Onderzoek

RESEARCH
CICAM research specializes in the analysis of contemporary violent conflicts and initiatives to promote and foster peace. CICAM researchers study these phenomena from the perspective of actors in conflict-affected countries themselves, while remaining cognisant of the embeddedness of local dynamics in national, international and transnational developments.

In particular, research produced by CICAM scholars is characterised by:

  • In-depth, qualitative fieldwork in conflict-affected states (in combination with other methodological approaches)
  • Critical analyses of dominant frameworks, discourses, and approaches to conflict analysis, peacebuilding and development
  • The interest in the connections and interactions between ‘local’ and ‘global’ actors and the need to continually problematize these terms

Specific themes that are frequently covered in CICAM research include:

  • Local processes of state formation and diverse efforts at legitimizing public authority, involving state actors, civil society groups, local and customary institutions, warlords and international organisations
  • The relationship between conflict and development, including the roles played by foreign aid and investment in producing peace and/or conflict
  • The role of civil society and social movements in conflict, peace and development
  • Discourses and practices of peacebuilding
  • Everyday practice of state-building, governance and security in border areas

Projects in which CICAM researchers are involved include:

  • The Centre for International Conflict Analysis & Management (CICAM) is leading member of a consortium also including The Hague Academy for Local Governance (NL), Norwegian People’s Aid (Norway), United Nations Human Settlements Program (DRC) and Wageningen University (NL), which has submitted a winning research proposal to the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)/ WOTRO Science for Global Development. The awarded project is titled Enhancing justice through land governance reform in DRC & South Sudan, The subsidy is granted by NWO/WOTRO’s Applied Research Fund on the theme Embedding Justice in Power and Politics, which was created by the Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law and WOTRO to develop research projects that contribute to the generation of new knowledge and the evidence base of current policies in the field of security and rule of law in fragile and conflict-affected settings. It is funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  • 'Donor-Government Relations in Sub-Saharan Africa' (funded by a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant from the European Commission’s Seventh Programme Framework).
  • 'Guerre et Politique' (funded by the City of Paris)
  • 'Grounding Land Governance - Land conflicts, local governance & decentralization in Uganda, Burundi & South Sudan' (Funded by NWO WOTRO Integrated Programme, hosted by the African Studies Centre, Leiden)
  • 'Competing Hegemonies: Foreign-dominated processes of development in post-conflict Cambodia' (Funded by NWO WOTRO Integrated Programme, with University of Amsterdam, Free University Amsterdam, and Royal University of Phnom Penh Cambodia).
  • 'Alternatives to state-sponsored security in Areas of Extremely Limited Statehood: South Sudan and the Central African Republic' (Funded by the German DFG SFB700 programme ‘Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood’ of the Free University Berlin with the GIGA Institute of African Affairs)


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Grounding Land Governance