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Events

Rethinking UK policy towards conflict: lessons from the CRP

Hosted by the LSE IDEAS

Online public event

Speakers

Professor Mary Kaldor

Professor Mary Kaldor

Principal Investigator, Conflict Research Programme

Rim Turkmani

Rim Turkmani

Syria Country Director, Conflict Research Programme

Julian Reilly

Julian Reilly

UK Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea

Christopher Coker

Christopher Coker

Discussant

Alex de Waal

Alex de Waal

Discussant

Chair

Chris Alden

Chris Alden

Director, LSE IDEAS

The panel will discuss the policy recommendations proposed by the Conflict Research Programme to the UK Government’s Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy.

In July 2020, the LSE Conflict Research Programme (CRP) submitted evidence to inform the UK Government’s Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, and to support the DFID-FCO merger into the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The UK Integrated Review is the most significant reconfiguration of Britain’s defence and security needs in a decade, re-examining the UK’s priorities and objectives.

The CRP provided evidence that argues for a new understanding of conflict, one that is a pervasive and persistent ‘social condition’. Instead of seeing conflict in terms of ‘sides’, we analyse it in terms of multiple public authorities operating according to different logics. This can help policymakers to better understand how conflict actually works in practice which will in turn inform international programming and interventions. We recommend adopting a flexible approach to programming and avoid fragmented and contradictory responses. It is in the national interest for the UK to act as a civic agent in relation to conflict. This means actively avoiding policies that risk reinforcing what we call the political marketplace or exclusivist identity politics, as well as supporting civic initiatives.

Download the evidence paper here.

Mary Kaldor (@KaldorM) is the Principal Investigator of the Conflict Research Programme and Professor Emeritus of Global Governance. Professor Kaldor pioneered the concept of new wars and global civil society and her work on the practical implementation of human security has directly influenced European and national politics.

Rim Turkmani (Rim_Turkmani) is the Research Director for the Conflict Research Programme work in Syria. 

Julian Reilly (@JulianRFCO) is the UK Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.

Christopher Coker is Director of LSE IDEAS. He was Professor of International Relations at LSE, retiring in 2019.

Professor Chris Alden teaches International Relations at LSE and is Director of LSE IDEAS. He is a Research Associate with South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA).

Twitter hashtag: #LSECRP

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About the Conflict Research Programme

The Conflict Research Programme (CRP) is a four year research programme hosted by LSE IDEAS at the LSE. Our goal is to understand and analyse the nature of contemporary conflict and to identify international interventions that ‘work’ in the sense of reducing violence or contributing more broadly to the security of individuals and communities who experience conflict.

It is often assumed that contemporary conflicts are the consequence of ‘fragile’, ‘failed’ or ‘collapsed’ states. The CRP uses the concept of public authority, which could refer to a state, a municipality, a chiefdom or an international organisation—or any emergent form of socio-political institution. The programme investigates how different forms of public authority actually function; and we argue that levels of violence and insecurity tend to depend on the nature of the different logics. 

LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. We connect academic knowledge of diplomacy and strategy with the people who use it. 

Learn more.

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Photo credit: Commonwealth Day 2020, Flags in Parliament Square, London for Commonwealth Day, 9 March 2020. Source: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office/Flickr.