Date: Thursday 18 June 2026
Time: 09:30 – 10:45 BST
Location: Online via Microsoft Teams
Armed actors increasingly compete not only over territory, but over the movement of people, goods, and resources. Across contexts ranging from Afghanistan and Yemen to Libya, South Sudan, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Great Lakes, and the Sahel, checkpoints, corridors, and trade chokepoints have become central to how conflict is financed, governed, and experienced.
This event draws on new evidence from the Trade, Rents, and Authority in Borderland Conflict Economies (TRACE) project to examine how the intentional disruption, taxation, and control of circulation has emerged as a widespread and strategic feature of contemporary conflict economies. Rather than temporary or incidental, checkpoint systems often form durable and evolving political orders that shape authority, livelihoods, and patterns of violence.
Speakers will reflect on how these dynamics challenge conventional assumptions about governance and disorder in conflict settings, and what they imply for more effective and context-sensitive policy responses.
Speakers:
- Peer Schouten (project lead) – DRC / Great Lakes | DIIS / IPIS
- Joshua Craze – South Sudan | Independent
- Ferenc David Marko – South Sudan | University of Budapest
- Ibrahim Jalal – Yemen | Independent analyst
- Abubaker Lndi – Libya / Sudan | Lisbon University
- Dave Mansfield – Afghanistan | Independent
- Xu Peng — Myanmar / China | University of Manchester
- Hannah Stogdon – Horn of Africa | Chemonics XCEPT
- Olivier Walther – West Africa | University of Florida