Understanding contestations for power

The Security and Justice Research Programma of Clingendael’s Conflict Research Unit emerges from years of work in this area. It differentiates itself from programmes of other think-tanks by straddling the realms of academia, policy-making and operational practice, which endows it with depth as well as practical relevance. While its research confronts politically inconvenient truths head-on, it does not just critique from the side-lines. Instead, it takes care to always offer a well-supported view on what is feasible in an imperfect world. It analyses the nature, organisation and provision of security and justice in fragile and crisis environments in the context of the use of violence in contemporary processes of state formation. It is guided by three lines of research for the period 2015–2019:

1. How do elite interests, coalitions and pacts influence the organisation and provision of security and justice?
2. How is local innovation in security and justice solutions addressing 21st-century violence?
3. How can international support for security and justice development be improved?

Whereas research question 1 is more conceptual and examines the power dynamics of security and justice in the creation and mitigation of insecurity and disorder, research questions 2 and 3 are more operational and look at practical possibilities for improving the state of security and justice in fragile environments from a local (research question 2) and an international (research question 3) perspective.

The full web-based Research Programma can be found on this website

All publications on Security and Justice