On 6 October PRIO Senior Researcher Júlia Palik hosted the 73. Episode of PRIO’s Peace in a Pod – podcast, titled Taking Away the Guns: How Does Disarmament Influence Peace and Conflict Dynamics.

This podcast episode examines how disarmament, i.e., the collection of arms and ammunitions following civil wars, impacts peace and conflict dynamics with a special focus on the role of women in disarmament and arms control efforts.

The episode features Miriam Cononel-Ferrer, the first female mediator who signed a peace agreement with a rebel group. Miriam talked about her position as the chair of the peace panel of the Government of the Philippines at the time of peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The peace talks resulted in the signing of a peace agreement in 2014. She further talked about the implementation of disarmament in the time that followed.

The podcast also features Guy Lamb, an expert on arms control and violence reduction and PRIO Senior Researcher Nicholas Marsh, who works on trade and trafficking of small arms and light weapons, homicide, and armed violence. They talked about disarmament in a bigger picture as well as gender dimensions and other identity markers and how these may interact with both firearms ownership and in attempts to limit violence.

More information and the podcast episode itself can be found here.