Podcast Summary:

New Books Network – Dr. Elliot Dolan-Evans on "Making War Safe for Capitalism: The World Bank, IMF, and the Conflict in Ukraine"
Aired: February 28, 2026
Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher
Guest: Dr. Elliot Dolan-Evans (Bristol University Press, 2025)

Episode Overview

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Elliot Dolan-Evans about his new book, Making War Safe for Capitalism: The World Bank, IMF, and the Conflict in Ukraine. Departing from the conventional assumption that major international financial institutions (IFIs) like the World Bank and IMF engage only after conflicts have ended, the book explores their deep and ongoing involvement both during and even before conflict. Using detailed fieldwork from Ukraine, Dolan-Evans analyzes how IFI-driven economic reforms intersect with wartime realities, reshaping everyday life and, crucially, paving the way for private capital under the guise of global public goods. The discussion covers institutional history, policy innovations like the "cascade approach," and the human impact of these reforms across agriculture, energy, and pensions, highlighting profound questions about the purpose and ethics of IFI interventions.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins and Motivation for the Book

• Fieldwork Foundations – Dolan-Evans conducted research into women's participation in Ukraine's peace processes, only to find everyday people blocked from engaging by more urgent material and economic concerns during wartime.
  • "Politically being involved in the peace process was almost laughable because of the political economy of Ukraine under war..." (03:02, Dolan-Evans)
• Gap in Literature – The prevalent presumption that institutions like the World Bank and IMF intervene only in post-conflict situations missed the ongoing, war-time restructuring he witnessed in Ukraine.

2. A History of IFI Involvement in Conflict

• Slow Evolution (Post-WWII–2000s)
  • Early intervention was strictly "after the shooting stopped."
  • Post-Cold War: entrance into "post-conflict" spaces (e.g., El Salvador, Bosnia, Afghanistan).
• New Incentives, New Approaches
  • After global financial crisis: search for new roles amid criticism and competition.
  • Focus on "global public goods" (peace, climate, health) as an entry point.
  • Legal reinterpretations and creative bypasses diluted earlier political restrictions.
  • Ukraine as a "test case" or catalyst for direct engagement during active conflict.
  • "Their move to dealing with situations of active conflict has evolved over time... and has certainly increased in intensity in the last couple of decades." (11:36, Dolan-Evans)

3. Mechanics of Engagement: The Cascade Approach

• Policy Shifts Enabled by the SDGs
  • The imperative to move “from billions to trillions” in funding led to increased reliance on private capital.
  • "Private business was put as the main source of development funding. That was relatively new." (14:52, Dolan-Evans)
• The 'Cascade Approach'
  • Upstream (Policy Reforms): Traditional structural adjustments (marketization, privatization, deregulation).
  • Downstream (De-risking): Direct interventions to make environments safer for private investors (guarantees, PPPs, blended finance, subsidies).
  • "The downstream reforms...are what I term in the book the de-risking reforms, which is targeted at the project level...to ensure that the context is suitable for private capital." (18:05, Dolan-Evans)
• World Bank–IMF Division of Labor: IMF: upstream; World Bank (esp. IFC): downstream reforms.

4. Application in Ukraine: War-time Restructuring

• IFIs treated Ukraine as "business as usual," continuing and even intensifying projects after 2014, barely mentioning the outbreak of war in official documents.
• Reforms continued or even accelerated—pushing land privatization, market creation in energy, reduced public spending, rollout of de-risking measures for private business and foreign capital.
• Ukraine's case spurred the creation of the first external IFI strategies for conflict (World Bank in 2020, IMF in 2022).
• "The initial approach in the war was to effectively ignore it for the first few years. That was controversial..." (20:30, Dolan-Evans)
• Facilitated (with government cooperation) a lucrative environment for global investors, especially in infrastructure.

5. Human Impact: Three Sectors as Case Studies

A. Agriculture

• Massive sector; “Ukraine is seen as the land basket of the Soviet Union.”
• Post-Soviet moratorium on land sales circumvented via legal loopholes; rise of large agri-holdings (agroholdings) with indirect IFI support.
• IFIs pushed for integrating smallholders into EU value chains; subsidized large agroholdings, especially during wartime displacement.
• Key "reform": During COVID, with protests impossible, the government dropped the moratorium, opening land to market (and foreign) acquisition at low prices.
• Result: Land consolidation, rural depopulation ("hundreds of Ukrainian villages disappeared"), pollution, ecological harm, costly food, and hardship for rural people—including mental health and social crises.
• "Because the country was under war, it was actually incredibly cheap to buy Ukrainian land...land was pilfered on the cheap..." (28:47, Dolan-Evans)

B. Gas and Energy

• Ukraine’s pivotal role in EU–Russia gas dynamics; IFIs prioritized breaking up Naftogaz monopoly, creating “bankable” chunks for privatization.
• Upstream: Integration with EU energy policy, pushing Ukraine as an exporter.
• Downstream: Privatization, insulating sector from government control ("constitutionalist measures").
• Most direct human impact: removal of household energy subsidies led to ~650% increase in gas prices for consumers, energy poverty, and dangerous coping (biofuel gathering in mined zones, harmful indoor pollution).
• “...the cost of gas to households has increased about 650%. Huge increase... It created huge immiseration, inequality, and poverty...” (34:54, Dolan-Evans)

C. Pension System

• Popular legacy of Soviet system and persistent target of IFI reforms.
• Wartime: pension system made harder to access (higher work requirements, smaller payouts).
• Controversial 2015 move: Ukrainian government stopped all social (especially pension) payments in separatist-held areas, triggering mass displacement of pensioners. Many were forced into perilous journeys or displaced with families; care burden fell mainly on women.
• Wage and benefit cuts further deepened hardship and gendered labour in displaced families.
• IFIs' role: maneuvers helped “clean up” accounts for prospective privatization and de-risking for private capital.
• "When the war started to really heat up...the Ukrainian government made a decision not to pay any social services in the areas that were captured by...pro-Russian separatists...The impacts of this was that...hundreds of thousands of people effectively fled..." (41:03, Dolan-Evans)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On why the World Bank/IMF got involved during active war:

  "...this was at the kind of transition point for the World Bank and the IMF in orientating towards intervening in active conflict...Ukraine, you could argue, is a bit of a case study or a test case." (11:23, Dolan-Evans)

• On the paradigm shift to private capital:

  "This was really important where private capital is actually put as, or you know, private business was put as the main source of development funding, which was...relatively new." (14:52, Dolan-Evans)

• On the impacts of agricultural reforms:

  "...the result of this has been this consolidation of these huge companies...decrease in food security...increase in food prices...hundreds of Ukrainian villages have disappeared...not just because of conflict but because of these huge agro holdings..." (31:20, Dolan-Evans)

• On the energy sector and household struggles:

  "...as the war progressed...the cost of gas to households has increased about 650%...made it a very difficult and challenging one to survive, especially on the front lines when you’re faced with negative 30 degree conditions..." (36:44, Dolan-Evans)

• On the pension/social safety net:

  “Most of the people who were fleeing the war zone were pensioners...this would increase their care labor of predominantly women...the pension wasn't enough anymore to afford food, and so they had to rely on their extended families...” (43:10–44:14, Dolan-Evans)

• On the central implications:

  "I think one of the things I want to do with the book is just to...make that a question—should we look at these programs under the microscope, because it's not just pure economics. Drill into...the everyday impact on people..." (49:04, Dolan-Evans)

Important Timestamps

• 02:28: Dolan-Evans on origins of the book and fieldwork revelations
• 05:54–12:16: IFI involvement from WWII origins to present-day conflict contexts
• 13:10–19:55: The cascade approach explained; institutional shifts toward private capital
• 20:18–25:09: Application and adaptation of reforms during the 2014 war in Ukraine
• 25:23–32:15: Impact on agriculture and rural communities
• 32:30–38:43: Gas sector reforms and household consequences
• 40:09–47:58: Pension reform, displacement, gendered impacts
• 48:29–51:20: Big-picture implications for IFI accountability, ethics, and the wider impact of neoliberal "de-risking" reforms

Conclusion & Further Research

• Core Message: IFI-led "de-risking" for private capital in war zones has powerful, often dire consequences for conflict-affected people, and requires thorough, on-the-ground examination.
• Open Questions: Should public global institutions actively shape economies during conflict with policies that favor private capital, given the social and ecological harms outlined?
• Future Work: Dolan-Evans is extending this line of inquiry to health, climate, and regional development banks, noting how IFI norms radiate outward to smaller institutions.

Recommended for listeners who want to look beyond economic abstractions and understand the profound (and often hidden) links between global capital, conflict, and everyday human experience.