Reflecting on 20 Years of Order: Conflict & Violence Research

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

This roundtable reflects on the “micro” turn in civil war research and marks the 20th anniversary of the Yale Program on Order, Conflict and Violence (OCV). This turn spurred new research agendas on the dynamics of war, contributing to literature that was previously focused on (civil) war onset and resolution. The roundtable will discuss the key breakthroughs over the past 20+ years: what have we learned about dynamics of war, what new questions have emerged and remained puzzling, and what blindspots does a micro approach create? Focusing on the dynamics of war also helped define conceptual boundaries between wartime violence and violence as its own order; and between conflict and violence. How does research on dynamics contribute to new understandings of onset, resolution, and legacies? How do insights from the dynamics of war yield new questions and advances in understanding violence and order outside of wartime? Finally, how should research inform responses to violence? What are the ethical implications of engaging with policy or not, and of researching violence in general, especially during ongoing conflicts?

Sub Unit

• Division 21: Conflict Processes

Chair

• Abbey Steele University of Amsterdam

Presenters

• Ana M. Arjona Northwestern University

• Laia Balcells Georgetown University

• Corinna Jentzsch Leiden University

• Matthew A. Kocher Johns Hopkins University

• Juan Masullo Leiden University

• Harris Mylonas George Washington University

• Livia Isabella Schubiger ETH Zurich

• Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl Leiden University

• Stathis N. Kalyvas University of Oxford