New Books Network Elliot Dolan-Evans, "Making War Safe for Capitalism: The World Bank, IMF, and the Conflict in Ukraine" (Bristol UP, 2025)
Feb 28, 2026
Elliot Dolan-Evans, academic and author studying political economy and law, discusses World Bank and IMF interventions in wartime Ukraine. He traces how these institutions moved into conflict zones and used upstream reforms plus de-risking to attract private capital. Conversations cover land-sale and agroholding changes, gas privatization and household cost rises, and pension reforms with gendered impacts.
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Global Financial Institutions Pivoted Into Active Conflicts
- The World Bank and IMF gradually shifted from post-conflict aid to active-conflict interventions by reinterpreting their mandates and embracing global public goods like peace and climate.
- This pivot accelerated after the 2008 financial crisis and the 2015 SDG push to mobilize private capital via From Billions to Trillions.
Cascade Approach Couples Policy Reform With De-risking
- The World Bank's cascade approach links upstream policy reforms to downstream de-risking measures to attract private capital into fragile contexts.
- Upstream enacts marketizing policy; downstream uses guarantees, PPPs, and blended finance to make projects bankable.
Ukraine Served As A Test Case For Wartime Engagement
- In Ukraine the Bank and IMF initially treated wartime engagement as business-as-usual, barely mentioning the war in loan documents.
- Ukraine became a testing ground that pushed both institutions to develop new internal policies for active-conflict operations.
