Exits from War Economies: What Lessons for Peacebuilding in Syria?
Annual Meeting of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform - Geneva, Maison de la Paix, Auditorium Ivan Pictet A
This event is part of Geneva Peace Week 2016
What does the war economy mean for a future peace in Syria? What do we know about the effects of war economies on conflict endings and peacebuilding in other conflict zones? What lessons can we draw for the ongoing peace processes and for eventual ‘post-conflict’ peacebuilding in Syria? These questions frame the 9th Annual Meeting of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform that aims to develop a nuanced and at the same time practical understanding about the implications of Syria’s war economy for current and future peace and peacebuilding processes.
Programme
8.30 Registration
9.00 Welcome and review of GPP activities in 2016
- Mirjana Spoljaric, Ambassador, Head of the United Nations and International Organizations Division, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland
- Keith Krause, Professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, and Director of the Graduate Institute’s Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP)
- Achim Wennmann, Executive Coordinator, Geneva Peacebuilding Platform
9.15 What does the war economy mean for future peace in Syria? What do we know about the effects of war economies on conflict endings and peacebuilding in other conflict zones?
- Omar Abdulaziz Hallaj, co-Founder of the Syria Initiative of the Common Space Initiative, and Consultant on urban planning, development and local governance, Beirut
- David Keen, Professor of Complex Emergencies, London School of Economics, London
- Tuesday Reitano, Head, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, Geneva
11.00 Break
11.30 What lessons can we draw for the ongoing peace processes and for eventual ‘post-conflict’ peacebuilding in Syria?
- Rim Turkmani, Senior Research Fellow, London School of Economics, London
- Andrew Ladley, Senior Advisor, MENA Region, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Geneva
- Alexandre Marc, Chief Specialist, Fragility, Conflict and Violence, World Bank, Washington D.C.
12.45 Closing remarks
- Salvatore Pedulla, Senior Political Affairs Officer, United Nations Office of Special Envoy for Syria, Geneva
13.00 Light lunch sponsored by the Swiss Confederation, the Republic and Canton of Geneva and the City of Geneva on the occasion of Geneva Peace Week
Selected resources on the war economy in Syria
- Action on Armed Violence (AOAV)(2016) Patterns of Harm: Five Years of Explosive Violence 2011-2015 London: AOAV.
- Amnesty International (2015) Between Prison and the Grave: Enforced Disappearances in Syria London: Amnesty International.
- Monika Bollinger (2015) Zunehmende Korruption in Syrien: Im Würgegriff der Kriegswirtschaft Neue Züricher Zeitung, 30 November.
- David Butter (2016) Salvaging Syria’s Economy London: Chatham House.
- Ben Crabtree (2016) The Nexus of Conflict and Illicit Drug Trafficking: Syria and the Wider Region Geneva: Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.
- Jeanne Gobat and Kristina Kostial (2016) Syria’s Conflict Economy. IMF Working Paper 16/123 Washington D.C.: International Monetary Fund.
- Bassam Haddad (2012) Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- Steven Heydemann (ed) (2004) Networks of Privilege in the Middle East: The Politics of Economic Reform Revisited Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Nick Hopkins and Emma Beals (2016) UN Pays Tens of Millions to Assad Regime under Syria Aid Programme The Guardian, 29 August.
- Omar Abdulaziz Hallaj (2015) The Balance-sheet of Conflict: Criminal Revenues and Warlords in Syria NOREF Report (May). Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre.
- Hamoud al-Mahmoud (2015) The War Economy in the Syrian Conflict: The Government’s Hand’s Off Tactics Regional Insights (15 December). Washington D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
- Charbel Nahas (2015) Economie des Guerres Civiles: La Syrie et le Liban Transformés Confluences Méditerranée, No. 92, pp.73-88.
- Luigi Narbone, Agnès Favier, and Virginie Collombier (2016) Inside Wars: What Lessons can be Learned when Looking at the Local Dynamics Conflicts in Syria and Libya? In Luigi Narbone, Agnès Favier, and Virginie Collombier (eds) Inside Wars: Local Dynamics of Conflicts in Syria and Libya Florence: European University Institute, pp.1-5.
- Volker Perthes (1995) The Political Economy of Syria Under Assad London: I.B. Tauris.
- Besma Salama (2016) The Resilience of the Islamic State Vienna: Ministry of Defence and Sport of Austria.
- Nour Samaha (2016) The Black Market Kings of Damascus The Atlantic, 3 October.
- Jeremy M. Sharp and Carla E. Humud (2015) U.S. Foreign Assistance to the Middle East: Historical Background, Recent Trends, and the FY2016 Request Washington D.C.: Congressional Research Service.
- Erika Solomon and Ahmed Mhidi (2015) Isis Inc: Syria’s ‘Mafia-style’ Gas Deals with Jihadis, Financial Times, 15 October.
- Mark Taylor (2015) Law, Guns and Money: Regulating War Economies in Syria and Beyond NOREF Report (July). Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre.
- Rim Turkmani (2015) ISIL, JAN and the War Economy of Syria. London: London School of Economics.
- Rim Turkmani, Ali A.K. Ali, Mary Kaldor, Vesna Boijic-Dzelilovic (2015) Countering the Logic of the War Economy in Syria: Evidence from Three Local Areas London: London School of Economics.
- Eckart Woertz (2013) Syria’s War Economy and Prospects of Reconstruction Notes Internacionals No.77 (September). Barcelona: Barcelona Centre of International Affairs.
- Achim Wennmann (2016) The Political Economy of Violent Conflict In Armed Conflict Survey 2016. London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, p.19-32.
- World Bank (2016) The Economic Effects of War and Peace, MENA Quarterly Economic Brief, Issue 6 (January). Washington D.C.: World Bank.
- Jihad Yazigi (2016a) No Going Back: Why Decentralisation is the Future for Syria London: European Council on Foreign Relations.
- Jihad Yazigi (2016b) Syria’s Implosion: Political and Economic Impacts. In Luigi Narbone, Agnès Favier, and Virginie Collombier (eds) Inside Wars: Local Dynamics of Conflicts in Syria and Libya Florence: European University Institute, pp.1-5.
- Jihad Yazigi (2016) Que reste-t-il du tissu industriel syrien? Blog jihadyazigi.com.
- Jihad Yazigi (2014) Syria’s War Economy London: European Council on Foreign Relations.
