What role did civilians play during the conflict and peace process in Northern Ireland? How does agency relate to victimhood and transitional justice? And how can people contribute to ‘everyday’ peace? In this episode, Katharine and Florian talk to Kieran McEvoy from Queen’s University Belfast and to Roger Mac Ginty from Durham University about Northern Ireland and their research on civilians navigating armed conflicts across the world.

Cited documents:

Mac Ginty, Roger, Everyday Peace: How so-called ordinary people can disrupt violent conflict, Oxford University Press 2021

McEvoy, Kieran, Mallinder, Louise & Bryson, Anna, Lawyers in Conflict and Transition, Cambridge Studies in Law and Society, 2022

McEvory, Kieran, Beyond Legalism: Towards a Thicker Understanding of Transitional Justice, Routledge, 2014

Guest bios:
Kieran McEvoy is the Senator George J. Mitchell Chair of Peace, Security and Justice and Professor of Law and Transitional Justice at the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen’s University Belfast. He is also currently a Leverhulme Major Research Fellow working on how armed groups address past harms. He has conducted research in over a dozen conflicted or transitional countries contexts on topics including among others politically motivated prisoners, ex-combatants, victims and amnesties.

Roger Mac Ginty is Professor at the School of Government and International Affairs, and the Durham Global Security Institute, Durham University. His 2021 book, Everyday Peace: How so-called ordinary people can disrupt violent conflict (Oxford University Press), won the 2020-2022 Ernst-Otto Czempiel Award for best book on peace. He edits the journal Peacebuilding and is co-founder of the Everyday Peace Indicators.

The Beyond Compliance Consortium is a co-productive, socio-legal research partnership that traverses the fields of international law, conflict studies, humanitarian protection work and human rights policy, and brings together these communities of scholarship and practice with people with lived experience of conflict. It is funded by UK International Development. The first series of this podcast series is also funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).


Katharine Fortin is an Associate Professor in human rights law and international humanitarian law at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Utrecht University.

Florian Weigand is the Co-Director of the Centre on Armed Groups.

In this episode, Katharine and Florian speak to Sophie Haspeslagh from Kings College London and Gloria Gaggioli from the University of Geneva about their research on counter-terrorism law, its mechanisms, effects and how it links to civilian agency and international humanitarian law. During the conversation, Sophie and Gloria provide insights on how ‘listing' affects armed groups, civilians, everyday life and peace processes.

Cited documents:

Haspeslagh, Sophie, Proscribing Peace, Manchester University Press 2021

Haspeslagh, Sophie, The ‘linguistic ceasefire’: Negotiating in an age of proscription, Security Dialogue 2021, Vol. 52(4):361-379

Gaggioli, Gloria & Sobol, Ilya, Proscription and group membership in counter-terrorism and armed conflict: areas of tensions betwen criminal law and international humantarian law in Fortin K & Heffes, Armed Groups and International Law: In the Shadowland of Legality and Illegality, Edward Elgar 2023

Guest bios:

Sophie Haspeslagh is a lecturer in International Relations in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Her research focuses on the impact of counterterrorism on conflict resolution, the transition of armed actors away from violence and the international relations of non-state armed groups. She holds a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Master's in international relations from SAIS Johns Hopkins University.

Gloria Gaggioli was the Director of the Geneva Academy from 2020-2024 and is an Associate Professor and Vice-Dean of the Law Faculty of the University of Geneva. She is also member of the board of Geneva Call since August 2019. Her work focuses notably on issues related to the interplay between international humanitarian law and international human rights law, the right to life and the use of force, including the conduct of hostilities, law enforcement and self-defence.

The Beyond Compliance Consortium is a co-productive, socio-legal research partnership that traverses the fields of international law, conflict studies, humanitarian protection work and human rights policy, and brings together these communities of scholarship and practice with people with lived experience of conflict. It is funded by UK International Development. The first series of this podcast series is also funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).


Katharine Fortin is an Associate Professor in human rights law and international humanitarian law at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Utrecht University.

Florian Weigand is the Co-Director of the Centre on Armed Groups.

What influences civilians' decision to stay or leave in times of armed conflict? In this episode, Katharine and Florian talk to Mara Revkin and Justin Schon about their research on civilian decision-making, access to information and flight in Syria and Iraq. They discuss the concept of civilian agency and talk about the challenges of conducting research straddling multiple disciplines.

Cited documents:

Revkin, M. Competitive Governance and Displacement Decisions Under Rebel Rule: Evidence from the Islamic State in Iraq, 65 The Journal of Conflict Resolution 46-80 (2021).

Revkin, M. When Terrorists Govern: Protecting Civilians in Conflicts with State-Building Armed Groups, 9 Harvard National Security Journal 100–144 (2018).

Schon, J. 2020. Surviving the War in Syria: Survival Strategies in a Time of Conflict. Cambridge University Press.

Guest bios:

Dr. Mara Revkin is an Associate Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke University, where her research focuses on armed conflict, peacebuilding, transitional justice, migration, and security sector reform with a regional focus on the Middle East and Africa. Dr. Revkin holds a JD from Yale Law School and a PhD in political science from Yale University, where her dissertation examined the Islamic State’s governance of civilians in Iraq and Syria.

Dr. Justin Schon is a Statistician in the Migration Analysis Center within the Office of Homeland Security Statistics at the Department of Homeland Security, where his work focuses on modelling unauthorized migration into the United States. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Indiana University, where his dissertation examined civilian survival strategies with a focus on Syria and Somalia. He has field research experience in Turkey, Jordan, Kenya, and Malawi.

The Beyond Compliance Consortium is a co-productive, socio-legal research partnership that traverses the fields of international law, conflict studies, humanitarian protection work and human rights policy, and brings together these communities of scholarship and practice with people with lived experience of conflict. It is funded by UK International Development. The first series of this podcast series is also funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).


Katharine Fortin is an Associate Professor in human rights law and international humanitarian law at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Utrecht University.

Florian Weigand is the Co-Director of the Centre on Armed Groups.