S1 EP5: Decision Making in Armed Conflict

Beyond Compliance: In Conversation

What influences civilians' decision to stay or leave in times of armed conflict? In this episode, Katharine and Florian talk to Mara Revkin and Justin Schon about their research on civilian decision-making, access to information and flight in Syria and Iraq. They discuss the concept of civilian agency and talk about the challenges of conducting research straddling multiple disciplines.
Cited documents:
Revkin, M. Competitive Governance and Displacement Decisions Under Rebel Rule: Evidence from the Islamic State in Iraq, 65 The Journal of Conflict Resolution 46-80 (2021).
Revkin, M. When Terrorists Govern: Protecting Civilians in Conflicts with State-Building Armed Groups, 9 Harvard National Security Journal 100–144 (2018).

Schon, J. 2020. Surviving the War in Syria: Survival Strategies in a Time of Conflict. Cambridge University Press.

Guest bios:

Dr. Mara Revkin is an Associate Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke University, where her research focuses on armed conflict, peacebuilding, transitional justice, migration, and security sector reform with a regional focus on the Middle East and Africa. Dr. Revkin holds a JD from Yale Law School and a PhD in political science from Yale University, where her dissertation examined the Islamic State’s governance of civilians in Iraq and Syria.

Dr. Justin Schon is a Statistician in the Migration Analysis Center within the Office of Homeland Security Statistics at the Department of Homeland Security, where his work focuses on modelling unauthorized migration into the United States. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Indiana University, where his dissertation examined civilian survival strategies with a focus on Syria and Somalia. He has field research experience in Turkey, Jordan, Kenya, and Malawi.

The Beyond Compliance Consortium is a co-productive, socio-legal research partnership that traverses the fields of international law, conflict studies, humanitarian protection work and human rights policy, and brings together these communities of scholarship and practice with people with lived experience of conflict. It is funded by UK International Development. The first series of this podcast series is also funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Katharine Fortin is an Associate Professor in human rights law and international humanitarian law at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Utrecht University.
Florian Weigand is the Co-Director of the Centre on Armed Groups.