Trends in armed conflicts

Contact

Dr. Ekaterina Stepanova

New: Stepanova, Ekaterina, 'Trends in Armed Conflicts', in SIPRI Yearbook 2008: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), chapter 2.

New: Stepanova E., 'Gosudarstvo i chelovek v sovremennyh konfliktah' [The State and the Individual in Modern Conflicts], in Mezhdunarodnyie protsessy [International Processes], vol. 6, no. 1 (January-April 2008), in Russian.

Forthcoming: Stepanova E., “Un patron para el estudio de los conflictos armadas”, in Una mirada al mundo del siglo XXI, XV Curso Internacional de Defensa, Jaca, septiembre 2007 (Zaragoza: Ministeria de Defensa, 2008), in Spanish.

Description

The continuous critical analysis of violent conflicts around the world - their causes, dynamics and consequences - constitutes the core task of the programme. The principal output of this research is the chapter on trends in armed conflicts roduced for the SIPRI Yearbook, but this work also feeds into the development of particular thematic research projects (please follow links below).

In recent years, chapters on major armed conflicts have focused on the analysis of intra-state conflict. The SIPRI Yearbook examined the seeming intractability of certain intra-state conflicts and analyzed the reasons for their volatility and persistence. The SIPRI Yearbook explored specific features of intra-state conflicts in terms of the actors involved, underlying grievances, particular tactics and the involvement of civilians in intra-state conflicts. The internationalisation of some intra-state conflicts was also considered. For SIPRI Yearbook 2006 the focus on intra-state conflict continues, concentrating on the role of non-state actors in intra-state conflict, and particular challenges for conflict management associated with their activity. The role of transnational actors in intra-state (and transnational) conflict is expected to be the focus for forthcoming SIPRI Yearbook 2007.

The findings of the Conflict Data Project at Uppsala University are published each year in the SIPRI Yearbook as an appendix to the chapter on major armed conflicts. In 2001, SIPRI's Armed Conflict Programme undertook a widereaching survey of conflict data collection projects at other institutions and universities (see Conflict Data Sets).