The dominant form of contemporary armed conflict, civil wars kill, displace, and force millions of people into poverty, leaving long-lasting effects at the individual, local, national, and international levels. In 2019 alone, which saw a record high in the number of state-based conflicts since 1946, nearly 80,000 people were killed directly from violence and many more from destruction and poverty. Civil wars have also lasting effects on political identities, as well as attitudes toward peace and civil war recurrence. This paper charts an agenda for future research on civil war and introduces the Civil War Paths project, “Understanding Civil War from Pre- to Post-War Stages: A Comparative Approach.” This project makes three departures from the existing literature. First, it views civil war as a complex process that connects the pre-war, wartime, and postwar stages of conflict through evolving interactions between states, non-state armed groups, local populations, and external actors. Second, it seeks to understand the dynamics that link the pre- to post-war stages of conflict to one another. Finally, it argues that civil wars follow different paths based on how they emerge, unfold, and end or transform and identifies four typical paths for paired qualitative comparison. 

Organisé par l'équipe du Centre d'études sur la paix et la sécurité internationale (CEPSI), en partenariat avec l'Équipe de recherche sur la politique internationale des conflits civils (ÉPICC).  

DATE : Vendredi 24 septembre, 11h30-13h 

LIEU : local C-2059 et Zoom 

Infos Zoom