Unfortunately due to an unforeseen flight cancellation this event has been postponed. A new date will be communicated shortly.
event description
The Political Economy of Civil War and UN Peace Operations explores the operational and political challenges facing UN peace operations deployed within fractured and divided societies torn by violence and protracted internal conflict, the dominant setting for nearly all of the UN’s peace operations since the early 1990s. It is specifically concerned with the nature and impact of distinctive political economies – that is, 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.
The book focuses in detail on the UN’s peace operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Mali, and Somalia, as well as on a number of thematic and conceptual issues raised by the challenge of operating in civil-war like settings. It is also centrally concerned with the interaction of UN missions with the power structures and local conflict dynamics that shape individual mission settings, and the challenges these pose for mediation, protection of civilians, and other tasks.
It offers a critical assessment of the various ways in which the UN ‘system’, from its headquarters in New York to the field, has confronted the policy challenges posed by political economies of conflict-affected states, societies, and regions. It advances a pragmatic set of policy recommendations aimed at improving the UN’s ability to confront predatory and exploitative war economies, while, at the same time, acknowledging that both political and institutional obstacles to more effective UN action are certain to remain profound. Despite making some progress since the 1990s to better understand the political economy of civil wars, the UN has struggled with how to tackle informal networks of power and their consequences for efforts to end wars and build lasting peace.
about the Chair
Keith Krause is a Professor in International Relations/Political Science at the Geneva Graduate Institute and Director of its Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP).
about the speakers
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Mats Berdal is a Professor of Security and Development and Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Research Programme (CSDRG) in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.
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Adam Day is Head of the Geneva Office of United Nations University Centre for Policy Research. He oversees programming on peacebuilding, human rights, peacekeeping, climate-security, sanctions, and global governance, while also acting as co-lead on UNU-CPR’s support to the High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism.
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Alan Doss is a former Under Secretary General of the United Nations. He served as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General for UN peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire, and as Special Representative of the UN missions in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Following retirement from the UN, he served as President of the Kofi Annan Foundation.
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Josie Lianna Kaye is the CEO and Founder of TrustWorks Global, a Swiss-based social enterprise which engages public and private sector actors to prevent conflict, promote stability and foster peace-positive development in fragile and conflict-affected settings. She specialises in conflict prevention, mediation, and peacebuilding, with a particular focus on including licit and illicit business actors in peace.