We use experimental data from 35 randomly selected communities in Burundi to examine the impact of exposure to conflict on social-, risk- and time preferences. These types of preferences are important as they determine people’s propensity to invest and their ability to overcome social...

Under pressure from the European Union and other donors, many efforts are undertaken by the Dam Authorities in Lesotho (Lesotho Highlands Development Authority) and the Lesotho government to put increasing responsibility on the dam-affected communities in regards to water management and...

Within its own borders, the European Union (EU) is certainly a peace project. However, its external security and stability imperative does not make it a peacebuilding project in the neighbourhood and beyond by default. The official EU institutions have political and conceptual limitations that...

Does water scarcity induce conflict? And who would engage in a water scarcity conflict? In this paper we look for evidence of the relation between water scarcity and conflictive behavior. With a framed field experiment conducted with smallholder irrigators from semi-arid Tanzania that replicates...

A basic issue that conflict analysis investigates is how non-peaceful ways of living and governing become viable political strategies. Macro-level studies provide some important insights but micro-level analysis is vital to understand the mechanisms that make violence possible. This briefing...

“Peacekeeping economies” have not been subject to much analysis of either their economic or socio-cultural and political impacts. This paper uses a gendered lens to explore some ramifications and lasting implications of peacekeeping economies, drawing on examples from four post-conflict...

This paper argues that both socio-economic disadvantage and political factors, such as the West’s foreign policy with regard to the Muslim world, along with historical grievances, play a part in the development of Islamic radicalized collective action in Western Europe. We emphasise the role...

The paper discusses the recently promoted view that organized insurgent violence should either be conducted by activists bonded together by social capital ties or self-interested quasi-mercenaries, depending on the type of financial resources available to the group. We contrast this perspective...

This note presents a framework for assessing social performance (social performance assessment SPA), and how this information can be used to inform decisions that affect both the social and financial performance of the microfinance institutions this we term social performance management, SPM....

Recent literature in the political economy of civil war has pointed to the importance of (changes) in the economic environment for the understanding of conflict dynamics. Three channels, negative income shocks, the presence of exportable commodities and indiscriminate violence inflicted on...