The Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies and the Kent Global Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution present:
The Political Economy of Civil War and UN Peace Operations
Moderated by Jean-Marie Guehenno, Director, Kent Global Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution; Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of Practice, International and Public Affairs; Director, International Conflict Resolution Specialization
With:
Mats Berdal, Professor of Security and Development and Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Research Programme (CSDRG), Department of War Studies, King’s College London
Amb. Martin Kimani, Kenyan Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Jake Sherman, Minister Counsellor for UN Management and Reform, United States Mission to the United Nations; (former) Director for Programmes and Director of the Brian Urquhart Centre for Peace Operations, International Peace Institute
Wednesday, April 26, 2023
2:00pm – 3:30pm
707 International Affairs
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Speaker Biography
Mats Berdal joined the Department of War Studies in 2003 as Professor of Security and Development. He is Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Research Group (CSDRG) and Programme Director for the MA in Conflict, Security and Development. From 2000 to 2003 he was Director of Studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London with overall responsibility for the Institute’s research programme. He was consulting Senior Fellow at the IISS from 2009 to 2011, responsible for the institute’s Economics and Conflict Resolution Programme. From 2006 to 2019 he was Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian Defence University College. From 2015 to 2016, he served on the Norwegian Commission of Inquiry on Afghanistan, established by the Norwegian Government in 2014 to evaluate and draw lessons from Norway’s military, humanitarian and civilian involvement in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014. Berdal received his BSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics and his doctorate from Oxford University.
Abstract
New findings on political economies of conflict – informal systems of power and influence formed by the interaction of local, national, and region-wide war economies with the political agendas of conflict actors – on the course of UN peace operations have far-reaching implications for conflict resolution. This talk will explore the nature and impact of such political economies and provide solutions to political and institutional obstacles. Moderated by Jean-Marie Guehenno.
