Lawyering Peace

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 relationship with the United States, how Latin America's deep fragmentation limits Mexico's regional ambitions, and whether the window for meaningful diversification is already closing or just beginning to open.

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 Ukraine and the recent policies of the Trump administration represent two distinct but compounding shocks to the system of international law, whether the global order was ever truly rules-based or always an imperfect architecture serving the powerful, and why human rights sit at the most exposed frontline of the current paradigm shift.

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 transactional foreign policy is reshaping the balance of power from Syria to the Caucasus, and whether Türkiye’s century-long modernization story still points toward Europe or somewhere else entirely.

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 strategic awakening is enough, and why AI has become a sovereign actor that no existing accountability structure was built to handle. And the question threading through all of it: for whom is this moment a crisis, and for whom is it an opportunity?

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 evidence in reporting, and why rigorous documentation today is essential for future accountability.

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, paradigm shifts in global power, and how a smarter, more effective UN could respond to 21st-century crises. He offers a practitioner’s perspective on the resilience of accountability norms and the possibilities for strengthening international institutions and regional cooperation in turbulent times.

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 as Legal Counsel, directed the Ceasefires Practice Area, and advised state and non-state parties in peace negotiations. He successfully opened PILPG’s office in Libya and led its office in Kosovo. He is now co-founder and Chief Negotiation Officer of Expeditionary, an applied AI research and advisory company reimagining negotiation design and execution.
The conversation explores how negotiation landscapes have evolved, the challenges of high-stakes, multi-stakeholder environments, and how AI can augment, but not replace, human judgment. Tyler walks through lessons from his career, including strategy design, stakeholder mapping, mitigating blind spots, and building trust in conflict-affected and corporate environments. The episode also highlights how Expeditionary, the AI research and advisory company he co-founded, supports intelligence synthesis, coordinated execution, and ethical decision-making in negotiations, while keeping humans central to the process.

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 families seeking justice and clarity over more than a decade.
 
The conversation traces how multiple legal pathways have built a record of accountability, including the Joint Investigation Team, the Dutch criminal trial and convictions issued in November 2022, inter state proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights, and the aviation law track through ICAO, including the ongoing appeal at the International Court of Justice. The episode also explores why truth finding, victim recognition, and a durable historical record matter in an era of disinformation and continued aggression.

This episode of the Lawyering Peace Podcast’s Ukraine Series features an in depth conversation with Lidiia Kuzmenko, Protection Officer at the UNHCR Ukraine Country Office, on the profound human impact of internal displacement during Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. With more than five million people uprooted inside Ukraine, Lidiia offers expert insight into the daily realities facing displaced families, the legal and administrative barriers they encounter, and the practical meaning of “protection” in UNHCR’s mandate. She discusses challenges related to documentation, housing, livelihoods, and access to services, as well as Ukraine’s evolving policy framework and emerging innovations in supporting IDPs. The episode explores the conditions required for safe and voluntary return, the resilience of displaced communities, and the long term reforms needed to ensure durable solutions. Above all, Lidiia reminds listeners that every statistic reflects an individual story of loss, strength, and determination to rebuild.

This episode of the Lawyering Peace podcast focuses on one of the most crucial pillars of peace building in Ukraine: gender equality and the central role of women in shaping a just and durable peace. 
 
Dr. Paul R. Williams speaks with Dr. Khrystyna Kit, chairwoman of the Ukrainian Women Lawyers Association JurFem and expert adviser to the Prosecutor General’s Office on conflict related sexual violence. Drawing on more than fifteen years of legal practice and advocacy, Dr. Kit explains how JurFem promotes gender sensitive legal reform, advances survivor centered approaches to justice, and works with judges, prosecutors, police, and lawmakers to ensure that responses to gender based and conflict related sexual violence reflect the needs and agency of survivors.
 
Together Khrystyna and Paul explore why women’s participation in decision making is a precondition for sustainable peace, not a symbolic add on. The conversation examines the systemic underrepresentation of women in negotiation and security spaces, the evolution of Ukraine’s National Action Plans under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, and the risks of pursuing a quick peace that sidelines accountability, reparations, and human rights. Dr. Kit outlines how peace processes can be redesigned to include women’s rights organizations, survivors, community leaders, and Ukrainians abroad, and why solidarity between Ukrainian civil society and international partners is essential for securing survivor centered justice and preventing a return to violence.

Can an investment fund become a cornerstone of peace?
 
In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul R. Williams speaks with Henry Scott, a partner at Milbank and a leading authority on international project finance, about the United States Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, a first of its kind vehicle jointly launched by Washington and Kyiv.
 
Henry explains how this groundbreaking framework blends in-kind equity, strategic finance, and critical minerals access to drive Ukraine’s recovery. The conversation unpacks the Fund’s hybrid capital model, the role of the US International Development Finance Corporation, safeguards for Ukraine’s sovereignty, and the agreement’s potential to become a global template for development partnerships.
 
🎧 A timely deep dive into how law, finance, and political will can align to rebuild a nation and why this agreement could reshape the way post conflict reconstruction is funded.

What happens when a nuclear power plant becomes a battlefield?
In this episode of Lawyering Peace, Dr. Paul R. Williams speaks with Dr. Dmytro Koval — Co-Executive Director of Truth Hounds and Associate Professor of International Law at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy — about the weaponization of Ukrainian nuclear infrastructure in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Drawing on Truth Hounds’ groundbreaking report “In a Nuclear Prison”, Dmytro unpacks how the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant — the largest nuclear facility in Europe — has become a site of coercion, forced collaboration, and state-sponsored impunity. The episode explores the blurred lines between civilian and military actors, the role of Rosatom, and why international law must evolve to confront “nuclear terrorism by proxy.”
🎧 A sobering, urgent conversation on legal accountability, nuclear safety, and the need for a 21st-century Geneva Convention for nuclear infrastructure.