In the past 10-15 years, conflict scholars have been increasingly looking at the micro-dynamics of armed conflicts. While much of the previous research had the state as the primary unit of analysis, this work puts the behavior of individuals and groups at the center.

The aim of this symposium is to bring together researchers that look at armed conflicts from such a micro-dynamics perspective. Some of the questions that can be addressed in the papers are, for example, how civilians cope with armed conflict situations, what kind of order emerges when the state retreats, or what factors explain the occurrence and absence of violence against civilians in armed conflicts. The contributions are not limited to specific places or time periods.

At the same time, the symposium also invites contributions from scholars that work on conflict management and termination policies. These participants are invited to reflect in their papers on the question how well (or not) national and international actors integrate our knowledge of the micro-dynamics of armed conflicts into their policies.

Keynote speaker: Stathis Kalyvas (Gladstone Professor of Government in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford)

Conference language: English