A discussion with Dr.-Ing. Mohammad Assem Mayar, a leading expert on climate, conflict and post conflict recovery, whose research and field experience in Afghanistan, in Syria and in Iraq offer vital insights for practitioners and policy makers worldwide. In conversation with Janani Vivekananda, he discusses the dual challenge of rebuilding in the face of both recurring violence and intensifying climate impacts as countries emerge from conflict. Dr Mayar's recent paper can be found here: Afghanistan’s Climate Crisis: A Call for Decentralised and Inclusive Finance https://toda.org/policy-briefs-and-resources/policy-briefs/afghanistans-climate-crisis-a-call-for-decentralised-and-inclusive-finance.html

A discussion with Ambika Vishwanath, the Director of the Kubernein Initiative in India. Ambika is a renowned expert on foreign policy, water security and peace building with deep expertise across South Asia and beyond. In conversation with Janani Vivekananda, she discusses the value and practical potential of trilateral policy exchange, and broader policy exchange on the topic of climate, peace, and security, bringing in India which to date has not played a big part in the climate, peace and security discourse.

A public conversation on current challenges to democracy, and in particular challenges to democracy in America, with Professors Stephan Haggard and Bob Kaufman, with Kevin Clements and Olivia Stokes Dreier. The last jointly authored book by Professor Haggard and Professor Kaufman was Backsliding: Democratic Regress in the Contemporary World. The primary focus of the conversation is what's happening to democracy in America under the second Trump administration.

Interview recorded 9 May 2025

In this conversation, Dr Merewalesi Yee discusses her doctoral research with Prof. Kevin Clements, Director of Toda Peace Institute, and Dr Carol Farbotko from Griffiths University. In particular, they focus on planned relocation, non-economic loss and damage, disaster risk reduction and place belongingness, and the impact of climate change on Fijian communities.

Interview recorded 28 April 2025

In part one of a three-part conversation between Ambassador Thomas Greminger and Toda Peace Institute Senior Research Fellow Keith Krause, the speakers focus on prospects for the future of the war in Ukraine.

Interview recorded 26 November 2024

As part of SGI’s Oceania O60, a peace symposium titled “Challenges to Peace in Turbulent Times” was hosted at the New Zealand Parliament. The event featured a thought-provoking dialogue between Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, and Prof. Kevin P. Clements, Director of the Toda Peace Institute as the world grapples with unprecedented social, economic, and political challenges, with conflicts raging from Ukraine, Middle East to Sudan.

A discussion with Frances Namoumou, ecumenical coordinator for the ecological stewardship and climate justice program of the Pacific Conference of Churches. In conversation with Kevin Clements and Volker Boege, they discuss the work of Pacific Conference of Churches at a local and regional level in meeting the needs of those most affected by climate change.

Interview recorded on 22 August 2024.

A roundtable discussion with India democracy experts Harsh Mander, Shabnam Hashmi, Deb Roy Chowdhury, Vinod Shetty and Colin Gonsalves, in conversation with Kevin Clements and Olivia Stokes Dreier. The discussion is a reflection on the positive and negative consequences of India’s recent election.

Interview recorded 22 August 2024

Paulo Baleinakorodawa and Alex Azarov have developed a thriving climate peace partnership between their respective NGOs, Transcend Oceania and Conciliation Resources, working in the Pacific, and Fiji in particular.

Interview recorded 28 June 2024.

Professor Katerina Teaiwa is a Pacific scholar, artist and teacher of Banaban, I-Kiribati and African American heritage. For 80 years, the island of Banaba was mined for phosphate by Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Mining devastated the landscape and, after World War Two, the whole population was moved to what is now Rabi Island in the northern part of Fiji. Professor Teaiwa explains the narratives around displacement of the population, and the way that inhabitability of the island and extraction impacted not just the landscape and the environment, but the culture, the language, the sense of identity, land rights, protocols, genealogies of the Banaban people. This very personal connection and experience forms the basis of much of her academic research which is shared in ways that include exhibitions, art and dance.

Interview recorded 28 November 2023.