After a period of decline, violent conflict has been increasing over the last decade. Today’s conflicts are proving increasingly difficult to resolve due to the proliferation of actors and forms of violence – such as criminal, local and unconventional warfare – creating complex systems of confrontation resistant to traditional conflict management techniques. The UN needs a strong understanding of these multi-dimensional conflict systems and also of how its tools for addressing violence can be adapted to these contexts to manage, resolve and – centrally – prevent this violence and conflict.

UNU-CPR aims to help the UN and its partners develop and implement effective, evidence-based policies to prevent violent conflict around the world. Our goal is to combine evidence and analysis to influence policy discussions in New York and other policy centres and – equally or even more importantly – inform prevention and conflict resolution initiatives in the field.

UNU-CPR designs and implements its work in collaboration with the UN Secretariat, other UN system entities, Member States, and a global network of research partners as well as UN missions in the field. It builds its projects jointly with UN agencies and other key research and policy partners, ensuring direct engagement with policy processes at multiple levels. UNU-CPR personnel have been invited to brief the Security Council on multiple occasions – for example, on children in armed conflict, transitional justice, sexual violence and sanctions, and Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration.

UNU-CPR’s work has informed a variety of UN reform efforts and guidance reviews, including the revision of the Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Standards (IDDRS); Paris Principles Steering Group field handbook on prevention of child recruitment, release and reintegration; and the efforts of the Global Coalition for Reintegration. UNU-CPR personnel have also testified in national parliamentary proceedings, been invited to brief UN inter-agency groups and Resident Coordinators, and appeared in a range of media outlets.

Recent Outputs

• Thematic Review on Climate-Security and Peacebuilding

Ongoing Projects

• Managing Exits from Armed Conflict
• Thematic Review on Climate-Security and Peacebuilding

Recent Projects

• Stress Testing the UN’s Regional Prevention Approaches (2022)
• UN Sanctions and Humanitarian Action (2022)
• UN Sanctions and Mediation 2.0: Moving from Evidence to Impact (2022)
• Rule of Law Support to Conflict Prevention and Sustaining Peace: Lessons from the Field (2021)
• Protecting Together: Lessons from Mali and South Sudan on Coherence Between Human Rights and Military Components of UN Peace Operations (2021)
• Peacebuilding and Authoritarianism: The Unintended Consequences of UN Engagement in Post-Conflict Settings (2021)
• The UN Security Council and Transitional Justice: Impact and Practice (2021)
• The Security Council and Conflict Prevention: Entry Points for Diplomatic Action (2021)
• Enhancing Due Process in UN Security Council Targeted Sanctions Regimes (2021)
• Addressing Climate-related Security Risks: Towards a Programme for Action (2021, adelphi)
• Climate Change and Security: Perspectives from the Field (2020)
• What can the UN Security Council do on Climate and Security? (2020, with adelphi)
• Conflict Prevention in the Era of Climate Change: Adapting the UN to Climate-Security Risks (2020)
• Due Process in UN Targeted Sanctions (2020)
• The Political Practice of Peacekeeping: How Strategies for Peace Operations are Developed and Implemented (2020)
• Back from the Brink: UN Preventive Diplomacy in West and Central Africa (2020)
• When Dictators Fall: Preventing Violent Conflict During Transitions from Authoritarian Rule (2020)
• Hybrid Conflict, Hybrid Peace: How Militias and Paramilitary Groups Shape Post-conflict Transitions (2020)
• UN Transitions: Improving Security Council Practice in Mission Settings (2020)