Theme Leaders
Institutions are pivotal in conflict prevention (by fostering equitable economic incentives and opportunities), and in post-conflict situation (in orchestrating the reconstruction process, building a durable peace and preventing the recurrence of conflict).
This theme will support research in different literatures, including:
- Research on political institutions that constrain and share power. Work is needed to understand better how different types of institutions and interventions can work together in building long-term stability.
- Strategies for enhancing state capacity in volatile and/or post-conflict nations. The absence of governance often leads to the emergence of non-state armed actors, whereas states with robust capacities have the means to counter civil unrest and to address the underlying socio-economic grievances that often lead to conflict.
- Studies on economic institutions, both at national and international levels, that create proper economic incentives and devise economic policies aimed at fostering inclusive development and reducing fragility.
- Methodological innovations that allow to substantiate empirically the understanding of political institutions and state capacity. Examples include Natural Language Processing, or new econometrics techniques to identify causal relationships from non-experimental data.