Conflict Zone from the LSE

In this episode of the LSE Conflict Zone podcast, host Maliek Banat talks to Brian Milakovsky, an associate researcher with the PeaceRep-Ukraine programme and the lead author of a recent report, Critical Raw Materials, Local Content Policy and Ukraine’s Economic Recovery and Ukraine programme director Luke Cooper about the turbulent current conjuncture in Ukraine. With protests, scandal and geopolitical stress intensifying they discuss how major stakeholders are envisioning Ukraine's economic recovery and reconstruction.

This podcast series is part of the Conflict and Civicness Research Group. All episodes are available here. 

Producer: Maliek Banat

In this special episode, Dr Luke Cooper, the director of our Ukraine research programme sits down with the host to unpack how the war in Ukraine is transofrming state capacity, fuelling economic strength and redefining the path to peace in non military terms. With shifting alliances and increasing domestic pressure, will economics determine the endgame more than firepower?

With the return of Donald Trump in the White House – and his insistence that Kyiv and Moscow strike a peace deal “in 24 hours – huge uncertainty now hangs over the future of Ukraine’s democracy and freedom. In this podcast, Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams discuss the huge challenges and hardships Ukraine has experienced in the war, drawing on insights from Luke’s recent visit to Ukraine. They are joined by Ukrainian academic Yuliya Bidenko from Karazin University in Kharkiv.

The outlook on lasting peace in Ethiopia has been grim since the cessation of active hostilities in November of last year. A peace agreement between the Tigray’s People Liberation Front, or the TPLF, and the Federal Government in Ethiopia has led to significant political concessions from the Tigrayans but ultimately falls short of resolving the underlying tensions.

In this episode we explain how the mode of transactional politics has come to dominate the dynamics inside Ethiopia under the current Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. We contrast the current political crisis with previous episodes of social unrest and violent change such as the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974. We argue that the ongoing marketisation of political institutions undermines not only the legitimacy of the peace agreement, but the overall monopoly on violence of the state.

Featuring Alex de Waal, Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation (WPF) and Research Director at the Conflict Research Programme at the LSE, and M

In the aftermath of the Republic’s collapse, a lack of shared understanding of policy priorities and effective civic interventions is impeding development of pathways toward stability for Afghanistan. The situation has since deteriorated across all scores of human security under the Taliban, with concurrent human rights, humanitarian, and political crises.

In this episode we look at how narratives of state failure, shaped largely by Western expertise, have overlooked and undermined the progress made by Afghans in healthcare, education, and economic stabilization. We argue that the outsized nature of the international intervention in Afghanistan, alongside a top-down approach to conflict resolution, has contributed to a misrepresentation of on-the-ground realities.

Featuring Marika Theros and Sahar Halaimzai, both policy fellows at the LSE Conflict and Civicness Research Group (CCRG) and the co-directors of the Peacerep’s Afghanistan Research Network. Marika and Sahar in 2021 worked together on the creation and realization of the ‘trilateral 1.5 track dialogue’ at the Atlantic Council, bringing together US, European and Afghan stakeholders to develop an inclusive and longer-term strategic outlook on stability in Afghanistan.

The war in Ukraine is an ‘axial event’ in twenty-first century history, in which the agency of Ukrainians will have, one way or another, a tremendous impact on the future of global security. From Ukrainian soldiers and emergency rescue teams operating on the frontline to the extensive web of civilian volunteers across the country, civic resistance continues to be a potent counterforce to the brute force of Russia’s military machine. But can this unity be sustained and under what conditions?

In this episode, we break down the origins of Ukrainian civicness from the start of the Revolution of Dignity that ousted the pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. We look at different roles adopted by a broad set of actors within the society since, following nationwide reforms and the pressures of Russia’s conventional and hybrid warfare. We argue that Putin’s strategy may well be to transform the war in Ukraine into a protracted and long-running conflict resembling the ‘new wars’ of modern time.

Featuring Mary Kaldor, Professor Emeritus of Global Governance and Director of the Conflict Research Group (CRD) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and Oksana Potapova, a Ukrainian peacebuilding research and activist pursuing a PhD at the Department of Gender Studies at LSE.

In slightly more than a decade of independence, South Sudan has endured civil war and a shaky peace agreement that leaves over 11 million South Sudanese yearning for the a less violent future. Devastating war in neighboring northern Sudan once again underscores Juba’s acute dependence on revenue from oil exports, which have similarly been captured by the country’s kleptocratic rulers. 

In this episode we look at how the lack of equitable distribution of revenue has persisted. Using latest research, we observe a locally driven understanding of resource extraction and management practices among the wider South Sudanese community that learns from the country and region’s history of inequitable patterns of rule. 

What does this mean for South Sudan in the context of global decarbonization and scramble for scarce resources? Find out in this debut episode featuring Dr. Matthew Benson, the Sudans Research Director at LSE CCRG and Rose Mabu, a researcher within the South Sudan-based Bridge Network of South Sudanese researchers. 

Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has long been associated with mineral wealth. Indeed, the country is hugely rich in natural resources - and this has played an important incentivising role in the conflicts seen over the last three decades. But this is by no means the whole picture. And a one-sided focus on minerals alone can lose sight of other important dimensions. 

In this episode, we explore the changing nature of the political economy of violence in the DRC. We outline the connections between local and global factors in fuelling the 'mineral wars'. But we also explore the new phenomenon of rebel financing: the role of checkpoints, showing how this also elicits linkages between globalisation and local political economies. We argue checkpoints provide an important window into governance practices in the DRC - and a greater awareness of this aspect, and its nuances, can help generate policy-making that is receptive to local conditions. 

Featuring, Lys Kulamadayil, a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Amsterdam, Peer Schouten, a Senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, Godefroid Muzalia Kihangu, professor at the department of History and Social Science at the Higher Education Institute of Bukavu, and Bienvenu Mukungilwa, a research assistant with the CERUKI at the Higher Education Institute of Bukavu. 

Producers: Luke Cooper, Azaria Morgan
Sound editor: Camilo Tirado 
Translation and production support: Henry Radice, LSE, Kasper Hoffman, Ghent University 

Intro music: The Drama by Rafael Krux (used for education purposes under Creative Commons License).   

This podcast series has been funded by the UK government’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) as part of the LSE Conflict Research Programme. The ideas expressed in the podcast do not necessarily reflect the views or policy positions of the UK Government/FCDO. 
 

Conflict research as a subject area has often been prone to colonial mindsets and thinking. In a world in which power disparities between wealthy states and the former colonial world remain very large - indeed, often huge - there are significant structural imbalances of power between the the North and South. These are reflected in the resources available to the academic community. Privilege can often create regressive attitudes and mindsets, which reinforce and reproduce these power disparities. 

In this episode, we introduce the Silent Voices Bukavu Project, a collaborative research project, based on the sharing of experiences and creation of dialogue, which has created an intellectual and cultural resource for the global academy. The project seeks to identify and share problems in order to promote and encourage collaborative best practices.  
Featuring professor Koen Vlassenroot, Director of the Conflict Research Group at Ghent University, Emery Mudinga, the Director of Angaza Institute and Associate Professor at Higher Institute for Rural Development, Bukavu, and Irène Bahati, a Congolese researcher at the Study Group on Conflict and Human Security and Teacher at the Higher Pedagogical Institute of Bukavu. 

Producers: Luke Cooper, Azaria Morgan
Sound editor: Camilo Tirado 

Intro music: The Drama by Rafael Krux (used for education purposes under Creative Commons License).   

This podcast series has been funded by the UK government’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) as part of the LSE Conflict Research Programme. The ideas expressed in the podcast do not necessarily reflect the views or policy positions of the UK Government/FCDO. 

The transition away from fossil fuels is one of the major questions facing humanity in this century. In many states globally, this is presented as both a necessity and opportunity: to create new and sustainable economies.

But what happens if decarbonisation is forced on a state? In this podcast, we explore the 'peak oil' problem in South Sudan. As the country's reserves dwindle, and oil prices collapse, the extremely impoverished, oil dependent economy has faced a mounting and existential crisis. This is what the Conflict Research Programme calls, 'traumatic decarbonisation'. And it's been a central factor in the South Sudanese Civil War. Drawing on expert interviews and archive footage, Conflict Zone investigates this process and asks what can be done to address the on-going crisis. 

Featuring Matthew Benson, director of the South Sudan team on the Conflict Research Programme, and Joshua Craze, a researcher with Tufts University who has been investigating the 'peak oil' crisis. 

Producers: Luke Cooper, Azaria Morgan
Sound editor: Camilo Tirado 

Intro music: The Drama by Rafael Krux (used for education purposes under Creative Commons License).   

This podcast series has been funded by the UK government’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) as part of the LSE Conflict Research Programme. The ideas expressed in the podcast do not necessarily reflect the views or policy positions of the UK Government/FCDO.