Welcome to the SOAS Conflict Analysis Project

Below is some additional information about the research and how the responses you provide will be used. Alternatively you can go straight to the survey using the button below.

About the Research

This research is an attempt to date to understand how international conflict analysis is practiced in government, intergovernmental and humanitarian organizations. Specifically it is intended to understand how organizational structures, the application of existing analytical frameworks, and the nature of expert knowledge influence analytical outcomes.

This research is being done as part of a PhD by Mark Millar (714589@soas.ac.uk) through the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS, University of London, under the supervision of Professor Phil Clark.

About the topic

Conflict analysis has been a longstanding component of research within government, intergovernmental, and humanitarian organizations, tasked with trying to make sense of global violence to inform policy and programme responses. Over the past 30 years, that field has become more professionalised as organizations developed dedicated departments for the analysis of global violence and recruited specialized conflict experts to advise them. Amidst increasing uncertainty in the world, there is renewed interest in applying data analysis to create more effective interventions that can mitigate or even prevent conflict.

This research aims to better understand the daily lives of individuals and teams involved in analysing conflict. The objective will be to create a thorough description as to what it means to be an expert in the field of professional conflict analysis and how the practice of analysis is impacted by the organizational setting within which they work.

The goal will be to develop a best practice as to how organizations can optimize their analytical capacities to develop increasingly accurate and useful analysis to inform programmes and policy.

Research activities

• An on-line questionnaire with multiple choice questions that should take no more than ten minutes to complete. The questions will not be available to study before an individual takes the questionnaire and should be completed in a single sitting.

• At the end of the questionnaire there will be an opt-in for anyone that would like to make themselves available for a semi-structured interview in which their answers will be discussed more fully over approximately 30 minutes in October or November.

FAQs

What is in the questionnaire?

The questionnaire is entirely multiple choice and should take approximately 10 minutes. It is divided into six sections to help understand the routines, backgrounds, cognitions, and concepts that are used by analysts working on conflict in various organizations.

The sections include questions on the respondent’s role; their workday routine; their relationship with colleagues and organization; their understanding of conflict contexts; their understanding of assessment tools (probability and implications); and the individual’s background.

Who will be invited to complete the questionnaire?

The questionnaire is not intended only for dedicated conflict analysts but anyone that makes formal or informal assessments on global violent conflict as part of their role in an organization. Invited participants will include members of government and intergovernmental organizations as well as humanitarian NGOs working on conflict affected regions. The analysis will examine differences between responses from people in different roles.

How will my information be used?

All information from the questionnaires and interviews will be stored securely and anonymously in accordance with regulations set out in the GDPR and UK Data Protection Act 2018.

Nobody other than the principal researcher have access to any personal information received from respondents. That includes names or any other information that might be used to identify those individuals.

The results of the research will be also used as part of a publishable article that will likely be publicly available in late 2025. The aggregated and anonymized information will also provide part of the research that will be used in a PhD thesis that will be published in late 2026. It may also be used in onward publications that result from that thesis.

Why should I participate?

The research is intended to give greater understanding of a professional practice of conflict analysis and provide ways in which its application can be more effective. The more data that can be accumulated, the more useful those recommendations are likely to be. The outcomes will provide an an opportunity for organizations to build on existing capacity to improve on their analytical capabilities as part its preventative approach to conflict.

The research will be a chance for individuals to articulate their feelings about how conflict analysis is practiced and the type of environment that they wish to practice it in, to be most effective.

Each completed questionnaire will also be accompanied by a small donation to the charity War Child. War Child believes that no child should be part of war. Its dedicated staff work around the clock in conflict zones all around the world to keep children safe. https://www.warchild.org.uk/

About the principal researcher

Mark Millar has been working in the field of peace and security since 2007 with experience as a conflict analyst in non-governmental, governmental, and intergovernmental organizations. That includes the United Nations and humanitarian INGOs as well as the UK Government. He has advanced degrees in conflict studies from the universities of Bradford and Kent as well as published work on UN peacekeeping. Since 2022 he has been working as an analyst with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO).