What roles do private corporations play in the onset and termination of civil wars? Experts discuss new findings from Professor Molly Melin’s book “The Building and Breaking of Peace”.
Private corporations supposedly have an interest in political stability. And yet, while some companies have proactively engaged in peacebuilding, others have actually instigated violence and even benefited from ensuing conflict. In her new book, “The Building and Breaking of Peace” (Oxford University Press), Molly Melin (Loyola University Chicago) develops an original theory of the conflicting roles corporations play in civil wars. She analyzes the conditions under which corporate actors engage in peacebuilding, when they succeed and when they fail. On March 17, Melin will present her argument and discuss its implications with a panel of experts. She will be joined by Angelika Rettberg (Universidad de los Andes), who has published widely on the behavior of businesses in contexts of armed conflict and served as a negotiator in the 2018 peace talks in Colombia, as well as Sarah Bressan (Global Public Policy Institute), who specializes in conflict early warning, prevention and peacebuilding. Together with Professor Melin, they will debate why violent civil conflicts persist despite a variety of actors working towards their resolution – and what the prospects for change are.
Join us for an online panel discussion with Molly Melin (Loyola University Chicago), Angelika Rettberg (Universidad de los Andes) and Sarah Bressan (GPPi) on corporations and civil wars.
This event is hosted by the Centre for International Security and the Global Public Policy Institute.
Speakers
Panelists
Molly M. Melin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Loyola University Chicago. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis in 2008. Her research and teaching interests lie in the areas of international relations and political methodology, with an emphasis on international conflict and conflict management. Her publications on third party interventions in international conflicts, the dynamics of conflict expansion, and peacekeeping operations have appeared in International Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Conflict Management and Peace Science, and International Interactions.
Angelika Rettberg is a full professor at the Political Science Department at Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), where she leads the Research Program on Armed Conflict and Peacebuilding. She is also a Global Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and Co-Director of the Gender, Justice and Security Hub at the London School of Economics. In 2018, she served as a negotiator for the Colombian government in the peace talks with the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN). Her research has focused on the political economy of armed conflict and peacebuilding, e.g. the relationship between legal resources, armed conflict and criminality, the dynamics of transitional justice, and business behavior in contexts of armed conflict and peacebuilding.
Sarah Bressan is a Research Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin, where she contributes to the institute’s work on peace and security. Her work focuses on international security, political violence, conflict analysis and prevention, as well as the role of data, technology, foresight, and evaluation in foreign and security policy. She was chief editor of the PeaceLab Blog, a debate platform funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, and has published analyses on topics such as state fragility, Germany’s engagement in Afghanistan, and the future of European security.
Chair
Katharina Emschermann is Deputy Director of the Centre for International Security. Her areas of expertise include transatlantic relations, German/ European foreign and security policy, as well as policymaking in multilateral forums. She is in charge of policy outreach and hosts the "Berlin Security Beat" podcast. She previously served as a foreign policy advisor and intermittent chief of staff to Jürgen Trittin, Member of the German Bundestag.
