In the era of continuous and steadily accelerating technological change that started with the Industrial Revolution, economies and societies were repeatedly transformed in ways that can be traced to ownership of the essential and scarce factor of production of the day and command of the economic...

This study provides a systematic assessment of the costs of the ongoing armed conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine. By combining the pre-war geographical distribution of fixed capital with data on battle intensity, survey evidence on household damage in the conflict-affected areas and novel...

State-society relations are in flux across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), nearly a decade after the Arab uprisings. The protests and revolts that swept the region in 2011 arose from widespread rejection of the post-independence Arab social contracts. These were based on redistribution...

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine that started in March 2014 led Western countries and Russia to impose economic sanctions on each other, including the euro zone members. The paper investigates the impact of the sanctions on the real side of the economies of Russia and the euro area. The...

Despite record economic growth in the decade that followed the fall of the Taliban regime, poverty remained stubbornly high in Afghanistan, and especially so in regions that suffered less from conflict. This paper aims to explain this puzzle by combining a model of conflict intensity at the...

We analyze how trade openness matters for interstate conflict over productive resources. Our analysis features a terms-of-trade channel that makes security policies trade-regime dependent. Specifically, trade between two adversaries reduces each one's incentive to arm given the opponent's...

This report provides a backdrop for identifying conflict resolution initiatives in support of a settlement with the Taliban in Afghanistan. It reviews the multifaceted peace processes, both past and present, and provides insights into the most recent developments among the Taliban. Based on...

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine that started in March 2014 led Western countries and Russia to impose economic sanctions on each other, including the euro zone members. The paper investigates the impact of the sanctions on the real side of the economies of Russia and the euro area. The...

A new DIIS study presents an overview of the role of transit taxes levied at checkpoints in financing ongoing conflicts around the world. Compiling evidence from six different contexts, this DIIS Working Paper finds that in each of the conflicts, checkpoints form a key source of revenue for...

This study analyzes whether subjective well-being measures can explain variation in peaceful uprisings, in addition to the objective measures typically used in analyses of uprisings. Using a database combining data on uprisings and subjective well-being for 118 countries over the period 2007 to...

This study examines the effect of terrorism and peace on tourist destination arrivals using a panel of 163 countries with data for the period 2010 to 2015. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments and Negative Binomial (NB) regressions. Our best estimators are from NB...

This study analyzes whether subjective well-being measures can explain variation in peaceful uprisings, in addition to the objective measures typically used in analyses of uprisings. Using a database combining data on uprisings and subjective well-being for 118 countries over the period 2007 to...

"Explaining the connection between economics and violent extremism, this book argues that American foreign policy must be rebalanced with a greater emphasis on social inclusion and shared prosperity in order to mitigate the root causes of conflict."

"History has proved that communism failed at many levels during the first global competition between the capitalist and socialist camps during the Cold War. As a result, the socialist camp was dissolved. China is one of the few communist countries to survive in the twenty-first century. The...

How do emerging donors conceptualize the relationship between security and development? How, and why, do the policies they pursue in conflict-affected states differ from the liberal peacebuilding model of traditional donors? Addressing these questions, the authors of The New Politics of Aid shed...