Understanding the politics of protracted violence
While much of the world has never been safer, a number of societies continue to suffer protracted violence. Lee Seymour, Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Violence, is exploring the factors behind the complex and multifaceted nature of this violence.
Despite often distressing newspaper headlines about events around the world, humanity has actually made remarkable progress in containing political violence across much of the globe. Yet, a number of countries, such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Haiti, have experienced decades of recurring violence. In these and similar places, violence is an entrenched part of how politics is done.
Armed conflict, mass killing, forced displacement, terrorism, state collapse, electoral violence and criminality continue to pose important security challenges for people in these communities, with widespread repercussions. International efforts have largely failed to create peace and political order in these societies.
Although we know that the multiple forms of violence afflicting these societies are deeply interconnected, social scientists tend to study them in isolation. Seymour’s work investigates the connections between different forms of violence in societies suffering protracted conflict. His research combines statistical approaches with fieldwork-based case studies, and draws on an interdisciplinary, theoretical approach.
The findings that emerge from his research will influence public debate on the causes, dynamics and consequences of violence. This can also help international governments, like Canada’s, develop evidence-based policy to help end violence wherever it exists.