Fragility & Peace


Despite declines in interstate conflict, violence prompted by weak institutions, protracted grievances, broken social compacts, illicit transnational networks, and outside intervention have redefined notions of conflict and fragility. ISE seeks to unpack these new collective understandings, exploring features of conflict and violence and broader drivers such as climate change, poor social cohesion, and migration. We are supporting new and innovative perspectives on peacebuilding, informed by comprehensive analyses of modern peace processes.

Rebuilding Post-Conflict Societies

In an era of increasing globalization, the experiences of societies merging from crisis and conflict highlights the importance of statehood and state institutions as frameworks for promoting human security, welfare and the rule of law.…

View Complete Publication

Stability, State-Building and Development Assistance: An Outside Perspective

This paper proposes making state-building the central goal of development engagement and aid distribution. It examines the recent record of development agencies to map the processes for aid implementation in practice. Firstly, it considers the…

View Complete Publication

State-building in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Conditions

A state-building strategy can act as the basis for agreement between international and domestic actors on priorities, sequencing and actions to maximize progress. Such a strategy would require revision of international practices such as resource…

View Complete Publication

Haiti: Consolidating Peace, Security and Development

An acknowledged need for a new approach among the Haiti aid complex informs this study of Haiti, and how it can create and consolidate credible institutions. This paper sets out targeted suggestions for achieving this,…

View Complete Publication