Lawyering Peace

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams speaks with Oksana Tsymbrivska, Team Leader of the European Union's flagship Pravo-Justice project in Ukraine, about how Ukraine is advancing toward EU membership while fighting a full-scale war. Oksana explains why accession is about far more than economics. It is a transformative process centered on judicial independence, accountable institutions, anti-corruption reforms, and ...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams speaks with Ambassador Dr. István Lakatos about human rights diplomacy in a fragmented and increasingly geopolitical world order. Drawing on decades of experience in multilateral diplomacy, Ambassador Lakatos argues that diplomacy has not collapsed, but its political layer has changed dramatically. Quiet technical work continues, while public diplomacy is increasingly shaped by ...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams speaks with Axel M. Addy, former Minister of Commerce and Industry of Liberia and founder of the Trade for Peace initiative, about the often-overlooked relationship between economic development and stability. They discuss how trade can help reduce the drivers of conflict, why economic opportunity matters for lasting peace, and how emerging technologies are reshaping the future o...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams speaks with Berhanemeskel Nega, veteran diplomat, former senior United Nations peacekeeping official, and Senior Peace Fellow at PILPG, about Africa's place in a rapidly changing global order.

Drawing on more than three decades of experience in diplomacy, mediation, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding, Berhanemeskel examines the transition from a unipolar world toward an increasingl...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams speaks with Ambassador Elayne Whyte, former Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations in Geneva and President of the 2017 United Nations Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons that negotiated and adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in 2021. In this episode, Ambassador Wh...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams speaks with Dr. Charles Tenenbaum, Associate Professor at Sciences Po Lille and expert on international mediation and conflict resolution, to examine how France and Europe are responding to the accelerating transformation of the global order.

Drawing on decades of work in diplomacy, mediation, and international security, Dr. Tenenbaum explores France’s evolving vision of s...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams speaks with Dr. Brianne McGonagle Leyh, Professor of Global Justice Studies at Utrecht University and Director of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, about the fragility and enduring power of international law during a period of profound global transition.

Drawing on her work in human rights, transitional justice, and accountability, Dr. McGonagle Leyh reflects on why in...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams speaks with Professor Matthew Ford, an expert at the Swedish Defence University, about how smartphones, artificial intelligence, and private technology platforms are reshaping modern warfare. Ford explains that ubiquitous connectivity has blurred the line between battlefield and home front, as seen in Ukraine, where soldiers and civilians operate within real time digital informa...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams sits down with Ruhee Neog, Director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi, to examine whether today’s geopolitical turbulence reflects a true paradigm shift or a series of overlapping transitions within an evolving global order.

They explore why the world may still be experiencing a strained unipolar moment rather than a fully realized multipolar sys...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams speaks with Kat Fotovat, a global expert on gender, artificial intelligence, and international security, to explore how technological disruption and shifting power structures are reshaping the role of women in peacebuilding.

Drawing on two decades of experience across conflict and post conflict settings, Kat reflects on the evolution of gender policy within international instit...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams sits down with Dr. Łukasz Adamski, historian, political scientist, and Deputy Director of the Mieroszewski Dialogue Centre, to discuss the profound historical and political shifts redefining Eastern Europe’s role in the global order.

They discuss why 70 to 80 percent of modern politics is actually a discussion about history, how Poland’s "deep trauma" of 1939 shapes...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams sits down with two prominent former senior Mexican diplomats, Ambassador Rubén Beltrán and Ambassador Jorge Lomónaco, to examine Mexico's place in the shifting global order and the difficult choices it faces as a rising middle power caught between geography, history, and a transforming international system.

They discuss why Mexico sits between a rock and a hard place in its rel...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams sits down with Dr. Kushtrim Istrefi, Senior Peace Fellow at PILPG, Associate Professor of Public International Law and Human Rights at Utrecht University, and substitute member of the Venice Commission, to interrogate whether the rules-based international order is fracturing, evolving, or simply revealing what it always was.

They discuss why Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukra...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams sits down with Dr. Mitat Çelikpala, Professor of International Relations and Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, to examine Türkiye’s evolving role at the center of the global paradigm shift.

They discuss why the Black Sea has become the defining microcosm of great power competition, how Türkiye’s...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams sits down with Dr. Maria Mälksoo, Professor of International Relations at the University of Copenhagen and one of Europe's leading scholars on memory, identity, and security politics, to make sense of the paradigm shift reshaping global order right now.

They discuss why the collapse of shared ritual and legal norms may be more dangerous than it appears, whether Europe's strateg...

Does war suspend our commitment to human rights or test it?

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, host Dr. Paul Williams speaks with Dr. Taras Leshkovych of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine at OHCHR about documenting violations during active conflict. They discuss how the human rights landscape has evolved since 2014, the impact of the 2022 full scale invasion, conditions in occupied territories, digital ...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul Williams sits down with David Crane, Senior Peace Fellow at PILPG, to discuss the evolving global order, the role of international law, and the future of accountability for atrocity crimes.

Drawing on more than 40 years of experience as a U.S. Army officer, Judge Advocate, and founding Chief Prosecutor of the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, David reflects on the post-WWII system, para...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul R. Williams speaks with Tyler Thompson about the future of negotiations and the role of artificial intelligence in complex high-stakes processes. 

Tyler Thompson is a PILPG Peace Fellow, a peace negotiator, legal advisor, and senior government official with nearly two decades of experience advising on complex negotiations across both public and private sectors. At PILPG, he served a...

In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul R. Williams speaks with Dr. Marieke de Hoon about the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 and the long road to accountability for the 298 civilians murdered on July 17, 2014.

Dr. de Hoon is Professor of International Criminal Justice at the University of Amsterdam and Director of PILPGs Netherlands Office. She has worked closely on legal analysis connected to MH17 and has supported...