--- title: Conflict & Peace Studies description: This field examines the causes of violent conflict and the mechanisms for peaceful resolution. Learners will understand peacebuilding strategies, conflict analysis frameworks, and the roles of international organizations in sustaining global peace. category: social-sciences subcategory: international-relations difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/conflict-and-peace-studies --- # Conflict & Peace Studies This field examines the causes of violent conflict and the mechanisms for peaceful resolution. Learners will understand peacebuilding strategies, conflict analysis frameworks, and the roles of international organizations in sustaining global peace. ## Available Resources 2 Books • 3 Courses • 3 Websites ## Websites ### 1. Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) The world's leading source of data on organized violence, run by Uppsala University's Department of Peace and Conflict Research since 1979, offering downloadable datasets, interactive maps, and standardized definitions used across conflict research worldwide. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://ucdp.uu.se/ **Tags:** conflict-studies, conflict-data, peace-research, armed-conflict ### 2. Beyond Intractability A free knowledge base on intractable conflict edited by Guy and Heidi Burgess through the Conflict Information Consortium, offering essays, case studies, and a structured Constructive Conflict Guide built from decades of contributions by conflict resolution scholars. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.beyondintractability.org/ **Tags:** conflict-resolution, peace-studies, knowledge-base, negotiation ### 3. sipri.org SIPRI is an independent international think tank focused on global security, arms control, and disarmament. The site provides data, analysis, and publications on military spending, arms transfers, weapons of mass destruction, and related policy issues. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://sipri.org **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, international-relations ## Courses ### 1. Global Diplomacy – Diplomacy in the Modern World The Global Diplomacy course is a unique offering to the MOOC environment. Bringing together cutting edge research in the broad fields of Diplomatic and International Studies, award winning distance learning delivery and the instructors previous experience of delivering a successful MOOC. Please see the volume Global Diplomacy: Theories, Types and Models authored with Dr Alison Holmes, (Westview, 2016), and the Understanding Research Methods MOOC from Coursera. The Global Diplomacy MOOC has a direct heritage in the University of London International Academy/SOAS Global Diplomacy MA Programme launched in April 2013 which have attracted hundreds of students from around the world. The Global Diplomacy MA Programme is provided by the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy which has been teaching postgraduate courses in Diplomacy for over twenty five years. After completing the 'Global Diplomacy' MOOC, learners will have: 1. The ability to demonstrate a critical understanding of the nature and development of global diplomacy, drawing on a variety of relevant contributing disciplines in the broad field of International Studies. 2. An understanding of changes in diplomatic practices and procedures and the relationship of those changes to contemporary politics. 3. A sound grounding in both theoretical and empirical approaches to debates in diplomacy so that students have been exposed to the and skills needed to analyse global diplomacy. 4. knowledge of issues in global diplomacy in historical and contemporary contexts. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/global-diplomacy **Tags:** diplomacy, international-relations, global-governance, foreign-policy ### 2. Causes and Prevention of War (MIT 17.42) **Author:** Stephen Van Evera Examines why wars start and how to prevent them: misperception, military strategy, religion and U.S. foreign policy, with cases from the Peloponnesian War to both World Wars and the Middle East. Provides lecture notes, exams and sample written assignments for analysing the causes of war. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/17-42-causes-and-prevention-of-war-spring-2018/ **Tags:** international-relations, war-studies, conflict-prevention, security-studies, foreign-policy ### 3. Religion, Conflict and Peace **Author:** Diane L. Moore HarvardX course led by Diane L. Moore on how religious beliefs, institutions and actors can fuel violence and also support peacebuilding, taught through regional case studies. Learners gain a religious-literacy framework for analysing religion's role in conflicts without treating traditions as fixed or uniform. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.edx.org/learn/religion/harvard-university-religion-conflict-and-peace **Tags:** religion-and-conflict, peacebuilding, religious-literacy, religion-and-politics, case-studies ## Youtubes ### 1. Postcolonial Hierarchies in Peace & Conflict YouTube channel of a German research network (Marburg, Bayreuth, Erfurt and the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute) publishing talks and event recordings on how colonial legacies shape violence, security, governance and transitional justice. Viewers gain exposure to postcolonial critiques of peace and conflict studies. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://youtube.com/@postcolonialhierarchies **Tags:** postcolonial-theory, peace-and-conflict-studies, decolonization, transitional-justice, conflict-analysis ## Books ### 1. Better Angels of Our Nature **Author:** Steven Pinker Steven Pinker's data-driven history argues that violence has declined dramatically across human history, tracing psychological, cultural, and political forces behind that decline. Readers gain a statistical framework for evaluating conflict and peace trends. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143122010?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, international-relations ### 2. Man, the State, and War **Author:** Kenneth Waltz Kenneth Waltz's foundational international relations text examines the causes of war through three levels of analysis: human nature, the state, and the international system. Readers learn the levels-of-analysis framework central to IR theory. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0231125372?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, international-relations --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/conflict-and-peace-studies