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The research identifies a cycle of instability in the Mano River Basin driven by extreme poverty, porous borders, and the failure to effectively reintegrate ex-combatants. It highlights how natural resources like diamonds and timber are leveraged by warlords and terror networks to fund conflict, and how the lack of economic opportunities for youth makes them susceptible to recruitment as mercenaries. The document argues that sustainable peace requires coordinated sub-regional efforts in disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration (DDR), alongside the economic empowerment of youth and the regulation of the extractive industries to prevent corporate security forces from becoming new militias.

The document argues that youth combatants in Sierra Leone often exercise 'tactical agency', choosing to join militias not only through coercion but as a rational response to systemic marginalization. It identifies three primary constraints: economic collapse and the failure of patronage systems; the destruction of educational infrastructure; and political exclusion by traditional elders and the state. The author notes that these same root causes make demobilized youth susceptible to re-conscription if Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programmes fail to provide sustainable livelihood and educational alternatives.

The report analyzes UN discourse on small arms and light weapons (SALW) from 2001 to 2003, concluding that gender perspectives remain marginalized. The authors find that when gender is mentioned, women are almost exclusively characterized as passive victims, while the specific impacts on men and the active roles of women as peace-builders are largely ignored. While NGOs and international organizations demonstrate a more nuanced understanding of gender, member state delegations often lack expertise or prioritize other issues. The document recommends bridging the gap between gender experts and policymakers through targeted education and coordinated advocacy to ensure that the 2006 Review Conference on SALW reflects the diverse experiences of both men and women.

The monograph examines the transition of private military and security companies (PMSCs) from combat-oriented 'markets for force' to support-oriented 'markets for peace' in Africa. It analyzes the legal ambiguities surrounding PMSC status under international humanitarian law, the challenges of accountability and transparency in hybrid missions in countries like Liberia and Sudan, and the tension between the pragmatic need for private capacity and the moral concerns regarding the privatization of state security functions. The authors propose a 'steering and rowing' framework to ensure that the UN and AU maintain strategic control while utilizing private firms for non-core technical and logistical support.

This research paper examines disarmament as a critical pillar of peace-building in Africa, contrasting the successful model in Sierra Leone with the ongoing challenges in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It argues that disarmament must be integrated into broader political settlements and national recovery strategies, emphasizing the need for comprehensive planning, inclusive lead agencies, and the addressing of 'special groups' like child soldiers. The text highlights the shift from traditional peacekeeping to multifunctional peace support operations and the increasing role of regional bodies in managing African conflicts.

The provided text is a detailed list of references, including academic books, reports from international organizations (UN, AU, ECOWAS), human rights briefings (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch), and legal documents. The bibliography focuses on the geopolitical and security landscape of West Africa, specifically documenting the civil wars and peace processes in Liberia and Sierra Leone, the role of ECOMOG and UNMIL, and the application of international humanitarian law and transitional justice.

The submission argues that indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) are the most effective guardians of biodiversity, yet they face systemic threats including non-recognition of land rights, 'fortress conservation' models, and violence against land defenders. It provides global case studies of successful community-led conservation and calls for a shift toward rights-based conservation, secure tenure, and the protection of environmental defenders.

The document highlights the disproportionate risks faced by women environmental and human rights defenders (WEHRDs) in Africa, including gender-based violence, criminalization, and digital attacks. It notes a significant gap in data and reporting, with women often excluded from official statistics and protection mechanisms. The brief identifies the Democratic Republic of Congo as the deadliest country for environmental defenders and calls for gender-responsive funding, legal protections, and the formal recognition of WEHRDs' leadership within UNFCCC processes and national policies.

The document highlights the disproportionate risks faced by women environmental and human rights defenders (WEHRDs) in Africa, including gender-based violence, criminalization, and digital attacks. It notes a significant gap in data collection, where official statistics underrepresent the scale of violence against women compared to men. The report identifies the extractive industry, poaching, and state security forces as primary sources of threats, particularly in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Kenya. It argues that WEHRDs face unique intersectional vulnerabilities based on race, class, and disability, and calls for flexible, long-term funding and gender-sensitive legal and psychosocial support to protect these activists.

The study analyzes 285 conflict episodes to determine how natural resources affect the duration of postconflict peace. It identifies three primary mechanisms: distribution, financing, and aggravation. The findings indicate that while natural resource conflicts generally show shorter peace periods bivariately, only conflicts driven by disagreements over the distribution of resources and revenues significantly increase the risk of recurrence in a multivariate analysis. This suggests that resource-related grievances are a more persistent driver of conflict relapse than the mere opportunity to finance warfare.

The authors present a dataset of 357 armed conflict episodes (1946–2006) to track post-conflict justice (PCJ) processes. PCJ is defined as any process initiated within five years of a conflict's end to address wrongdoings. The dataset identifies six primary tools: trials, truth commissions, reparations, amnesties, purges, and exiles. Preliminary analysis shows that the choice of justice mechanism is influenced by conflict intensity, incompatibility (territorial vs. government control), and the type of termination (victory vs. bargained solution). For instance, trials are more frequent after decisive victories, while amnesties are more common after bargained solutions and in high-intensity civil wars.

The report argues that civil war is 'development in reverse,' creating a 'conflict trap' where poverty and institutional failure increase the risk of war, and war further degrades development. It identifies three rings of adverse effects: internal civilian suffering, regional spillovers (such as arms races and disease), and global costs (including drug trafficking and terrorism). The authors find that civil war is increasingly concentrated in 'marginalized' low-income countries and those in the conflict trap. To combat this, the report proposes a policy package including improved aid timing, transparent natural resource governance, and coordinated military-development sequencing in postconflict decades.

The document describes the DIADATA dataset, which lists diamond occurrences worldwide, including geographic coordinates, geological forms, and dates of discovery and production. It details the data collection process from academic, governmental, and industry sources, and explains the coding structure for variables such as geological form (primary, secondary, or marine) and production status. Additionally, it describes a 'compact version' of the dataset where sites within 50 km are aggregated into multipoints to reduce missing temporal data. The document includes detailed country profiles for 53 countries, outlining their diamond discovery and production histories.

The review finds a general scholarly consensus that higher levels of education have a pacifying effect on civil conflict, though this relationship is complex and varies by the type of violence. While low education is often linked to recruitment in civil wars, higher education levels are frequently observed among terrorists and genocide perpetrators. The authors highlight that inter-group educational inequalities—particularly along ethnic and religious lines—significantly increase conflict risks, whereas rapid expansions in tertiary education do not appear to drive destabilization. The document concludes that while education generally promotes peace, its impact is mediated by factors such as regime type, gender equality, and the specific nature of the political violence.

The authors argue that International Financial Institutions (IFIs), such as the IMF and World Bank, exercise extraordinary leverage in post-conflict states to impose neoliberal reforms that often exacerbate gendered insecurity. By introducing the concept of 'gendered circuits of violence,' the paper demonstrates how macroeconomic policies—including austerity, debt-based financialization, and extractive resource economics—disproportionately burden women and marginalized groups. The text highlights that while IFIs have adopted the rhetoric of gender equality as 'smart economics,' these efforts are often superficial and fail to address the material realities of unpaid care work and structural violence. Case studies from Ukraine, East Timor, and the Western Balkans illustrate how IFI-mandated reforms can lead to increased household debt, the erosion of social welfare, and even the incitement of physical violence against women.

The report argues that formal education systems can either fuel or mitigate armed conflict depending on their inclusivity, quality, and relationship with the community. Through case studies in Guatemala, Nepal, and Liberia, the author identifies four conflict-transforming concepts: equitable inclusion, positive socialization, the creation of social capital, and the provision of socio-economic benefits. The study finds that educational exclusion and authoritarian teaching methods often mirror and reinforce the structural inequalities that drive conflict, while participatory, child-centered education and equitable resource distribution can raise the opportunity costs of joining rebellions and foster a culture of non-violence. The report recommends that national governments and international donors integrate education into peacebuilding processes, prioritize social justice in curricula, and better link schooling to the labor market to ensure that education provides tangible hope and economic mobility.

The research demonstrates that states experiencing civil wars are significantly more likely to be involved in militarized interstate disputes (MIDs). Using data from 1946 to 2001, the authors find that this 'civil peace' effect is comparable in magnitude to the 'democratic peace' effect. Analysis of over 400 MIDs reveals that the increased risk is driven by states attempting to influence the outcome of civil wars through direct intervention, externalization (such as cross-border counter-insurgency), and unintended spillovers, rather than by opportunistic attacks on weakened states or diversionary wars to consolidate domestic power.

The study finds no general statistical relationship between forest resources and the onset or duration of civil wars at the national level. While some disaggregated results suggest that proximity to the coast may prolong conflicts in forested zones, the authors conclude that the perceived link between forests and conflict is largely driven by a few specific cases, such as Burma, rather than a global pattern.

The research concludes that China's security force assistance (SFA) in Africa is consistent with a strategy of economic alignment rather than a military alignment strategy aimed at supplanting the US. While China has expanded its SFA to almost every African state since 2015, the assistance is described as being "spread widely but thin," focusing on non-lethal equipment and training to protect economic interests and foster long-term relationships. In contrast, the US remains the dominant SFA provider in financial terms, with annual provision worth hundreds of millions of dollars compared to China's estimated tens of millions. The authors argue that this approach creates a viable alternative for authoritarian African governments who may otherwise face human rights-based restrictions from Western donors.

The authors contend that African urbanization is a demographic megatrend that reshapes politics in diverse, context-specific ways. They reject a uniform 'urban effect,' proposing instead that political changes—such as shifts in citizen preferences, elite incentives, and forms of mobilization—are the direct result of territorially-situated power struggles and the specific social relations produced within built environments. The paper examines six domains: citizen preferences, elite interests, political mobilization, gender roles, civil society, and contentious collective action, highlighting how these are mediated by the unique histories and physical characteristics of different urban places.