Published and Forthcoming Journal Articles

· Benson, M. (2024) ‘Of Rule Not Revenue: South Sudan’s Revenue Complex from Colonial, Rebel, to Independent Rule, 1899 to 2023’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Issue 66-3.

· Benson-Strohmayer, M. (2025) ‘Predatory Peace: Fiscal Fragmentation and Coercive Statebuilding in South Sudan and Beyond’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

· Benson-Strohmayer, M. (Revise-and-Resubmit, Development & Change) ‘Revenue, Resistance, and Rule: Civic Fiscal Resistance and Statebuilding in Sudan, 1953-2023’.

· van den Boogaard, V., Prichard, W., Benson, M. and Milicic, N. (2018) ‘Revenue Mobilization in Conflict-Affected Developing Countries’. Journal of International Development, Special Issue on ‘Fiscal Policy, State-Building and Economic Development’, Issue 30.

· Bell, C., Benson-Strohmayer, M., Cooper, L., Kaldor, M. and Peter, M. (2026 - Forthcoming) ‘The Fragmentation of War and Peace: Rethinking Peace Processes in a Polycentric World’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

Articles Under Review

·  Benson-Strohmayer, M. and Awany, J. (Manuscript under review) ‘Contested Moral Economies at South Sudan's Forest Frontier’.

Book Manuscripts

· Benson, M. Of Rule Not Revenue: Predation, State-Unbuilding, and Conflict in Sudan and South Sudan Manuscript invited for peer review with Cambridge University Press (African Studies Series). Expected submission: August 2026.

· Benson-Strohmayer, M. A History of the Economic History of the State. Cambridge University Press (Elements in the History of Economics). Invited contribution; in development. Anticipated 2027.  Recasts the state as an unsettled economic project, enacted and contested through fiscal and monetary systems, including by non-state actors who exercise fiscal authority without controlling formal institutions. Traces how the proposition that war makes states became embedded in economic thought and fiscal measurement. Argues that when fiscal and monetary apparatuses become tools of predatory rule, war can instead unmake states. Lays the conceptual groundwork for comparative fiscal history.

· Benson-Strohmayer, M. Making and Unmaking the Fiscal State: Rule, Not Revenue in Comparative Perspective. A comparative fiscal history of how coercive revenue orders make and unmake states, extending the ‘rule, not revenue’ argument of the Sudan/South Sudan monograph to explain why predation persists, why states fragment, and why external interventions struggle in conflict-affected settings, with Africa as the analytical centre. In development.

Policy Publications, Reports, & Working Papers

· Benson-Strohmayer, M. and Maalla, T. (2026) ‘Expert Economic Evidence in Support of Amicus Curiae Submission’, Annex III to Amicus Curiae Observations on Reparations, Prosecutor v. Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman (‘Ali Kushayb’), ICC-02/05-01/20, International Criminal Court.

· Benson-Strohmayer, M. (2026) ‘From War Economies to Predatory Peace: How Peace Settlements Legitimise Extraction’. Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep) Policy Brief, London School of Economics and Political Science.

· Adhikari, M., Beaujouan, J., Benson-Strohmayer, M., Cooper, L., Darkovich, A., Epple, T., Gharibah, M., Gueudet, S., Kaldor, M., Majid, N., Myanmar Policy Institute, Theros, M., Turkmani, R. and Weigand, F. (2026) ‘Civic Network Research: A Methodology for Undertaking Research in Authoritarian and Conflict Impacted Settings’, Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep) Policy Brief, London School of Economics and Political Science.

· Benson-Strohmayer, M., Makawi, R., Berridge, W., and Detzner, S. (2025) ‘Security, Fragmentation, and Civic Futures: Rethinking Reform in Sudan’s Militarised Political Economy’. Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep), London School of Economics and Political Science.

· Makawi, R. and Benson-Strohmayer, M. (2025) ‘Sudan’s Civic Future: Mapping Medania, Resistance, and Democratic Aspirations’, Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep) Policy Brief, Edinburgh University.

· van den Boogaard, V., Prichard, W., Milicic, N., Benson, M., and Chen, D. (2025) ‘Tax Revenue Mobilisation in Conflict-affected Developing Countries’, International Centre on Tax and Development (ICTD) Research in Brief 150, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies.  

· Benson, M. and Alneel, M. (2023) ‘The Everyday Politics of Sudan’s Tax System: Identifying Prospects for Reform’, Peace and Conflict Resolution Research Platform (PeaceRep), London School of Economics and Political Science.

· Benson, M. and Makawi, M. (2023) Sudan’s Fragmented Governance and Implications for Humanitarian Actors, Mercy Corps Crisis Analysis, September 2023.

· Benson, M. and Makawi, M. (2023) Humanitarian Action within a War Economy, Mercy Corps Crisis Analysis, August 2023.

· Benson, M. and Makawi, M. (2023) Conflict and Food Insecurity in Sudan: Key Risks and Locally Led Responses, Mercy Corps Crisis Analysis, July 2023.  

· Benson, M. (2022) ‘Taxation and Civicness in South Sudan: Revenue Reforms for a More Inclusive Democracy’, Peace and Conflict Resolution Research Platform (PeaceRep) London School of Economics and Political Science.

· Benson, M. (2022) ‘Taxation, Coercion and Civicness in South Sudan’, In Lynch, M., Aidi, H. and Mampilly, Z. (eds.) The Struggle for Democracy in Africa: Elections, Coups and Popular Opinion. New York: Program on African Social Research at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, CUNY.

· Kaldor, M., Radice, H., de Waal, A., Benson, M., Detzner, S., Elder, C., Hoffmann, K., Ibreck, R., Majid, N., Mehchy, Z., Rangelov, I., Sarkar, A., Spatz, B., Theros, M., Turkmani, R., Vlassenroot, K. and Watkins, J. (2020) ‘Evidence from the Conflict Research Programme: submission to the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy’.  Conflict Research Programme, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

· de Waal, A., Boswell, A., Deng, D., Ibreck, R., Benson, M. and Pospisil, J. (2019) ‘South Sudan: The Politics of Delay’. Conflict Research Programme, London School of Economics and Political Science. Policy Memo.

· Pape, U., Benson, M., Ebrahim, M., and Lole, J. (2017) ‘Reducing Poverty Through Improved Agro-Logistics in a Fragile Country: Findings from a Trader Survey in South Sudan’. World Bank, Poverty & Equity Global Practice, Africa. Research Working Paper.  

· Denney, L., Mallett, R. with Benson, M. (2017) ‘Service Delivery and State Capacity: Findings from the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium’, Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC), Overseas Development Institute. Synthesis Report.

· van den Boogaard, V., Prichard, W., Milicic, N. and Benson, M. (2016) ‘Revenue Mobilization in Conflict-Affected Developing Countries’. International Centre for Tax and Development and United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER). Working Paper.

· Benson, M. (2016) Paying for Government and Services: 28 States and Revenue. In Aalen, L. and Schomerus, M. (eds.) Considering the State: Perspectives on South Sudan’s Sub-Division and Federalism Debate. London: Overseas Development Institute and the Chr. Michelsen Institute.

· Allouche, J., Benson, M. and M’Cormack, F. (2016) ‘Beyond Borders: The End of the Mano River War(s)?’. Institute of Development Studies, Brighton. Evidence Report No. 188.

· Benson, M. (2015) ‘Let’s Talk About Tax: Revenue and South Sudan’s Constitution’. Africa in Fact, Issue 32.

· Benson, M. (2007) ‘Insecure Environments: The Missing Piece?’, Forced Migration Review, Issue 29 : p.20-21.

Works in Progress

· Benson-Strohmayer, M., Makawi, R., & Srinivasan, S. ‘Resisting Peace: Sudan’s Revolutionary Struggle Against the Reproduction of War and the Predatory State’. (In preparation).

· Benson-Strohmayer, M. ‘Predatory Peace: The Hidden Fiscal Politics of Post-Cold War Peace’. (In preparation).

· Adhikari, M., Benson-Strohmayer, M., Beaujouan-Marliere, J., Cooper, L., Darkovitch, A., Gueudet, S., Kaldor, M., and Theros, M., Turkmani, R. ‘Civic Network Research: A Methodology for Undertaking Research in Authoritarian and Conflict Impacted Settings’. (Manuscript under review).

Book Reviews

· Benson-Strohmayer, M. (2026) ‘Review of Money, Value, and the State: Sovereignty and Citizenship in East Africa by Kevin Donovan’. Africa: Journal of the International Africa Institute.

· Benson, M. (2023) ‘Review of Roadblock Politics: The Origins of Violence in Central Africa’ by Peer Schouten’. Africa: Journal of the International Africa Institute. Vol.93, Issue 3.

· Benson, M. (2023) ‘Review – When Peace Kills Politics: International Intervention in the Sudans by Sharath Srinivasan’, Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep), 23 January.  

· Benson, M. (2021) ‘Review of Taxing Africa: Coercion, Reform and Development’ by Mick Moore, Wilson Prichard and Odd-Helge Fjeldstad’. Africa: Journal of the International Africa Institute, Vol. 91, Issue 2.

·  Benson, M. (Issue 55, February 2017) ‘Review of Borders and Borderlands as Political Resources in the Horn of Africa, edited by Dereje Feyissa and Markus Virgil Hoehne’. Journal of Sudan and South Sudan Studies, Sudan Studies Society of the United Kingdom, Book Review. 

·  Benson, M. (2015) ‘Review of Naseem Badiey’s, The State of Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Land, Urban Development and State-Building in Juba Southern Sudan’. Journal of Sudan and South Sudan Studies, Sudan Studies Society of the United Kingdom. Issue 52.

Trade Book

· When Peace Is War: The Global Economy of Predatory Peace. Trade book in preparation.