If a society is to be secure, sustainable and resilient, conflicting interests must be reconciled. Researchers at Leiden University study the behaviour of individuals, groups and states in relation to this issue, and use their knowledge to promote equality within and between communities.

A far-reaching understanding of human behaviour is necessary to get to grips with conflicts in society and to encourage parties to meet each other halfway. Psychologists, anthropologists and political scientists from Leiden are making invaluable contributions to that understanding. You can find out…

How can we solve value conflicts?

This research cluster is a part of the Institute of Political Science’s research programme ‘Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviour’. Its members investigate the drivers of political conflict and various types of crises. They study how citizens, political institutions and international organizations…

The debate about state behaviour in cyberspace may be set in the wrong legal key.

How do cultural differences affect conflict escalation and the effectiveness of conflict interventions?

Institutions for Conflict Resolution in Leiden focuses on how the judiciary is able to prevent and solve problems.

This research project addresses an unexplored dimension of historical conflict resolution: the dynamics of strategic choices made by traders engaged in foreign trade in the city of Danzig (Gdansk) c. 1450-1580, a Hanseatic city under the Polish Crown.

Violence during war often involves upswings and downturns that have, to date, been insufficiently explained. Why does violence at a particular point in time increase in intensity and why do actors in war decrease the level of violence at other points? Duyvesteyn discusses the potential explanatory variables…

While Nietzsche's works and ideas are relevant across the many branches of philosophy, the themes of contest and conflict have been mostly overlooked. Conflict and Contest in Nietzsche's Philosophy redresses this situation, arguing for the importance of these issues throughout Nietzsche's work.

Can you imagine a radically different world? In our times dominated by neoliberal capitalism, we seem to lack not only viable alternatives, but also the capacity to envision anything outside of the status quo.

Investigate why and how people mobilise around group identities, as well as the institutional arrangements for resolving or reducing ethnic conflict.

Large carnivore population is globally declining as a result of the fragmentation of habitat, large prey depletion and retaliatory killing by pastoralists.

The latest podcast by Aukje Nauta, Professor by Special Appointment Enhancing Individuals in a Dynamic Work Context, for PeoplePowerFM.

The specialisation Global Conflict in the Modern Era of the master’s in International Relations at Leiden University engages you with the scholarly debates about global conflict today and in the recent past.

On the 44th anniversary of Maastricht University, organisational psychologist Carsten de Dreu has transferred the dies lecture: 'On the Psychology and Economics of Leading Groups’. Watch Youtube for the lecture of De Dreu, winner of the Spinoza Prize in 2018.

The Institute for Philosophy at Leiden University is host to the NWO programme,

Since mid-March, residents of Groningen have had access to a single digital portal for reporting damage to property arising from local gas extraction. Why is the Groningen gas issue such a complex problem and why is compensation taking so long? Psychologist Emma ter Mors and public administration specialist…

Pre-modern long-distance trade was fraught with risks which often created conflicts of interest. The ensuing disputes and the ways the actors involved dealt with them belong to the field of conflict management.

What are the mechanisms involved in the reconciliation of value conflicts and which interventions are capable of resolving such disputes?

It is widely known that conflict parties engage in ceasefires for a variety of reasons, but how do these reasons relate to the military and political aspirations of conflict party leaders?

This dissertation focuses on the production and consumption of a mediation show in China that collaborates with the local Justice Bureau and broadcasts on an entertainment channel—exploring answers to questions raised from the mentioned entertainisation, social and political, and cultural issues.

What can we learn from how maritime conflicts were managed in the past? What significance did Maritime Conflict Management have in shaping the standards of diplomacy and international law in pre-modern Atlantic Europe (1200-1600)?

This new study by professor Peter Hoppenbrouwers focuses on conflict in village communities of late medieval Drenthe in order to depict a typical peasant society in late medieval Europe.

Maritime conflict management is the regulation of conflict in relation to the sea. It comprises conflict enforcement, conflict resolution and conflict avoidance. How did victims of maritime conflicts claim and obtain damages or demand compensation or reparation?

People prefer to reward cooperative behaviour than punish egotistical behaviour, even if this egotism has a negative effect on others. This is the conclusion of organisational psychologist Welmer Molenmaker in his research on the willingness to reward or punish cooperative behaviour. PhD defence 19…

Psychologists Emma ter Mors, Christine Boomsma and other research partners will share results from their work on the crucial issue of societal support for delivering carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) in Europe. You're welcome to watch the free webinar.

What is the population size/structure and distribution of tiger and leopard inside the Bardia National Park (BNP) compared with the population outside? What is the movement and home range and conflict pattern in time and space of tigers and leopards inside the BNP compared with outside? What constitutes…

The project investigates the implementation of policies and practices related to reconciliation and the strengthening of government capacity in the Odesa and Kharkiv regions of Ukraine.

Should the law and norms applicable to armed conflict include a distinct category covering the transition from armed conflict to peace, jus post bellum, and if so what are its characteristics?

What is the population size and social structure in time and space? What is the lion diet and food preference in time and space? What is the home range (MCP and Kernel) and movement in time and space? What are human – lion conflict and responses of lions to traditional herding in time and space? What…

Valerie Sticher has been awarded the Cedric Smith Prize 2021 of the Conflict Research Society (CRS) for an article she wrote as a part of her dissertation at ISGA last May. The Cedric Smith Prize is awarded annually to the best article or thesis chapter in peace and conflict research by a PhD student.…

People are less willing to give up an interest when in a negotiation situation than when they can do it of their own free will, as Leiden University psychologist Eric van Dijk discovered. Knowledge of this kind can be used by policy makers, for instance, to motivate people to adopt certain desirable…

A comprehensive analysis of Nietzsche's conception of conflict and the way in which relations of struggle condition the organisation of complex systems (with a specific focus on the human psyche and the body politic).

In this research I assess the impact of the recently discovered gas reserves south off Cyprus on the escalation of the Cyprus conflict.

This research programme seeks to understand the dynamics in the relationship between social media, mobile telephony and the social fabric under duress in Africa's mobile margins. It combines studies on mobility/migration, conflict and communication in an attempt to uncover these new dynamics, which…

Are there general principles or values that should govern our actions as moral agents and/or as political subjects?

This socio-legal research focuses on the impacts of environmental displacement on land rights and land-related conflict in Mozambique in the aftermath of cyclone Idai, and on the role of the legal framework in addressing these problems.

The world is full of wars, and no war is without its dead. What happens to the bodies of fatal casualties of armed conflict? The winner of the faculty Jongbloed Thesis Prize 2015 is Welmoet Wels (Public International Law). Her thesis Dead body management in armed conflict: paradoxes in trying to do…

In online games conflicts between players may arise. Novin, Bos, Stevenson and Rieffe investigated factors that may explain why some adolescents react more angrily than others in this type of situation. In their realistically designed gaming environment, the (pre-programmed) fellow player suddenly started…

What is the state of access to justice in real property grievances in today’s Libya, and how should it be improved?

Promotores: Prof.dr. G.A. Persoon & Prof. dr. H.H. de Iongh

Promotor: G.R. de Snoo, W. Kustiawan, Co-promotor: H.H. de Iongh

This book explores how changes in the patterns of cooperation and conflict among states, regional actors and transnational non-state actors have affected the rise of emerging global powers and the suggested decline of US leadership. Scholars, students and policy practitioners who are interested in the…

This page is under construction.

This dissertation addresses the position of artistic research within academia.

On 21 March 2019, James Welch defended his thesis 'The Grotius Sanction: Deus Ex Machina. The legal, ethical, and strategic use of drones in transnational armed conflict and counterterrorism'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. P.B Cliteur.

Learning is easiest out of interest. But interest is often multiple, and expands in various directions. How do you organize education accordingly?

Conference