Paul Hockenos is a Berlin-based writer and political analyst who has been working in Germany and across Central and Eastern Europe since 1989. He is the prize-winning author of five books on European politics and culture, and was a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. His work appears in The Nation, Foreign Policy, Foreign…
This week on The International Risk Podcast, Dominic Bowen welcomes Paul Hockenos to discuss the outcome of the latest German elections, analyzing the distribution of seats and the implications of the AfD’s growing presence as part of the political mainstream. Beyond domestic politics, we will examine Germany’s evolving role within Europe and on the global…
Germany held its elections in late February, resulting in a victory for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its leader, Friedrich Merz, who is set to become the next chancellor. The CDU/CSU alliance secured 28.5% of the vote, reclaiming leadership. However, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) made significant gains, securing 20.8%, more than doubling…
Ellen Van Damme, PhD, is a criminologist specialising in ethnographic research on women, gangs, and migration. From 2016 to 2020, she was a PhD fellow of the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO) at the Leuven Institute of Criminology (LINC), KU Leuven. Her doctoral research focused on the role of women in and around gangs in Honduras. In…
This week Dominic is joined by Ellen van Damme. They dive into the multifaceted complexities of gang violence in Honduras. Hear Ellen discuss her PhD research on gangs, violence and women, as well as her thoughts on how women and girls fall into gangs. They discuss the difference between narcos and gangs, as wells as…
History Honduras is situated between Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Most of the population tends to live in the mountains, which is generally quite isolated. It is a developing nation, with significant economic and social challenges, as well as climate challenges as it tends to have occasional violent tropical storms. Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which…
Wolf-Christian Paes is a Senior Fellow of Armed Conflict at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He has more than two decades of experience of working on conflict and post-conflict settings with a focus on Security Sector Reform (SSR); Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants and arms control. Listen to his episode about Arms Trade…
This week Dominic hosts Wolf-Christian Paes on the podcast. They discuss the ethicality of arms trade, different definitions of a ‘just war’ and what the consequences are on the arms trade, illegal and legal arms trade, arms embargo’s, amongst others. Tune in to hear a very articulated episode with lots of information about the arms…
Arms trade is one of the most lucrative businesses in the world and it is not without significant international risk. One of the only businesses with predictable increase in profit year after year. Until 2013 there was no global set of rules governing the trade in conventional weapons. The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) sets out…
Amanda McClelland is the Senior Vice President of Prevent Epidemics at Resolve to Save Lives, where she leads a team working to accelerate progress to make the world safer from epidemics. Amanda is a notable expert in international public health management and health systems strengthening, especially in emergency health, epidemic control, disease prevention and response…