In armed conflicts across the globe, the loci of violence change over time, including across state borders. Nonetheless, both academic and policy analyses are typically still guided by static units of analysis and hence fail to capture spatial change in conflict. What explains change in the territorial scope and location of violent events in a single setting of armed conflict? We argue that shifts in two factors contribute to patterns in spatial change across conflicts: the relative strength of the state actor and whether there is a change in the conflict’s dominant actors.

China's open ambition to become a global AI superpower has attracted considerable policy, media and academic attention. This talk will focus on national strategy, security and governance aspects of China's AI approach. It will discuss why China's AI approach is sophisticated and multifaced, and how it has brought about both considerable benefits and challenges to China.

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Discussant: Samuel Ritholtz

Award-winning cartoonist Maddo has produced social and political commentary in the form of visual art for the past three decades at Kenya's The Standard newspaper.

This series is an opportunity for DPIR DPhils to present their work in progress and gather feedback.

zoom.us/j/97023514597?pwd=c01kNms5b1JJQlR4c21zTitOOFhjZz09

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(co-authored with Catherine Hafer, and Dimitri Landa)

Between 1850 and 1918, many first wave democracies adopted electoral reforms that reduced the incidence of various forms of electoral malfeasance. These reforms imposed harsher punishments for bribing or the politicization of state resources during campaigns. They improved electoral secrecy, providing a better protection of voters’ autonomy. By mandating the presence of candidate representatives supervising electoral operations, reforms adopted at this time also reduced the incidence of electoral fraud.