SOC ACE researchers will join leading experts at ECPR 2026 to examine how political, economic and social pressures are reshaping organised crime and responses to it.

SOC ACE researchers attended a closed workshop hosted by Queen’s University Belfast on 17 June 2026, bringing together academics and policymakers to explore ‘How do paramilitaries end? Lessons from Academia and Practice’. The event forms part of SOC ACE’s wider research into the connections between paramilitaries, organised crime and illicit economies, and the distinct challenges these relationships present during transitions from conflict to peace.

SOC ACE researchers chaired a panel on brokerage and power at the Development Studies Association's DSA2026 conference in Dublin, which ran 8-10 July 2026. It explored how brokers shape development outcomes in a fragmenting world, from coercive intermediaries to digital brokers behind scam networks.

The recording of the SOC ACE webinar by Dr Zahid Mumtaz and Dr Caryn Peiffer - Intersections of Corruption and Welfare: Power, Access, and Inequality - is now available.

They discussed how, in contexts where formal welfare systems are weak or inaccessible, people often depend on kinship ties, community structures, and patron‑client networks for social protection.

Intersections of Corruption and Welfare: Power, Access and Inequality — Upcoming SOC ACE Webinar

Wednesday 20 May 2026 | 10:00–11:00 (BST)

SOC ACE researchers Dr Zahid Mumtaz and Dr Caryn Peiffer will host a webinar exploring the complex relationship between corruption and informal security welfare regimes, drawing on their recent research and Pakistan as a case study.

The recording of Dr Orly Stern and Olivia Allison’s for a webinar examining the gendered dynamics of Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories is now available for download here .

They considered how women participate in – and are harmed by – the illicit financial flows (IFF) underpinning the occupation economy.The will explore how women are embedded across mid‑ and lower‑level administrative, judicial, and civil service structures, facilitatating property seizures, business expropriations, and corrupt reconstruction schemes.

Join Dr Orly Stern and Olivia Allison for a webinar examining the gendered dynamics of Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories. They will consider how women participate in - and are harmed by - the illicit financial flows (IFF) underpinning the occupation economy.

The will explore how women are embedded across mid‑ and lower‑level administrative, judicial, and civil service structures, facilitatating property seizures, business expropriations, and corrupt reconstruction schemes.

Join SOC ACE researchers - Dr Zahid Mumtaz and Dr Caryn Peiffer - for a webinar exploring the complex relationship between corruption and informal security welfare regimes, with Pakistan as a case study. In contexts where formal welfare systems are weak or inaccessible, people often depend on kinship ties, community structures, and patron‑client networks for social protection.

Register here or click through for more information!

Join the SOC ACE Webinar to launch new research by Olivia Allison (University of Exeter/RUSI), ‘Looting Mariupol: Russia’s use of illicit finance and economic crime in occupied Ukraine’ and explore how Russia is using illicit finance and economic crime in occupied Ukraine to create new networks and bolster vested interests, often linked to Russian security services.

Register here or click through for more information!

New ACE Seminar! Join SOC ACE researcher, Dr Tena Prelec (University of Rijeka), and discussants Dr Bertram Lang (Philipps University Marburg) and Dr Claudia Baez Camargo (Basel Institute), to critically explore the concept of strategic corruption, an emerging framework for understanding the instrumental use of transnational corruption in advancing political and economic objectives. Register here or click through for more information!