Work for a Harmonious World

Research Areas

Detail Dove Pablo Picasso Guernica in Amsterdams Stedelijk Museum 11 July 1956

PARCC has four core research areas that support the program’s goal of developing knowledge about the context and stages of various conflicts.

Research directors work with faculty associates across a range of disciplines, reflecting the program’s emphasis on interdisciplinary research and theory building.

Advocacy and Activism

We define “activism” and “social movements” as collective action to exert pressure on centers of power in order to remedy grievances and felt injustices.

While this program is committed to understanding and analyzing all kinds of activism, it has a special interest in movements of populations that are socially, culturally and economically marginalized.

Collaborative Governance

We examine the processes and structures that enable organizations to work across boundaries to address public problems.

Through research and the Collaborative Governance Initiative, PARCC faculty elevate our understanding of the best practices of collaborative governance.

Environmental Conflict and Collaboration

We examine how the solutions developed to address environmental challenges, such as climate change, energy production, water provision, biodiversity conservation, might yield the possibility for both unparalleled conflict and unprecedented collaboration.

International and Intra-State Conflict

We aim to understand the origins and dynamics of international and civil conflicts, and the means by which they can be resolved.

At the crossroads of the fields of security studies and peace studies, our work is interdisciplinary, methodologically pluralist, and cross-regional in focus, with faculty specializing in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Featured Research

View all PARCC research

Detail of book cover for Secession and the Sovereignty Game by Ryan Griffiths

"Secession and the Sovereignty Game: Strategy and Tactics for Aspiring Nations" By advancing a theory that explains how sovereign recognition has succeeded in the past and is working in the present, and by anticipating the practices of future secessionist movements, author Ryan Griffiths, associate professor of political science, prescribes solutions that could make the sovereignty game less conflictual.

Cornell University Press, 2021

"Discrimination and Delegation: Explaining State Responses to Refugees" In this book, Lamis Elmy Abdelaaty, assistant professor of political science, asks why states sometimes assert their sovereignty vis-à-vis refugee rights and at other times seemingly cede it by delegating refugee oversight to the United Nations.

Oxford University Press, 2021

"Transnational Crime and Black Spots: Rethinking Sovereignty and the Global Economy" In their book, Maxwell faculty members Stuart Brown and Margaret Hermann examine 80 safe havens across the globe from which transnational criminal, insurgent and terrorist organizations operate—areas the authors term "black spots."

Palgrave Macmillan, 2020

Apply for a PARCC Mini-Grant by April 15

PARCC offers mini-grants in two tracks: (1) conflict and collaboration, and (2) the John Burdick mini-grant for social movements and social change. Awards range from $500-$2,500 to support research activities in our areas of focus. The awards selection is based on potential contribution to scholarship, possibility of future funding, consistency with the goals of PARCC and cost-effectiveness. Syracuse University and SUNY-ESF faculty and students are eligible to apply.

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