GS04 Peace and Conflict Studies

Session Code
GS04
Session Chairs
Dr. Timofey Agarin
Dr. Andrew Thomson

Experience of conflict is foundational to our everyday interactions; contests for representative office, electoral mobilization, and political participation among citizens are impossible to imagine without disagreements on the social, economic, and cultural outcomes of governance. Though the absence of peace is often equated with conflict, Peace and Conflict Studies underline that intergroup violence is but a more virulent expression of “conflict.” Conflicts begin with micro tensions and might, but need not, evolve into out-group enmity.

Traditionally committed to exploring the origins, conditions, and consequences of strained relationships between societal groups and political institutions, Peace and Conflict Studies is home to case and comparative studies on processes and dynamics, as well as the eventual outcomes of conflicts. Increasingly, research has become more attentive to differently positioned stakeholders, as well as external, vested institutions and agents, to map out options for conflict resolution and intergroup peace. Studies of Peace and Conflict are by nature interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, drawing on comparative politics and international studies, political sociology, and international relations to engage with existing practices of conflict and conflict transformation.

This General Session is calling for panels and papers that seek to critically assess existing theories and supplement conceptual discussions with insights from case studies. We welcome contributions that cover a broad range of sub-disciplines: extremism and violence; conflict escalation and resolution; rebel governance and mobilization; militias and military actors; states and IOs as agents of conflict or peacekeeping; civilians and political parties as peacebuilding agents; conflicts over territories, resources, and ideological hierarchies; identity and grievance driven conflicts.