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What happens when Gulf rivalries travel far beyond the Middle East — and into Africa’s most fragile regions?

In this episode of Conflicts of Interest, Professor Clionadh Raleigh and Dr Caitriona Dowd unpack how Saudi Arabia and the UAE are shaping conflicts across the Horn of Africa, from Yemen to Sudan, often through non-state actors, proxy forces, and economic leverage.

The conversation explores why Saudi Arabia is frequently framed as a stabilising power, how the UAE’s interventions have contributed to instability, and why civilians continue to bear the greatest cost. Together, they examine the blurred lines between state and non-state actors, the role of external powers, and what these dynamics mean for humanitarian crises, regional stability, and the future of conflict in Africa.

This episode goes beyond headlines to explain how Gulf power politics are reshaping wars — and why the consequences are long-term and deeply human.

#GulfMonarchies #HornOfAfrica #SaudiArabia #UAE #ProxyConflicts #HumanitarianCrisis #NonStateActors #Geopolitics #RegionalStability #EconomicInterests

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Who decides war and peace in Gaza, and how much power does political leadership hold?

In this episode of Conflicts of Interest, Professor Clionadh Raleigh and Dr Caitriona Dowd examine the rise of the Board of Peace and ask whether global decision-making over conflict is being centralised, with Donald Trump taking the lead.

Using Gaza as a reference point, the conversation explores how current peace efforts are shaped by political leadership choices, imposed timelines, economic fixes, and elite deal-making, often sidelining justice, political consent, and local realities.

The episode places the Board of Peace within the broader weakening of United Nations-led diplomacy and asks what is lost when peace becomes a matter of executive decision-making rather than negotiated political process, and what this means for conflicts still unfolding.

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President Trump said his New Years Resolution was "peace on earth" ... others suggest it's "world domination"

The US president told the New York Times that there is only one thing that can limit his global power: his own morality, adding that he does not need international law.

In this episode of Conflicts of Interest, Professor Clionadh Raleigh and Dr Caitriona Dowd unpack what it means when global power is framed as a personal choice rather than a political or legal constraint.

They explore the rapid and highly personalised use of US force — from Venezuela to threats directed at Nigeria, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, and even Greenland. They examine what has changed in the way power is exercised, and what has disappeared: coalition-building, legal justification, and even the pretence of multilateral consent.

#Trump #GlobalPower #Venezuela #InternationalLaw #ConflictTrends

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2025 marked a turning point in global conflict — not because violence suddenly appeared, but because it reached a scale, spread, and persistence that now feels like a new normal.

In this year-end episode of Conflicts of Interest, Prof. Clionadh Raleigh and Dr Caitriona Dowd look back at what 2025 revealed about political violence around the world.

Drawing on data and analysis from ACLED, they unpack where violence was most concentrated, how it evolved across regions, and why civilians faced unprecedented levels of risk.

Using ACLED’s global conflict index, we explain how violence is measured — including how dangerous, widespread, fragmented, and lethal conflicts have become — and why these indicators matter for understanding today’s security landscape. The picture that emerges is deeply concerning: more countries experiencing extreme violence, conflicts becoming harder to contain, and distinctions between war, criminal violence, and political unrest increasingly blurred.

This episode breaks down the key trends that defined 2025, challenges common assumptions about where and how violence occurs, and asks what these patterns mean as the world heads into 2026.

#GlobalConflict #PoliticalViolence #ConflictTrends #GlobalSecurity

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With help from President Trump and Nicki Minaj, recent headlines have raised alarm about the safety of Christian communities in Nigeria, with claims that Christians are being deliberately targeted amid worsening insecurity.

These narratives have travelled quickly … shaping political debate, international responses, and public understanding.

But do they reflect the full picture of violence in the country?

In this episode of Conflicts of Interest, Prof. Clionadh Raleigh and Dr Caitriona Dowd examine what the data actually shows. Drawing on analysis from ACLED, they explore who is being targeted, where violence is occurring, and how different forms of conflict intersect across Nigeria.

From insurgency in the northeast and criminal banditry in the northwest, to communal violence, kidnapping, and clashes involving state forces, civilians across religious and ethnic lines are facing growing risks.

They also unpack why Nigeria’s violence is so often framed through a religious lens, and what that framing obscures.

#Nigeria #PoliticalViolence #ReligionAndConflict #CivilianProtection

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Comedian Simon Brodkin once asked, ‘If I had a phone, am I more or less likely to make a call than someone without one?’

In this episode of Conflicts of Interest, Professor Clionadh Raleigh and Dr Caitriona Dowd unpack the narratives around gun violence and political violence in the United States, and interrogate where they come from.

Drawing on data and analysis from ACLED, the hosts explore the distinction between political violence and criminal gun violence, and why the two are so often conflated in public debate.

The conversation looks at why Americans report feeling less safe even when certain forms of violence are declining, how high-profile attacks skew perception, and how US gun violence compares to political violence patterns seen elsewhere in the world.

Rather than treating the United States as an outlier, the episode places it in a broader global context, asking what is genuinely changing, and what is being amplified by media cycles and political rhetoric.

#GunViolence #PoliticalViolence #UnitedStates #PublicSafety

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Across the world, Gen Z are showing up in the streets. From mass demonstrations to sudden protest waves, young people are repeatedly mobilizing against governments they see as unresponsive, corrupt, or simply irrelevant to their lives. But a harder question lingers beneath the headlines: do these protests actually achieve anything?

In this episode, Prof. Caitriona Raleigh and Dr Caitriona Dowd discuss the political impact of contemporary Gen Z protest. Pushing back against both romanticized narratives and dismissive takes, they argue that youth protest itself isn’t new, what’s new is how consistently governments seem able to ignore it.

The conversation unpacks why many Gen Z movements are described as “annoying” rather than threatening, and what that label reveals about how power responds to disruption without leverage.

Rather than framing young people as uniquely apathetic or disconnected from politics, the episode places Gen Z protest in a longer historical pattern: every generation protests when formal political channels stop delivering.

So why do these protests keep happening if outcomes are so limited? And what would it actually take for Gen Z mobilization to translate into lasting political influence?

#GenZ #YouthProtests #PoliticalParticipation #GlobalProtests

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Get a front-row seat as two friends attempt to put the world to rights — and just happen to be world-leading experts on political violence.

Conflicts of Interest, the podcast by ACLED, is coming soon.

Be sure to follow so you never miss an episode.

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