Conflict is framed in different ways by the many actors and stakeholders involved. Actors in war or conflict use the tools of communications to spread their message, support their stance, protect their interests or garner support from local and distant communities. Communications can also be used as a weapon, dividing or diminishing support for a cause or turning external actors against an enemy.
Understanding the evolution of technologies and ever-changing formats of media through the context of war and conflict is a key to understanding the effect on public sentiment. Changing media tactics of stakeholders and examinations of the discourses of enemies uncovers motivations and underlying barriers to overcoming ideological differences.
The general effects of war on public health and development of a country are widely recognized and are important considerations in researching effects on specific populations. Understanding and prevention of war through political, economic, social and cultural determinants of war and militarism are major research goals of the cluster.
Conflict has the potential to displace people and communities wherever it occurs. This cluster focuses on topics surrounding displacement, from Internally Displaced Persons, to Refugees and the roles of traditional institutions with peace or conflict. Issues of restorative justice are important to reestablish displaced communities and return countries to pre-conflict normalcy. The Cluster also addresses root causes of conflict in ways that seek to prevent its recurrence.
This cluster focuses on social issues surrounding education, youth and gender norms during times of conflict and war through historical and social lenses. It is also broadened to overarching themes of Human Rights and how these rights are understood and valued during times of conflict.
Understanding of history contextualizes conflict and offers a means of examining motivational aspects of conflict. From historic declarations of Jihad to its current incarnations in West Africa and on a global scale, research into the ideologies that motivate violence and war inform future policy and current ways of addressing such conflict.
War as an economic driver is fraught with complexity and social and political polarizations. It can both create and destroy economies and while underway, can have economies of its own. Intertwined with other social drivers, the beginnings of understanding the economy of war and conflict especially within extremist ideologies is the undertaking of this research cluster.