Root of Conflict

What are the prospects for peace in Yemen and how do we hold international actors accountable? In this episode, we speak with Afrah Nasser, a researcher with Human Rights Watch investigating humanitarian law violations and human rights abuses in Yemen. A former activist and independent journalist in Sana’a, Nasser has been advocating for human rights and justice in Yemen for over a decade.

This podcast is produced in partnership with the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. For more information, please visit their website at www.thepearsoninstitute.org

Access the transcript here: https://thepearsoninstitute.org/news-and-media/podcastPodcast

Production Credits:
Interviewing: Reema Saleh
Editing: Aishwarya Kumar
Production: Reema Saleh

Can intergroup contact build social cohesion after conflict? In this episode, we speak with Dr. Salma Mousa, a political scientist studying social cohesion after conflict and what policies can build trust between groups. She talks about her latest study on building social cohesion between Christian and Muslim youth soccer players in post-ISIS Iraq and the challenges to achieving peace between groups.


This podcast is produced in partnership with the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. For more information, please visit their website at www.thepearsoninstitute.org


Access the study here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abb3153


Access the transcript here: https://thepearsoninstitute.org/news-and-media/podcast


Podcast Production Credits:
Interviewing: Aishwarya Raje and Wafa Eben Beri
Editing: Aishwarya Kumar
Production: Reema Saleh

Refugee populations face unique challenges to mental health and overcoming trauma in resettlement. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Aimee Hilado, a clinical social worker and researcher specializing in immigrant and refugee mental health and Associate Professor of Social Work at Northeastern Illinois University. Dr. Hilado is the founder and director of the RefugeeOne Wellness Program, a mental health program established in 2011 for refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants in Illinois.

This podcast is produced in partnership with the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. For more information, please visit their website at www.thepearsoninstitute.org

RefugeeOne is the largest refugee resettlement agency in Illinois and serves over 2,500 immigrants and refugees each year. Learn more about them on their website at www.refugeeone.org

Access the transcript here: https://thepearsoninstitute.org/news-and-media/podcast

Podcast Production Credits:
Interviewing: Aishwarya Raje and Marina Milaszewska
Editing: Aishwarya Kumar
Production: Reema Saleh

How do researchers assess the impact of peacebuilding interventions? And what can we learn from examining existing literature as a whole? In this episode, we speak with Ada Sonnenfeld, a former Evaluation Specialist with the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie). She talks about her work managing systematic reviews and evidence gap map projects, which can help policymakers make more informed decisions about how to use evidence – to make sense of what we know and learn from what has been done before. We discuss her recent review, where she and her colleagues synthesize evidence on programs that promote intergroup social cohesion in fragile contexts.

This podcast is produced in partnership with the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. For more information, please visit their website at www.thepearsoninstitute.org

Access the study here: http://bit.ly/SocialCohesionSR46

Access the transcript here: https://thepearsoninstitute.org/news-and-media/podcast

Podcast Production Credits:
Interviewing: Reema Saleh and Mwangi Thuita
Editing: Aishwarya Kumar
Production: Reema Saleh

The relationship between illegal financial flows and state-level violence is present in conflicts around the world, and is especially pronounced in Afghanistan. In particular, the country’s thriving drug market based on the opium trade has proven to be a major economic factor that has been fueling the ongoing conflict. In this episode of Root of Conflict, Aishwarya Raje and Mwangi Thuita speak with Gretchen Peters, Executive Director of the Center on Illicit Networks and Transnational Organized Crime (CINTOC). Drawing on her role at CINTOC as well as her decades-long career as a writer and journalist, Gretchen talks through why the political economy of the War in Afghanistan is so poorly understood, and the connections between criminal networks, weakened institutions, and breakdown into disorder.

This podcast is produced in partnership with the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. For more information, please visit their website at www.thepearsoninstitute.org

Access the transcript here: https://thepearsoninstitute.org/news-and-media/podcast

The War in Afghanistan following the US invasion in 2001 is almost two decades old. In recent years there’s been a growing appetite for a non-military resolution to the conflict. We speak with Laurel Miller — the Asia Program Director at International Crisis Group and a former state department official working on Afghanistan and Pakistan — about the ongoing negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan government in Doha and how the US’s goals in Afghanistan has evolved over the course of the war. We discuss the best case scenario for the peace talks, the implications of the 2020 US election, and whether the US has learned the right lessons about counterinsurgency.

This podcast is produced in partnership with the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. For more information, please visit their website at
www.thepearsoninstitute.org

Access the transcript here: https://thepearsoninstitute.org/news-and-media/podcast

Watch Laurel Miller on the Afghanistan panel at the 2020 Pearson Global Forum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scz4JTGoagA&list=PLjioxPKLA82KySaS8BOADulND4ZMj4BQC&index=14&ab_channel=ThePearsonInstitute

Climate change will affect rich and poor countries — but poorer countries are predicted to pay the greatest human and economic cost. In this episode we interview Amir Jina, an Assistant Professor at University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, researching how economic and social development is shaped by the environment. He uses economics, climate science, and remote sensing to understand the impacts of climate in both rich and poor countries.

In our conversation with Prof. Jina, we discuss how shocks to the water system could impact conflict patterns — and whether it’s even possible to identify a causal relationship between conflict and climate change. We also talk about his work at the Climate Impact Lab using state of the art empirical methods to study the effects of climate change.

This podcast is produced in partnership with the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. For more information, please visit their website at www.thepearsoninstitute.org.

Access the transcript here: https://thepearsoninstitute.org/news-and-media/podcast

Links to articles discussed in the episode:

Watch Amir Jina on a panel at the 2020 Pearson Global Forum on the theme of Climate Conflict: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QO6nAAK4rw&list=PLjioxPKLA82KySaS8BOADulND4ZMj4BQC&index=6&ab_channel=ThePearsonInstitute

Podcast Production Credit:
Interviewing: Aishwarya Raje and Mwangi Thuita
Editing: Aishwarya Raje and Mwangi Thuita
Production: Aishwarya Raje and Mwangi Thuita

In this episode of Root of Conflict, Pearson Fellows Daniella Choi (MPP ‘20) and Daniel Vallejo (MPP ‘21) speak with Dr. Rebecca Wolfe and Maurice Amollo. Dr. Wolfe is a Lecturer at the Harris School of Public Policy and is an expert on political violence, conflict, and humanitarian policy, and Maurice Amollo is the Chief of Party for Mercy Corps in Nigeria. The two of them have worked together on the USAID-funded “Community Initiatives to Promote Peace”, a multifaceted program aimed to bring together pastoralists and farmers by engaging community and faith-based leaders to promote peace in Nigeria. Rebecca and Maurice discuss the roots of conflict in Nigeria, how the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a disruption in their programs, and the importance of building trust between people and institutions.

This podcast is partnered with the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. For more information, please visit their website at www.thepearsoninstitute.org.

Access the transcript here: https://thepearsoninstitute.org/news-and-media/podcast

Podcast credits:
Daniella Choi (MPP'20) - Cohost
Daniel Vallejo (MPP'21) - Cohost
Yi Ning Wong (MPP'21) - Producer/Editor

Frances Z. Brown is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She recently co-authored a report titled “Coronavirus in Conflict Zones: A Sobering Landscape”, which examines how the COVID-19 pandemic is playing out in 12 different conflict-affected states, and how efforts to contain the virus increase the likelihood of aggravating those conflicts.

This podcast is produced in partnership with the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. For more information, please visit their website at www.thepearsoninstitute.org

Access the transcript here: https://thepearsoninstitute.org/news-and-media/podcast

The Citizenship Amendment Act and Article 370 was abrogated late in 2019 in the Kashmir, which further restricted autonomy in the region and increased unrest in the state. In this episode, we speak to Salwa Shameem, who is a film maker and strategy consultant, and Rohool, a local activist in Kashmir, about the conflict and its broader implications.

This podcast is produced in partnership with the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts. For more information, please visit their website at www.thepearsoninstitute.org

Access the transcript here: https://thepearsoninstitute.org/news-and-media/podcast