Conflict and Violence

Our work provides a nuanced and realistic understanding of the relationship between violence, conflict, security and development. It aims to help policymakers, practitioners and citizens to develop policies and practices that strengthen people’s efforts to secure their own lives and livelihoods and improve the functioning of political institutions responsible for security and the management and prevention of conflict, and for the development of peace.

We examine the multiple layers and contexts in which violence manifests – from household to state and global level – and pinpoint the links and overlaps between these layers. This includes exploring the nature of, and responses to conflict and violence in rapidly expanding urban areas.  We have a done pioneering work on the dynamics of micro-level conflict, violence and development as well as on citizen action in violent contexts. Our research on gender, men and masculinities and gender-based violence has provided new insights on how to change attitudes, norms and behaviours for equality, peace and justice.

Another focal area is the dynamics of policy processes around conflict, violence and security examining the key framing and narratives. We explore non-traditional forms of security, especially linked to water, energy, food and health as well as post conflict and state building issues affecting service delivery and livelihoods, and are also developing new participatory approaches to peacebuilding. 

People

Patricia Justino

Professorial Fellow

Rebecca Mitchell

Postgraduate Researcher and Programme Manager

Gauthier Marchais

Research Fellow

Jeremy Allouche

Professorial Fellow

Jeremy Lind

Professorial Fellow

Juan Carlos Muñoz-Mora

Post Doctoral Researcher

Marinella Leone

Research Fellow

Robin Luckham

Emeritus Fellow

Programmes and centres

Recent work

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Showing 13–24 of 15283 results

News

Podcast – The empathy fix: Why poverty persists and how to change it

A poverty line of $6.85 a day, as used by the World Bank, indicates a substantial level of deprivation, impacting the lives of billions globally. Indeed, nearly half of the World’s population falls into this category. So, if poverty is something we all want to see less of, why does it prove so...

30 April 2025

Past Event

We power our own change: The future of community-led development

Can principles of Community-led Development define the future of our sector? By introducing their recent publication, We Power our Own Change, authors in this seminar will reflect on the practices, insights, and the potential principles of Community-led Development and what it holds for the...

30 April 2025

Past Event

Food Fight: From plunder and profit to people and planet

Join us for the launch of ‘Food Fight’ – a book by food and nutrition expert Stuart Gillespie that shines a light on the evolution of our global food system from its origins in colonial plunder through the last fifty years of neoliberalism, before concluding with a set of actions to put...

29 April 2025

Opinion

What is ‘success’ in Zimbabwe’s land reform areas?

What constitutes ‘success’ if you have land in the A1 land reform areas in Zimbabwe? This is the question we have been asking of local residents across our study sites in Mazowe, Gutu, Masvingo and Matobo districts. We have held 11 workshops in different sites, involving around 208 people...

28 April 2025

Book

Food Fight: From Plunder and Profit to People and Planet

Stuart Gillespie - a veteran of four decades at the frontline of global food policy - exposes how malnutrition is enmeshed with other crises and what we can all do to turn things around. Food is life but our food system is killing us. Designed in a different century for a different purpose...

24 April 2025

Opinion

Deadly childbirths: the need to invest in maternal healthcare in Afghanistan

One woman dies in Afghanistan every two hours while trying to give birth and 167 children die in Afghanistan from preventable causes every day. In this bleak context, IDS alumna Tanjila Mazumder Drishti shares more about the dire state of care for pregnant women in Afghanistan and why it is...

Tanjila Mazumder Drishti, Regional Lead - Asia at Global Resource Mobilization and Partnerships, BRAC International

24 April 2025

Brief

Rapid Scoping Review 2025: Türkiye

Countering Rollback Country Brief

Anti-feminist discourse has long been present among groups across the political spectrum in Türkiye. Erdoğan has explicitly stated that he is against gender equality, that abortion is murder, and that using contraception undermines the nation. This rhetoric influenced the official stance on...

16 April 2025

Brief

Rapid Scoping Review 2025: South Africa

Countering Rollback Country Brief

South Africa’s Constitution offers protection, and formal recognition as equal citizens, to women and to LGBTQI+ people. It also positions South Africa as an important regional place of refuge for LGBTQI+ Africans, despite the country’s high rates of gender-based violence and xenophobia.

16 April 2025

Why learn with us.

In an extraordinary time of challenge and change, we use more than 50 years of expertise to transform development approaches that create more equitable and sustainable futures. The work you do with us will help make progressive change towards universal development; to build and connect solidarities for collective action, locally and globally. The University of Sussex has been ranked 1st in the world for Development Studies for the past five years (QS World University Rankings by Subject).

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