Disrupting Peace

How can someone help their neighbors and community when a war breaks out? Today we’re seeing what we can learn from mutual aid efforts in Sudan.

Omar al-Bashir ruled Sudan for three brutal decades, from 1989 until he was overthrown by a peaceful revolution in 2019. In 2023, a civil war broke out between two warring parties, the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. Emergency Response Rooms - not to be confused with hospital emergency rooms in the west - are temporary mutual aid networks that have emerged to provide resources critical to the survival of everyday Sudanese people.

Omima Jabal is a leader in the ERRs - emergency response rooms - in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum. She also initiated the 'Infinitive of Teaching English Language' program, which allowed around 500 individuals to study English despite living in a warzone. Learn more about Omima’s work here: https://khartoumerr.org

Alex de Waal is executive director of the World Peace Foundation, and among the world’s leading experts on the Horn of Africa – which includes Sudan. From 2005-2006, he worked with the African Union mediation team for Darfur, and from 2009-2011, he served as senior adviser to the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel for Sudan. Learn more about Alex’s work here: https://worldpeacefoundation.org/team-member/alex-de-waal

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias and Miles Donovan.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn.

This season we’re looking at the first steps everyday people can take towards peace. And we’re kicking things off by zooming in to something direct and personal that people engage with every day: listening.

How can “generous” listening contribute to peace, and what are practical ways to get started? In this episode, we explore concrete ways to have difficult conversations instead of violent reactions, and how our everyday interactions can ladder up to structural change.

Naomi Boase is Tufts University’s inaugural Inclusive and Restorative Dialogues Program Director. She has provided DEI consultations and trainings in the US and abroad for over 10 years. The goal of these trainings is to increase a sense of belonging within communities and organizations. Find out more about Noami’s work here.

Jonathan Tirrell is director of the Generous Listening and Dialogue Initiative at Tufts University. Trained as a developmental scientist, he studies positive youth development (PYD), seeking to understand how people become good people. Find out more about Jonathan’s work here.

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn.

In Season 3 of Disrupting Peace, we are looking around the world – and here in the US – to explore the very first steps everyday people can take towards peace. We often think of this as something that belongs to policymakers and leaders of armed factions – not to the average person. But this season, we’re diving into the individual efforts we can take to make this world more peaceful.

Season 3 launches on September 9th.

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. Find out more at worldpeacefoundation.org.

This week’s episode is from our friends at the Feet in 2 Worlds podcast (originally released April 22, 2025):

Over the past couple of years, around 40,000 Venezuelans arrived in Denver fleeing political and economic instability, eager to work while their immigration statuses played out. Initially, with help from the city and non-profit organizations, many were able to find stable housing and jobs. However, with all the recent changes in immigration policy, they now face an uncertain future and finding work has become more difficult.

Producers Ann Marie Awad and Andrés Pacheco-Girón explore how the rules of the hustle have changed for one Venezuelan couple in Denver.

Read more at fi2w.org.

Editor’s Note: As of May 19, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the Trump administration can terminate temporary protective status. The administration has announced that TPS status for some people is already terminated, and for others, it terminates in 2026.

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Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung. 

Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, my colleagues, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn.

This week we’re bringing back our very first episode, We Thought We Solved World Peace, from September 2024.

When host Bridget Conley was a college student in the 90s, there was this air of optimism. It might sound crazy to say now, but she and her colleagues honestly believed they had solved world peace. 

In this first episode of Disrupting Peace, Bridget speaks with Yale law professor Sam Moyn and South African activist Mamello about what went wrong in the 90s, and what it would take to turn things around by 2050. 

Sam Moyn is Professor of Law and History at Yale Law School, and co-host of “Digging a Hole: the legal theory podcast.” He’s written several books that complicate key tenets of peacebuilding, including human rights, liberalism, economic equality, and the laws of war. Follow Sam Moyn on X at @samuelmoyn.

Mamello is head of campaigns at the South Africa-based organization, Open Secrets. Open Secrets holds the profiteers of economic crime, human rights abuses, and war to account. She was one year old when Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994, and grew up amidst massive political change in South Africa. Find out more about Mamello and Open Secrets at opensecrets.org.za. 

Disrupting Peace is a production of the World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung. 

Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, my colleagues, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn.

This week’s episode is from our friends at the Making Peace Visible Podcast.

When the Trump administration slashed the budget and suspended most of the staff of the United States Agency for International Development last month, their representatives said the agency was using taxpayer dollars to fund a radical, “woke” agenda around the world. Criticism coming from the Left since the founding of USAID in 1961 has characterized USAID as an arm of American imperialism. 

The reality, of course, is much more complicated. It’s heartbreaking to hear stories of children suddenly unable to attend school and receive essential vaccinations. But beyond the shockwaves of a sudden halt in the flow of assistance, there's a lot about US foreign aid that's up for debate. Questions like what does it accomplish? Does it really help? How does it help? Should it continue? Or, should foreign aid be scaled down over time? 

Host Jamil Simon has seen USAID projects succeed, and fall short – having worked for more than three decades as a USAID contractor, developing communication strategies to promote reform in more than 20 countries.

Our guest, Gregory Warner is a Peabody Award - winning journalist who has reported on USAID on the ground in places including Sub-Saharan Africa, Ukraine and Afghanistan. He was the creator and host of NPR's international podcast Rough Translation. Before that, he was an international correspondent for NPR, based in East Africa. Warner has reported on USAID on the ground in Africa, as well as in Ukraine and Afghanistan. He writes the Substack blog Rough Transition.

MORE FROM GREGORY WARNER

Subscribe to get Rough Transition in your inbox. 

Read Warner’s recent reporting about the gutting of USAID and what it says about the perception of America in the world. 

Listen to the Rough Translation episode about a woman who lied so she could receive aid designated for sexual violence survivors in the Democractic Republic of the Congo. 

Explore the Rough Translation podcast archive. 

To close out Season 2, we’re talking about the long-term impacts of electing a right-wing populist to office. Silvio Berlusconi transformed Italian government and society, beginning when he was first elected Prime Minister in 1994. In this episode, we’ll explore how Berlusconi legitimized the far-right (even though he himself was a center right politician), why people repeatedly vote for leaders that don’t make their lives better, and how Italian activists have still achieved some progressive victories. 

Fabi Fugazza is the Co-Executive Director and Legal Expert at the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights. She is (also) a lawyer with extensive experience in human rights law. Follow her on Instagram @fabi.fugazza.

 Luisa Chiodi holds a PhD in Social and Political Science, and has been the director of think tank and online newspaper OBC Transeuropa since 2006. Follow her on Instagram @luisachiodi.

 Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

 Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, my colleagues, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan. 

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn.

Today we’re talking about academic freedom in higher education. What it is, why it’s at risk, and what’s at stake for democracy when this particular freedom is eroded. We explore why academic freedom is so threatening to existing hierarchies, why it’s so hard to explain academics to a broad audience, and what everyday people are doing to fight for the integrity of higher education.

Amy Reid is a senior manager for PEN America’s Freedom to Learn program. PEN America is an organization that has been promoting free expression globally for over a hundred years. The Freedom to Learn team focuses on supporting higher education and academic freedom. She is currently on leave from New College of Florida. Find out more about Amy’s work at pen.org.

Isaac Kamola is an associate professor at Trinity College in Connecticut. He focuses on the political economy of higher education, African anticolonial theory, and critical globalization studies. He is also director of the American Association of University Professor’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom and founder of Faculty First Responders, a program that monitors right-wing attacks on academics and provides resources to help faculty members and administrators respond to manufactured outrage. Follow Isaac on x @isaac_kamola. 

Disrupting Peace is a production of the World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, my colleagues, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn.

What's it like to lead without a military? In this episode, we focus on Costa Rica, and explore what happens when a country abolishes its military, Costa Rica’s approach to domestic security, and the ways that having a military can increase violence and instability in a country…Plus we’ll have our first former president on the show! 

Carlos Alvarado Quesada served as President of Costa Rica from 2018 to 2022. While president, he focused on combating climate change, defending human rights, democracy, and multilateralism, which is when countries cooperate to solve problems. Carlos currently teaches graduate courses on leadership at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, where the World Peace Foundation is based. Follow Carlos on Instagram @carlosalvq.

Jorge Vargas is Director of the State of the Nation Program in Costa Rica. As an academic researcher, he focuses on state reform and democracy in Central America. Find out more about Jorge’s work at estadonacion.or.cr.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) study we referenced can be found at www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/2404_fs_milex_2023.pdf

Check out “The Arms Trade - Let’s Talk About Big Weapons” and “AI & Autonomous Weapons Today” from Season 1 for more about militarization.

Disrupting Peace is a production of the World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung. 

Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram @worldpeacefdtn.

How does a country rebuild after overthrowing a dictator?

On December 8, 2024, armed forces led by Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham overthrew the Assad regime, which had ruled as a corrupt and brutal dictatorship in Syria for over 50 years.

For now, the country is in an in-between phase – what was is gone, but it’s not yet clear what’s coming next. In this episode, we explore what it was like on the ground in the weeks after the Assad regime fell, why it was necessary to have some continuity with the former government, and key areas where Syria remains vulnerable.

Mohammad Kanfash is a PhD candidate at the Center for Conflict Studies at Utrecht University, where he focuses on State-Society relations in post-conflict areas in Syria. He also works on sanctions. Follow Mohammad on Linkedin, and learn more about his work at www.uu.nl/medewerkers/MKanfash

Ali Aljasem is a researcher at the Centre for Conflict Studies at Utrecht University focusing on paramilitary groups in Syria and on humanitarian aid. Ali visited Syria one week after Assad was defeated. Follow Ali on Linkedin, and learn more about his work at www.uu.nl/medewerkers/AAljasem

Note: we recorded this interview in late January. Since then the former leader of the victorious rebel group, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was officially appointed interim President, an interim Constitution has been crafted, and there has been large-scale violence led by Assad loyalists.

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram @worldpeacefdtn.