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 Statecraft 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.
Book Manuscript
· Benson, M. Of Revenue Not Rule: Predation, State-Unbuilding, and Conflict in Sudan and South SudanManuscript invited for submission and anonymous peer review with Cambridge University Press (African Studies Series), following assessment by the CUP publisher and editorial board (May 2025). Expected submission: summer 2026.
· When Peace Is War: The Global Economy of Predatory Peace. Trade book in preparation.
Future Scholarly Project
· Finance at War: A Global History of Peace and Predation – This second academic book project advances my work on predatory peace into a global, comparative framework. It examines how late-twentieth- and twenty-first-century peace settlements have increasingly functioned as fiscal instruments that reorganise, rather than dismantle, wartime political economies. Through comparative analysis of peace agreements and reconstruction processes across Africa and other world regions, the project traces how authority over revenue, rents, and extraction is redistributed through post-war institutions – often legitimising wartime fiscal orders and embedding persistent rights violations under formally peaceful orders. The book develops a new fiscal history of war and peace, connecting African cases to global patterns of transnational finance, geopolitics, and human rights governance.
Peer Reviewed Policy Publications, & Working Papers
· 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.
· Benson-Strohmayer, M., Makawi, R., M. 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. (2025 – Forthcoming) ‘The Rise Predatory Rule in Sudan: Revenue and Statebuilding, Peacebuilding, & Warmaking’, Small Arms Survey, University of Geneva.
· 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. ‘Predatory Peace: The Hidden Fiscal Politics of Post-Cold War Peace’. (In preparation).
· Benson-Strohmayer, M., Makawi, R., & Srinivasan, S. ‘Resisting Peace: Sudan’s Revolutionary Struggle Against the Reproduction of War and the Predatory State’. (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).
· Benson-Strohmayer, M., Greenbaum, J., and Awany, J. (In preparation) ‘Subversion & Control: The Moral Economies of Timber in South Sudan’.
Book Reviews
· Benson-Strohmayer, M. (2026 – Forthcoming) ‘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.