Root of Conflict

The Global Fragility Act (GFA) was passed by Congress as part of the 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act and was signed into law on December 20, 2019. The bill represented a historic victory for the peacebuilding field, which has long advocated for the GFA as a way forward to prevent violent conflict.
The Alliance for Peacebuilding, a non-partisan network of over 110 organizations working to build sustainable peace, has been at the forefront of advocating for the GFA. In this episode of Root of Conflict, we speak with Liz Hume, Vice President of Alliance for Peacebuilding. Liz is a conflict expert with over 20 years of experience in leadership positions in multilateral organizations and NGOs. Liz discusses Alliance for Peacebuilding’s role in getting the GFA passed, as well as the importance of research and advocacy in crafting policies that promote peaceful political outcomes.

There are currently over 70 million people displaced by war, conflict, and persecution worldwide (more than the population of Thailand). The vast majority of them are in low- and middle-income countries without adequate resources to support and resettle them. We spoke to Dr. Cindy Huang, vice president of strategic outreach at Refugees International and a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development, about policy initiatives that can improve protection and outcomes for displaced people. We had a wide-ranging conversation about the politics of refugee resettlement, weaving together narrative and evidence for policymakers, how refugee policy can be integrated into our support for host countries’ development agendas, and “Me Too” in the development community.

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

Interviewers: Sonnet Frisbie and Mwangi Thuita. Episode edited and mixed by Aishwarya Raje and Mwangi Thuita. Sound engineering by Yi Ning Wong.

For the last several years, police violence in America has come to
the forefront of public consciousness. It is an issue that can polarize the country but for years, there lacked a data-driven analysis of police violence on a national level, and concrete policy recommendations on the issue were hard to come by.  On this episode of Root of Conflict,

Pearson Fellows Sonnet Frisbie and Mwangi Thuita speak with Sam Sinyangwe - activist, data scientist, and co-founder of Mapping Police Violence, the most comprehensive database of people killed by police.  Sam discusses the evidence-based approaches to measuring police violence in America, and the importance of conveying the data, to the public and to policymakers, in a way that can affect real policy 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

What is the role of big data in modern-day conflict? How prepared are defense leaders in
interpreting data and effectively leveraging its use on the battlefield? How has cyber warfare
evolved over the past decade, and what lessons can we draw from the Russian example in
Crimea?

We attempt to address these questions in this episode of Root of Conflict, where Pearson Fellows
Sonnet Frisbie (MPP ‘21) and Haz Yano (MPP ‘20) interview Colonel (ret.) Liam Collins, the
Executive Director of the Madison Policy Forum and the Viola Foundation. COL (ret.) Collins is
a retired Army Special Forces Officer who previously served as the former Director of the
Combating Terrorism Center and the Modern War Institute at West Point.

Drawing on his vast professional experience (to include a stint as the executive officer for
General (ret.) John Abizaid when he was the Senior Defense advisor to Ukraine), COL Collins
shared his thoughts on how the defense community can adapt to take advantage of the
measurement revolution, and what to make of Russia’s innovative use of cyber and hybrid
warfare in Ukraine.

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

Links to articles discussed in the episode:
“The Pitfalls and Possibilities of the Measurement Revolution for National Security,” War on the
Rocks - https://warontherocks.com/2020/01/the-pitfalls-and-possibilities-of-the-measurement-revolution-for-national-security/

“A New Eastern Front: What the US Army Must Learn from the War in Ukraine,” Association
of the US Army - https://www.ausa.org/articles/new-eastern-front-what-us-army-must-learn-war-ukraine

Are female leaders more likely to engage in warfare than male leaders? In this episode of “Root of Conflict” we spoke with Dr. Oeindrila Dube, the Philip K. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at the Harris School of Public Policy to help answer this question. Dr. Dube recently co-authored a paper titled “Queens”, which examines Europe from 1480-1913 to see if states led by women experienced more peace than states led by men. The findings show that women leaders were more likely to participate in war than male leaders during this period, challenging many norms and perceptions of women in leadership positions. Professor Dube walks us through the empirical approaches used in this research, as well as how to interpret these findings within the broader context of the study of gender and conflict.

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

Dr. Dube's Paper can be found at: http://odube.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Dube_Harish_Queens_Paper.pdf

Podcast Production Credit: Interviewer: Aishwarya Raje. Episode edited and mixed by Mwangi Thuita.

In this episode of Root of Conflict, we spoke with Andrew Lavali, the founding Executive Director of the Institute for Governance Reform (IGR), a research and evidence-based advocacy think tank based in Sierra Leone. In this interview, we discussed the concept of “social accountability” in a post-conflict context, as well as the IGR’s work in promoting sustainable development and strengthening political and economic governance in Sierra Leone.

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 full music video for “My Vote, My Life” can be found at
https://youtu.be/zzTNfE9QgwY .

Podcast Production Credit:
Interviewers: Aishwarya Raje and Mwangi Thuita. Episode edited and mixed by Yi Ning Wong and Mwangi Thuita.

In August 2016, negotiations between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) reached a historic agreement to end the civil conflict that had been fought in Colombia for over forty years. In an exclusive interview with Root of Conflict, Ambassador Sergio Jaramillo Caro, former High Commissioner for Peace in Colombia and lead negotiator of the talks between the Colombian government and FARC, discusses the lead-up to the negotiations and what has transpired in regards to the agreement since 2016. Additionally, Pearson Fellows Camila Perez (MPP '21) and Daniel Vallejo (MPP '21) share their personal experiences of how the peace process has changed the culture and atmosphere in their native Colombia.

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

Podcast Production Credit
Interviewers: Manuel Bustamante and Marina Milaszewska. Episode edited and mixed by Yi Ning Wong, production assistance from Aishwarya Raje and Mwangi Thuita. Special thanks to Camila Perez and Daniel Vallejo for sharing their stories.

Professor James Robinson (Pearson Institute director and co-author with Daron Acemoglu of the bestselling book Why Nations Fail) sat down with Root of Conflict to discuss his new book "The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies and the Fate of Liberty." In his new book, he and his co-author explore how an incessant struggle between the state and society allows countries to enter a narrow corridor between despotism and lawlessness and to develop liberty and inclusive institutions. In a wide-ranging conversation, Robinson applied the theory of his new book to peace in Colombia, U.S. history, China’s use of technology to oppress citizens, and populist movements in Europe.

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

Podcast Production Credit: Interviewers: Manuel Bustamante and Sonnet Frisbie.
Episode edited and mixed by Yi Ning Wong.
Production assistance from Haz Yano and David Raban.