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​Photos by Alexander L. Fattal.

This is a conflict that has moved across the contested borders of Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya — and is extremely dynamic.
The consequences of the chronic state of conflict have been exacerbated by a harsh geography and climatic conditions that are growing more extreme.

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Explore Research About Horn of Africa


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Actors, Impact on Civilians The Network Structure of Conflict Actors and its Effect on Violence against Civilians: The Case of the Conflict in Somalia ​We observe striking differences in the frequency and intensity of civilian targeting. Theories explaining such a variation often do not take into consideration the type and intensity of interactions between the complex array of conflict actors. Although conflicts often consist of many interlinked actors competing for power, resources and support from the local population, current literature tends to oversimplify actors’ fragmentation by focusing on conflict dyads or counts of actors… Actors, Impact on Civilians, Environments Changing Conflict Actors and their Impact on Civilian Suffering The Somali government and Al Shabaab militants are only two sides of a war that has dozens of armed actors. It’s a conflict that has moved across the contested borders of Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya, and — as the research and visualizations for the Changing Character of Conflict Platform shows has shown — is extremely dynamic. This is, in part, because of the country’s geostrategic location. Militaries of world powers have rushed to set up bases in the Horn of Africa, in part to keep a… Actors, Impact on Civilians Gender, State-collapse, Conflict and State-building: Recent Research from the Somali Context Judith Gardner, Rift Valley Institute Prescribing and policing gender norms and relations, in other words controlling society’s experiences of femininity and masculinity, along with social exclusion practices, is arguably at the very heart of the protracted and violent struggle for political and ideological power in today’s Somalia. The research material that my session will be drawing on comes from two recent qualitative studies: the Impact of War on Somali Men (Rift Valley Institute) and… Actors, Impact on Civilians, Environments, Methods, Resources Conflict in the Horn of Africa Actors, Impact on Civilians, Environments Cross-Stakeholder Forum Reports: Understanding Changing Conflict Dynamics in Myanmar and the Horn of Africa The Oxford Global Security Programme partnered with the UN System Staff College, the Danish Refugee Council, and International Alert to host a virtual cross-stakeholder forum that brought together civil society, the international community, and academia. ​This unique cross-stakeholder methodology facilitated exploring different perspectives —from three different continents— on topics such as the transition from war to peace, uncertainty, and perceived and experienced insecurities. Myanmar… Actors, Impact on Civilians, Environments Introducing the Changing Character of Conflict Platform project: New approach to quantitative analysis of protracted conflicts Katerina Tkacova, University of Oxford The interdisciplinary project aims to create a knowledge-based platform for academics, practitioners, policy-makers and the wider public to understand the changing character of conflicts across different epistemologies and methodologies. While we might not be able to stop some conflicts, we may well be able to prevent a drastic increase in casualties or erosion of social fabric if we understand the main patterns of organized violence. In our work, we focus… Methods, Resources Conflicts in Flux: A Novel Approach to Analysing Conflict Dynamics ​This article presents a novel approach to studying armed conflict based on a new geographical unit of analysis, ‘setting of organized violence’ (SORVI). Some of the world’s most devastating armed conflicts—ranging from the Afghan civil war to the Syrian conflict—comprise several entangled conflicts and changing contested issues that spill across borders. They also feature new spin-off conflicts. Current macro-level studies of conflict research, especially those with quantitative…