21: Conflict Processes

Navin Bapat, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, bapat@unc.edu

Patricia Sullivan, University of Georgia, tsulli@uga.edu

The Conflict Processes section invites proposals for papers, panels, and roundtables that both develop theoretical explanations and conduct empirical research about the causes, conduct, and consequences of international and civil conflict. This year’s conference theme focuses on the difficulties created by economic stress in the international system. We therefore welcome proposals that seek to understand how conditions of economic distress at the system level affect the willingness of parties to initiate, continue, or terminate interstate violent conflict, as well as proposals that examine if system wide economic difficulties have any effects on non-state violence, such as insurgencies, civil wars, terrorist campaigns, or piracy. We further invite proposals that examine how international institutions respond to the challenges created by times of economic crisis. Do institutions matter more for conflict resolution during such times, or does the power of international institutions erode when the economic system is weak? Are states more or less willing to intervene in conflicts during global economic downturns? As in years past, the division encourages all submissions that apply rigorous theoretical and empirical methods to the study of inter- and intra-state conflict.