Academic Impact
Providing conceptual and empirical stepping stones to study peace and conflict resolution
We publish data on peace agreements, visualisations, project reports, and a range of written academic outputs such as journal articles and monographs. This research provides other scholars conceptual and empirical stepping stones to study issues around political settlements, peace, and conflict across various disciplines, including gender studies, history, international relations, law, political science, socio-legal studies. Our academic impact is reflected by the increasing amount of references to our research in data features, journal articles, reports, and official documents. Examples of citations include:
The Logic of Ceasefires in Civil War, 2021, by Govinda Clayton and Valerie Sticher. The authors argue that the effect of ceasefires is driven both by certain underlying logics and by the provisions they contain. The authors build on the PA-X database to capture the provisions included within all written civil war ceasefires between 1990 and 2019.
‘Youth-led peace: The role of youth in peace processes’, 2021, by Asli Ozcelik, Yulia Nesterova, Graeme Young and Alex Maxwell at the University of Glasgow. A new research report on the role of youth in peace processes from the University of Glasgow cites the PA-X Spotlight Report, ‘Local peace processes: Opportunities and challenges for women’s engagement’ written in collaboration with UN Women.
The Minsk Agreements – more than “scraps of paper”?, 2019, by Cindy Wittke, East European Politics, 35:3, 264-690. Wittke builds on Christine Bell and Jan Pospisil’s concept of formalised political unsettlement to explain why the 2014 and 2015 Minsk Agreements remain relevant despite their flawed implementation. She argues that the agreements provide platforms to contest and redefine political power and legitimacy, creating an environment of formalised political unsettlement. The agreements’ relevance today can thus best be explained by their function as frameworks for negotiation, rather than the success or failure of the agreements’ implementation.
Towards inclusive peace: Analysing gender-sensitive peace agreements 2000-2016 2019, by Jacqui True and Yolanda Riveros-Morales, International Political Science Review, 40:1, 23-40. True and Riveros-Morales use PA-X Women data to statistically analyse which factors explain the presence of gender provisions in 98 peace agreements. They find that three factors increase the likelihood of gender provision inclusion when they occur simultaneously: (1) women’s participation in peace processes, (2) women’s representation in parliament, and (3) women’s civil society pressure. This article provides tangible evidence for practitioners seeking to improve peace agreements’ gender-sensitivity and inclusiveness.
The known knowns and known unknowns in data on women, peace and security, 2019, by Robert Nagel, Paper 19/2019 in LSE Women, Peace and Security Working Paper Series. Nagel surveys available data and research relevant to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, stating that PA-X ‘offers the best opportunity to systematically examine […] the role and effect of gendering peace agreements’ (p. 13). Nagel also cites Bell’s 2015 report about power-sharing and the inclusion of women in peace negotiations published by UN Women. Finally, the report offers best practice advice on collecting and interpreting quantitative data.
The internationalization of security sector gender reforms in post-conflict countries, 2019, by L. Huber and S. Karim. Huber and Karim draw on the Women and Peace Agreements Database (PA-X Women), among other datasets, to study which factors determine whether security sector reforms (SSR) are gender balanced by examining post-conflict countries in the 1989 – 2012 period. Their study finds that UN multidimensional peacekeeping operations (PKOs) have a significant positive impact on gender balancing, even more so than female political representation or gendered peace agreements. This study underscores the impact PKOs can have on gender balancing in SSR, while raising questions about the sustainability of SSR gender balancing once PKOs exit.
The Minsk Agreements – more than “scraps of paper”?, 2019, by C. Wittke. Wittke builds on Christine Bell and Jan Pospisil’s concept of formalised political unsettlement to explain why the 2014 and 2015 Minsk Agreements remain relevant despite their flawed implementation. She argues that the agreements provide platforms to contest and redefine political power and legitimacy, creating an environment of formalised political unsettlement. The agreements’ relevance today can thus best be explained by their function as frameworks for negotiation, rather than the success or failure of the agreements’ implementation.
Towards inclusive peace: Analysing gender-sensitive peace agreements 2000-2016, 2019, by J. True and Y. Riveros-Morales. True and Riveros-Morales use PA-X Women data to statistically analyse which factors explain the presence of gender provisions in 98 peace agreements. They find that three factors increase the likelihood of gender provision inclusion when they occur simultaneously: (1) women’s participation in peace processes, (2) women’s representation in parliament, and (3) women’s civil society pressure. This article provides tangible evidence for practitioners seeking to improve peace agreements’ gender-sensitivity and inclusiveness.
What prevents peace? Women and peacebuilding in Bosnia and Nepal, 2019, by M. Berry and T. Rana. Berry and Rana cite Christine Bell and Sanja Badanjak’s 2018 article introducing the Peace Agreements Database (PA-X) in their study of obstacles to peace in women’s lives after war. Based on interviews with women in Bosnia and Nepal, they identify five key barriers to women’s enjoyment of peace in their daily lives: (1) economic insecurity, (2) competing narratives of the origins and victims of conflict, (3) hierarchies among victims, (4) continued violence and trauma, and (5) displacement and disruption of lives. The article highlights ways in which women seek to overcome these barriers, including by creating women-only spaces for reconciliation.
Peace processes of the 1990s: A report for the Varieties of Peace Research Program, 2018, by V. Johansson. Johansson analyses civil wars and their related peace processes in the 1990s based on the PA-X database and the Uppsala Conflict Data Program’s (UCDP) outputs. Johansson provides an overview of 103 internal armed of conflicts of the 1990s, including the parties involved, and information on when and how they ended. He finds that provisions on ceasefires, development, and rebel inclusion were the three most common provisions in the 696 civil war peace agreements under review.
Toward inclusive peace: Mapping gender-sensitive peace agreements 2000-2016, 2018, by K. Lee-Koo and J. True. Lee-Koo and True’s report is based on the same research as True and Riveros-Morales’ aforementioned journal article. Based on their analysis of agreements from PA-X Women, Lee-Koo and True recommend actors to: ‘1. Support women’s participation in all areas of the peace process: elite peace processes, national parliaments, and women’s civil society. 2. Support the inclusion of gender provisions across all areas and in all agreements during the peace process’ (p. 6).
What has happened to gender provisions in peace agreements?, 2019, by Agathe Christien, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security blog. Agathe Christien uses PA-X Peace Agreements Database data to investigate a recent dip in peace agreement provisions for women. Christien identifies several possible reasons for the regression and makes recommendations for moving forward to ensure women’s inclusion.