Cutting edge research into the drivers of intractable conflict. Our researchers bring together the big ideas and concepts needed to understand the causes of organised violence in the twenty-first century. We expose the political economy of organised violence: the networks of money and power that stand behind many of the world's trouble spots.
Produced by the Conflict Research Programme, an international research project funded by the UK Department of International Development.
S3 Ep6: Amid scandal, protest and geopolitical stress: where is Ukraine's economy going?
In this episode of the LSE Conflict Zone podcast, host Maliek Banat talks to Brian Milakovsky, an associate researcher with the PeaceRep-Ukraine programme and the lead author of a recent report, Critical Raw Materials, Local Content Policy and Ukraine’s Economic Recovery and Ukraine programme director Luke Cooper about the turbulent current conjuncture in Ukraine. With protests, scandal and geopolitical stress intensifying they discuss how major stakeholders are envisioning Ukraine's economic recovery and reconstruction.
This podcast series is part of the Conflict and Civicness Research Group. All episodes are available here (https://www.lse.ac.uk/ideas/projects/conflict-and-civicness-research-group/ccrg-digital).
Producer: Maliek Banat
25 Jun 2025
S3 Ep5: Ukraine and Russia: who is winning on the economic front?
In this special episode, Dr Luke Cooper, the director of our Ukraine research programme sits down with the host to unpack how the war in Ukraine is transofrming state capacity, fuelling economic strength and redefining the path to peace in non military terms. With shifting alliances and increasing domestic pressure, will economics determine the endgame more than firepower?
25 Jan 2025
S3 Ep5: Ukraine in 2025 - what now?
With the return of Donald Trump in the White House – and his insistence that Kyiv and Moscow strike a peace deal “in 24 hours – huge uncertainty now hangs over the future of Ukraine’s democracy and freedom. In this podcast, Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams discuss the huge challenges and hardships Ukraine has experienced in the war, drawing on insights from Luke’s recent visit to Ukraine. They are joined by Ukrainian academic Yuliya Bidenko from Karazin University in Kharkiv.
15 Nov 2023
S3 Ep4: Fragmentation of fragile peace: Political Marketplace in Ethiopia
The outlook on lasting peace in Ethiopia has been grim since the cessation of active hostilities in November of last year. A peace agreement between the Tigray’s People Liberation Front, or the TPLF, and the Federal Government in Ethiopia has led to significant political concessions from the Tigrayans but ultimately falls short of resolving the underlying tensions.
In this episode we explain how the mode of transactional politics has come to dominate the dynamics inside Ethiopia under the current Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. We contrast the current political crisis with previous episodes of social unrest and violent change such as the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974. We argue that the ongoing marketisation of political institutions undermines not only the legitimacy of the peace agreement, but the overall monopoly on violence of the state.
Featuring Alex de Waal, Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation (WPF) and Research Director at the Conflict Research Programme at the LSE, and M
3 Nov 2023
S3 Ep3: State Collapse and the Shrinking of Civic Space under the Taliban: The Politics of Knowledge in Afghanistan
In the aftermath of the Republic’s collapse, a lack of shared understanding of policy priorities and effective civic interventions is impeding development of pathways toward stability for Afghanistan. The situation has since deteriorated across all scores of human security under the Taliban, with concurrent human rights, humanitarian, and political crises.
In this episode we look at how narratives of state failure, shaped largely by Western expertise, have overlooked and undermined the progress made by Afghans in healthcare, education, and economic stabilization. We argue that the outsized nature of the international intervention in Afghanistan, alongside a top-down approach to conflict resolution, has contributed to a misrepresentation of on-the-ground realities.
Featuring Marika Theros and Sahar Halaimzai, both policy fellows at the LSE Conflict and Civicness Research Group (CCRG) and the co-directors of the Peacerep’s Afghanistan Research Network. Marika and Sahar in 2021 worked together on the creation and realization of the ‘trilateral 1.5 track dialogue’ at the Atlantic Council, bringing together US, European and Afghan stakeholders to develop an inclusive and longer-term strategic outlook on stability in Afghanistan.
6 Oct 2023
S3 Ep2: From the Revolution of Dignity to Full-Scale War: Civic Resistance in Ukraine
The war in Ukraine is an ‘axial event’ in twenty-first century history, in which the agency of Ukrainians will have, one way or another, a tremendous impact on the future of global security. From Ukrainian soldiers and emergency rescue teams operating on the frontline to the extensive web of civilian volunteers across the country, civic resistance continues to be a potent counterforce to the brute force of Russia’s military machine. But can this unity be sustained and under what conditions?
In this episode, we break down the origins of Ukrainian civicness from the start of the Revolution of Dignity that ousted the pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. We look at different roles adopted by a broad set of actors within the society since, following nationwide reforms and the pressures of Russia’s conventional and hybrid warfare. We argue that Putin’s strategy may well be to transform the war in Ukraine into a protracted and long-running conflict resembling the ‘new wars’ of modern time.
Featuring Mary Kaldor, Professor Emeritus of Global Governance and Director of the Conflict Research Group (CRD) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and Oksana Potapova, a Ukrainian peacebuilding research and activist pursuing a PhD at the Department of Gender Studies at LSE.
22 Sept 2023
S3 Ep1: Where are Our Mangoes? Local-driven Contestation of Predatory Practices in South Sudan’s Resource Extraction
In slightly more than a decade of independence, South Sudan has endured civil war and a shaky peace agreement that leaves over 11 million South Sudanese yearning for the a less violent future. Devastating war in neighboring northern Sudan once again underscores Juba’s acute dependence on revenue from oil exports, which have similarly been captured by the country’s kleptocratic rulers.
In this episode we look at how the lack of equitable distribution of revenue has persisted. Using latest research, we observe a locally driven understanding of resource extraction and management practices among the wider South Sudanese community that learns from the country and region’s history of inequitable patterns of rule.
What does this mean for South Sudan in the context of global decarbonization and scramble for scarce resources? Find out in this debut episode featuring Dr. Matthew Benson, the Sudans Research Director at LSE CCRG and Rose Mabu, a researcher within the South Sudan-based Bridge Network of South Sudanese researchers.
4 May 2021
S2 Ep5: The logics of conflict in the DRC: from the mineral to the checkpoint economy
An investigation into a changing political economy
29 Mar 2021
S2 Ep4: Decolonising conflict research in the Global South: reflections and dialogues
Lessons from the Silent Voices Bukavu project
17 Mar 2021
S2 Ep3: What happens when the oil runs out? Traumatic decarbonisation in South Sudan
South Sudan in the face of the global crisis and transition
16 Feb 2021
S2 Ep2: Investigating the oil rush in Somalia
Dangers and opportunities for development
3 Feb 2021
S2 Ep1: Ten years of war in Syria: an enquiry into the rights and wrongs of ‘intervention’
Did the international community fail Syria?
5 Oct 2020
S1 Ep6: What works? Exploring the role of local peace agreements in contemporary conflict resolution
The potential of civic-based local agreements
22 Sept 2020
S1 Ep5: What works? Effective security sector reform in conflict situations
Making state security systems democratically accountable
11 Sept 2020
S1 Ep4: Opportunities for peace and democracy: civicness in conflict societies
Opportunities for transformative change
12 Aug 2020
S1 Ep3: Identity politics and the political marketplace
Drivers of intractable conflict
29 Jul 2020
S1 Ep2: Buying and selling politics: the political marketplace and its adversaries
What's the relationship between corruption and organised violence?
22 Jul 2020
S1 Ep1: How is war changing? Organised violence in the 21st century
An introduction to the nature of contemporary war
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