Contributor(s): Professor Toby Dodge, Dr Rachel Ibreck, Rim Turkmani, Lyse Doucet | This event will launch LSE’s new Conflict Research Programme funded by the UK’s Department for International Development. The CRP aims to understand why contemporary violence is so difficult to end and to analyse the underlying political economy of violence with a view to informing policy, with a special focus on Iraq, Syria, South Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Members of the research team will present their ideas and initial findings to Javier Solana, the former foreign policy chief of the European Union. Toby Dodge (@ProfTobyDodge) is Director of the LSE Middle East Centre, Kuwait Professor and Professor in the International Relations Department at LSE. He is also Senior Consulting Fellow for the Middle East at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London. Rachel Ibreck's research centres on the politics of human rights, justice and civil society in the context of conflict and genocide, principally in Africa. Rim Turkmani (@Rim_Turkmani) is a Senior Research Fellow with the Conflict Research Programme on the Syrian war economy and the role of Syrian civil society in brokering peace and creating stability from the bottom up. Lyse Doucet (@bbclysedoucet) is chief international correspondent at the BBC. Lyse has been reporting for the BBC for nearly 30 years, with posts in Abidjan, Kabul, Islamabad, Tehran, Amman and Jerusalem. Javier Solana (@javiersolana) is President of the ESADE Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics and a former EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy. He is a Visiting Professor at LSE. Mary Kaldor is a Professor of Global Governance and Director of the Conflict and Civil Society Research Unit in the LSE Department of International Development. Professor Kaldor directs the unit’s largest research project, the Conflict Research Programme (CRP). The Conflict and Civil Society Research Unit is based within the International Development Department at LSE. The Unit focuses on understanding conflict and violence in Africa, Europe and the Middle East and bridging the gap between citizens and policy makers. Update, Monday 19 March: Due to unforeseen circumstances Rory Stewart will no longer be speaking at this event.