Peer Schouten has spent the last ten years mapping roadblocks in war zones, developing a radically new understanding of the centrality of trade routes in political economy and geography of conflict. In this talk, Schouten will explore this new geography, discuss participatory and fieldwork-based digital conflict cartography, based on insights from his recent book Roadblock Politics and ongoing research in the Horn of Africa.

About the speaker

Peer Schouten is a Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), an Associate Researcher at the International Peace Information Service in Antwerp, and Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Ghent.

His research interests include the political economy of conflict, with a focus on roadblocks; the role of business in peace and conflict; mineral extraction and conflict economies; conflict and climate change; and the politics of logistics and infrastructure. He is the author of Roadblock Politics: The Origins of Violence in Central Africa.

Peer is currently lead researcher on the FCDO-funded project SOMROADS on the political economy of roads in Somalia and a USIP-funded project on climate and conflict in the Congo Basin. He is also a fellow of the Centre on Armed Groups and member of the Non-State Armed Governance Working Group. He has consulted a wide variety of developmental agencies and research institutions on conflict-related dynamics in the DR Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.