a common language that can overcome disciplinary silos and achieve a deeper understanding of how the effects of war reverberate across society. This multidisciplinary understanding of conflict impacts may eventually help to reconcile divergent estimates and enable forward-looking policies that minimize the costs of war.

If water is controlled in an inclusive and transparent manner, it can turn from being a source of conflict to the basis for finding shared interest and lasting peace.

Socio-hydrology strives to incorporate 'the social' into the understanding of hydrological processes, aiming to enrich the analysis of water systems by considering human interactions. While there is a broader interest in integrating socio-political processes into hydrology, our paper specifically emphasizes the significant contributions of peace and conflict research to understanding the complex social dynamics surrounding water. We conduct a brief review of key literature on interstate water sharing, international norms on water, and domestic water disputes, drawing extensively from empirical studies within peace and conflict research—a field with a rich tradition of examining the interplay of water systems and social dynamics. Building on this foundation, we propose ways to weave insights from peace research, especially environmental peacebuilding, into the realm of socio-hydrology. We also highlight the crucial role of power, politics, and social factors in shaping water-related interactions and conflicts. By fostering a dialogue between socio-hydrology and peace and conflict research, we advocate for a more nuanced understanding of water management and governance. This interdisciplinary approach, we argue, is essential for promoting sustainable and equitable water use, and for addressing the challenges posed by water-related conflicts in a rapidly changing global context.