Adam Lichtenheld is an Assistant Professor of Peace Studies, Conflict Resolution, and International Relations at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs. He is an expert on forced displacement, armed conflict, political violence, peacebuilding, and post-conflict development, with a focus on Africa and the Middle East.

More information about Adam Lichtenheld

Adam Lichtenheld is an Assistant Professor of Peace Studies, Conflict Resolution, and International Relations at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs. His research examines the dynamics of forced displacement, armed conflict, political violence, peacebuilding, and post-conflict development, with a focus on Africa and the Middle East. He has worked with governments, international donors, and NGOs to design and evaluate humanitarian and development programs in a dozen countries.

Adam is the author of Guilt by Location: Forced Displacement and Population Sorting in Civil Wars (Cambridge University Press), winner of the 2025 Conflict Research Society Book of the Year Prize. His work is published in International Organization, Political Geography, the British Journal of Political Science, and Economics & Politics, along with the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Just Security, The New Humanitarian, and the Conversation. He has received research funding from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Institute of Peace, Innovations for Poverty Action, the King Center on Global Development, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.

Prior to joining Leiden University, Adam was the Executive Director of the Immigration Policy Lab at Stanford University, Senior Researcher for Peace & Conflict at the humanitarian NGO Mercy Corps, and a Post-doctoral Fellow and Lecturer at Yale University. He has worked as a consultant for UNHCR, the World Bank, the Danish Refugee Council, Refugees International, and USAID. He holds a PhD and MA in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Adam teaches courses on forced migration, conflict, peacebuilding, and research methods.