College of Social Sciences

Originally posted on endlessconflicts.org

The last decade has seen a dramatic surge in the intensity and duration of armed conflicts across the globe. The wars of attrition in Syria and Yemen continue to rage, as the decades-long conflicts have worsened in Afghanistan and the DRC. In addition to battlefield fatalities, such protracted armed conflicts lead to long-term and widespread socio-economic consequences. According to the OECD, by 2030, 80% of the world’s poorest populations will be living in conditions of fragility and violence. 

In protracted conflict settings, humanitarian actors are increasingly tasked with roles that were not traditionally expected of the sector, such as the provision of basic services and infrastructure rehabilitation. The blurring of the line between conflict and post-conflict phases, in turn, forces development actors to work in unfamiliar settings of ongoing violence and insecurity. The traditional, dichotomous conceptualisation of humanitarian assistance as confined to the provision of short-term relief during ongoing crises and of development assistance as part of long-term socio-economic programming for the post-conflict phase has created a divide that fails to address the short- and long-term needs of affected communities. Bridging the divide between humanitarian and development assistance is essential for removing the structural challenges to sustained peace.

Overcoming the humanitarian-peace-development divide, however, remains a grand challenge in the absence of a better understanding of the legal drivers, relations, and mechanisms that shape humanitarian, development and peacebuilding initiatives in protracted armed conflicts. The Endless Conflicts project provides a comprehensive analysis of the institutional and substantive legal frameworks within which humanitarian and development assistance are delivered. Its aim is to investigate the extent to which international law enables integrated and accountable humanitarian and development assistance in contexts of protracted armed conflict and towards sustainable peacebuilding. 

The main objectives of the project are to:

• identify the legal challenges and modalities for the integration of development and humanitarian sectors at the institutional and systemic levels; 

• examine the interactions between various legal regimes relevant to the socio-economic dimensions of protracted armed conflicts; 

• assess the body of accountability standards and mechanisms present in humanitarian and development sectors in order to understand how they can be adjusted to ensure both the effectiveness and the accountability of international action under the conditions of protracted conflict; 

• contribute to the international cooperation towards the operationalisation of the humanitarian-development nexus in the pursuit of sustainable peace.

Why Justice, Insecurity and Fair Decision Making?

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said that “Humanitarian response, sustainable development, and sustaining peace are three sides of the same triangle.” How should we best understand the role of humanitarian and development actors in supporting long term peace and security? How might we use mediation as a tool to prevent armed conflict where development projects, especially those concerning natural resources, risk escalating tensions? What is the role of international law in these contexts? This project examines the critical intersections of the shifting roles and expectations of development agencies, the blurring of conflict- and post-conflict responses, and the legal and accountability frameworks which exist in such spaces. In doing so, we try to understand how best to achieve a just and stable peace.

Researchers on this project are part of the Glasgow Centre for International law and Security

First published: 22 June 2022