Conflicts of Interest

Several recent events, including the Ukrainian crisis and the role of gas in its geopolitics, highlight the role of economic activities in the structures of violent conflicts. What are the norms of international humanitarian law, international criminal law, international human rights law, and international peace and security law that regulate the war economies? In this podcast episode, Dr. Mark B Taylor, author of the book "War Economies and International Law" and Dr. Leandra Bias address this question.

swisspeace presents analysis and recommendations from “Strengthening Knowledge Ecosystems", a research project on knowledge production in high-risk countries. The podcast looks at Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Laos.  

Full report & case studies 

Roundtable event 2021 

Speakers 

Dr. Nishank Motwani @NishankMotwani 

Malish John Peter @PrinceMalish 

Dr. Owen Ndoromo  

Ursina Bentele 

Dr. Laurent Goetschel 

Emma Baumhofer 

@swisspeace 

@Idrc_crdi 

Music 

Life In Silico by Scott Buckley Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 

Free Download/Stream - Audio Library

Should divided states emerging from violent conflict explicitly recognize ethnic diversity, or should they avoid this? Which strategy promotes peace? And why is ethnic recognition adopted in the first place?

In this podcast episode, Dr. Dana Landau invites Elisabeth King, Professor of International Education and Politics at New York University, and Cyrus Samii, Associate Professor in the Wilf Family Department of Politics of New York University, authors of the recently published book “Diversity, Violence, and Recognition: How Recognizing Ethnic Identity Promotes Peace”. The authors explain their new theory for understanding the adoption of ethnic recognition and its effects on peace. They refer to the examples of Rwanda, Burundi, or Ethiopia, which they used as qualitative case studies alongside a large quantitative cross-national study in their book.

Following the 9/11 attacks, several armed conflicts around the world have been reframed as part of the war on terror or wars against terrorists. What impact does listing these armed groups as terrorist organizations have on peace negotiations?

In this podcast episode, Dr. Dana Landau invites Dr. Sophie Haspeslagh, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the American University in Cairo, who published the book "Proscribing peace - How listing armed groups as terrorists hurts negotiations" this month.

She touches upon key concepts developed in her book, such as the material and symbolic effects of international proscription regimes and the importance of the "linguistic ceasefire."

By taking the negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC as an example, she provides a concrete scenario in which proscription hampers negotiations.

Female perpetrators are a lot more common than we think, but they often fall through the legal net. They either don't face trial or when they do, they often manage to use gender narratives to get lower sentences and better conditions. What are we missing when we don't take female perpetrators seriously? Why do our societies and legal systems still struggle with them?

In this second episode of Conflicts of Interest, we discussed this topic with Izabela Steflja, Assistant Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in the Department of Political Science Ontario Canada, and Jessica Trisko Darden, Assistant Professor Prof. of Political Science at Virginia Commonwealth University in the US. Authors of the book "Women as War Criminals: Gender, Agency & Justice," published in 2020 by Sanford University Press, they argue why post-conflict justice systems often fail to assign blame to women. Through the cases of former politicians Biljana Plavšić and Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, they explain the conceptual frames of "Mother, Whore, Monster," applied by actors within the court and the media to create narratives around these women. They also analyze how these narratives benefited or harmed both women accused of war crimes based on their identity (race, religion, or political rank).

Dr.Mary Martin, Director of the UN Business and Human Security Initiative, LSE IDEAS, presents and explains the key arguments of her book “Corporate Peace, How Global Business Shapes a Hostile World”.

Drawing on the experiences of large corporations such as Fiat or ArcelorMittal, she underlines the critical role that big businesses play in building a safer world, in the face of failed states, health pandemics, insurgencies and organized crime.