Francisco J. “Pancho” Lara Jr. is a Professor at the University of the Philippines, Diliman (UP), and Senior Peace and Conflict Adviser to International Alert Philippines. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of the Philippines, and both an MSc (1997) and PhD (2011) in International Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He was research associate at the LSE Crisis States Research Centre from 2008-2011; taught classes at the LSE Development Studies Institute; and wrote on political economy issues in Indonesia and the Philippines for the LSE-IDEAS Emerging Markets Bulletin from 2007-2009.
Professor Lara has written extensively on violent extremism and post-modern conflict and is co-editor of a book on Mindanao’s shadow economies and their links to conflict and poverty entitled: Out of the Shadows: Violent Conflict and the Real Economy of Mindanao that won the Philippines’ National Book Award for the Social Sciences in 2016. He also authored the book, “Insurgents, Clans, and States: Political Legitimacy and Resurgent Conflict in Muslim Mindanao” (2014) published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press.
