The Conflict Research Society (CRS) invites submissions that explore topics related to global and domestic fragmentation, the initiation and cessation of conflict, contentious politics, diplomacy, peace processes, and geopolitical transitions.

We have some exciting news:

• The conference is hosted in partnership with PeaceRep: The Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform based at the University of Edinburgh Law School;

• After the resounding success of last year’s workshops, we will be hosting the format again;

• The organizing committee is very excited to invite applications for a limited number of PeaceRep ODA Scholarships for selected presenters from ODA recipient countries.

Read the full call for papers here.

Remember to submit your proposals online by 20 January 2024!

READ THE CALL

Noyonika Das is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. She holds a Master’s degree in Society and Culture and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology. Noyonika is also a PhD fellow at the Elections, Violence, Parties Project (EVaP). The EVaP project presents new theory and evidence on the nature, organization, and consequences of electoral violence. In the project, Noyonika is investigating why and how incumbents use violence to manipulate local elections. Her main research interests are the dynamics of political violence and its implications on subnational authoritarianism and democratic backsliding.

Noyonika’s doctoral dissertation develops a novel argument to explain why political parties engage in the violent subversion of local elections. The dissertation argues that local offices are important for consolidating partisan foundations and for establishing party dominance. In contexts where state-building is uneven and access to resources is scarce, local elections often witness fierce clashes between political groups who are vying for access to state power. A multi-method approach helps to unpack the spatial logic of election related violence and its implications for establishing partisan control at the local level. Using the Eastern Indian state of West Bengal as a primary empirical case, the thesis finds that the state incumbent party uses violence to consolidate and expand its electoral control. Violence is a joint collaboration between actors at different levels of governance; i.e., between the state incumbent party and local party workers or local elites. The dissertation outlines the logic of violence in local elections; this logic holds important insights on how violence can be used to undermine challenges to power from below, thereby further entrench the state incumbent. The findings have important implications for research on decentralization and subnational authoritarianism.

Noyonika will use the Sydney Bailey Fund to test the aggregate implications of violence in local elections. This analysis will involve collecting qualitative and quantitative data of the elections which followed the violent local election of 2018. Data on an additional election year will reveal the temporal implications of violence in local elections and whether coercive strategies of electoral control pay off in the long-run.

Annual Conference 2023

11-13 September

We are excited to announce the call of papers for our 2023 annual conference. In September 2023, we will celebrate the Conflict Research Society’s 60-year anniversary at King’s College London.

We welcome submissions that explore topics related to conflict initiation and cessation, political violence and its alternatives, peacebuilding, reconciliation and reparation.  Read the call and submit your proposals by 15 January 2023.

The Conflict Research Society congratulates Paul Staniland on winning the 2022 Conflict Research Society Book of the Year Prize for his book titled Ordering Violence: Explaining Armed Group-State Relations from Conflict to Cooperation. This book examines how governments’ perception of the ideological threats posed by armed groups drive their responses and interactions. By bringing together governments, insurgents, militias, and armed political parties in a shared framework, Prof. Paul Staniland advances a broad approach to armed politics. The in-depth comprehensive overview of South Asia’s complex armed politics that the book provides speaks to scholars and policymakers seeking to understand why governments often use extreme repression against weak groups even while working with or tolerating more powerful armed actors.

The prize committee received over 40 nominations from conflict/peace researchers, institutions, practitioners, and publishers from around the world. The committee chose the winning title out of 4 short-listed books based on criteria such as how well the book demonstrates a significant contribution to conflict/peace studies, impact factor, methodological rigour, robustness, and credibility of the findings, the extent to which it is interdisciplinary, quality of writing, and presentation.

Judges on the CRS Book Prize committee praised Ordering Violence for the way it “helps to break free of fixed or rigid categories such as insurgents and militias.” The judges noted that “by concentrating on relations, Staniland gives us space for understanding different armed orders and how they work.” The judges also praised the unique dataset on state-group armed orders in India, Pakistan, Burma/Myanmar, and Sri Lanka compiled for this book, as well as the detailed case studies included in the book. The judges agreed that this is an excellent book that will shape the research agenda on armed politics beyond civil wars.

This winner was elected out of a total of four finalists in the shortlist. These were excellent contenders for the prize and the judges also praised the excellent quality of research in all of the shortlisted books. Our congratulations are extended to the following running up shortlisted titles (in no particular order):

• Autesserre, S., 2021. The Frontlines of Peace: An Insider’s Guide to Changing the World. Oxford University Press.

• Melin, M.M., 2021. The Building and Breaking of Peace: Corporate Activities in Civil War Prevention and Resolution. Oxford University Press.

• Stewart, M.A., 2021. Governing for Revolution: Social Transformation in Civil War. Cambridge University Press.

Thank you also to the CRS Book Prize Judges – Janet Lewis, Isabel Phillips, Robert Nagel, Andrew Thomson, and Allard Duursma (facilitator).

The winner of this year’s CRS Book Prize, Paul Staniland will be invited to give a keynote talk to CRS members at the CRS annual conference.