Business for Peace Across Regions and Conflict Contexts: Conditions, Mechanisms, and Limits

Amid democratic uncertainty and weakening public institutions, businesses increasingly shape security, livelihoods, rights, and recovery. They are expected not only to avoid exacerbating conflict but also to contribute to peace. Yet we know too little about when such contributions emerge, how they operate, who benefits, and when they create new harms. Business for Peace (B4P) research has often focused on multinational firms and a limited range of conflict-affected settings, while political science and peacebuilding scholarship has frequently treated business as peripheral. This panel connects these debates through comparative, cross-regional analysis.
We invite theoretical and empirical papers from any region, as well as cross-regional studies. Contributions may examine societies before, during, or after armed conflict; fragile or authoritarian settings; and relatively stable countries affected by war through displacement, migration, supply chains, sanctions, or reconstruction. We welcome research on multinational and domestic firms, SMEs, social enterprises, entrepreneurs, business associations, investors, and public-private partnerships.
The panel asks: Under what combinations of organizational characteristics, conflict and governance environments, and normative or institutional frameworks does business contribute to peace? Through what mechanisms do employment, inclusive markets, humanitarian action, refugee integration, social cohesion, dialogue, technology, responsible supply chains, corporate diplomacy, or support for human rights and the rule of law affect peacebuilding? How do local actors interpret or contest these interventions? How can positive effects be distinguished from compliance, “do no harm,” public relations, or unintended conflict-producing consequences?
Papers may use qualitative, quantitative, mixed, or comparative methods and draw on B4P, business and human rights, international political economy, peace and conflict studies, global governance, public policy, gender, or migration scholarship. Rather than presuming that business is inherently peace-promoting or conflict-producing, the panel seeks context-sensitive explanations of its conditions, mechanisms, trade-offs, accountability, and limits. Comparing regions, firm types, and conflict stages will help build a cumulative and politically grounded understanding of business as a peacebuilding actor. Paper selection will seek regional, gender, methodological, and career-stage diversity.