Topher McDougal, PhD, is Associate Professor of Economic Development at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego, where he teaches courses on economic development, environmental peace & justice, humanitarianism, black markets, research methodologies, and evaluation.

Dr. McDougal’s research focuses on the microeconomic causes and consequences of armed violence and disasters, illicit trades (especially in small arms), and environmental peacebuilding. His first book, The Political Economy of Rural-Urban Conflict: Predation, Production, and Peripheries (Oxford, 2017), explained how trade networks shape the nature and extent of civil war violence. His new book project, The Fifth World: Peace and Planetary Consciousness in an Age of Environmental Devastation, makes the case that humanity is now challenged to create a centralized brain for the planet. His articles have appeared in peer-reviewed outlets including Economic Geography, Political Geography, Defence and Peace Economics, Economics of Peace & Security, Stability, and others. He has also contributed to popular outlets including The Huffington Post, The Atlantic, and Americas Quarterly.