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International Jornal of Conflict and Violence
Call for papers
Geopolitical Shifts and Ethnic Conflicts: The Transnational Kurdish Conflict in the Contemporary Middle East
Guest Editors
Gülistan Gürbey
Center for Middle Eastern and North African Politics, Freie Universität Berlin
Arzu Yilmaz
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow at Asia-Africa Institute, University of Hamburg
Research shows that geopolitical settings and circumstances significantly affect the evolution of ethnic conflicts. This also applies to the historically rooted, cross-border Kurdish conflict in the Middle East. This conflict principally affects Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, where the main Kurdish populations are located. The historical background lies in developments following World War I, when the regions of Kurdish settlement in Ottoman Empire were integrated into the new nation states. The Kurds’ striving for independence and autonomy continues to this day, while the constituent states consider the conflict a security issue of national concern.
The Kurds recently become more visible and prominent in world and regional politics due to their fight against the Islamic State in the Syrian civil war. The prospects for conflict resolution have not automatically increased. But the ongoing global geopolitical shifts and political upheavals in the Middle East have radically transformed the Kurdish conflict on all levels.
Despite these obvious new developments, however, conventional approaches that perceive the Kurdish question as an internal matter for the respective states remain predominant. The only tangible action has been political and military efforts to suppress the “Kurdish awakening”, which have led to escalation and another cycle of violence. Ending this long and violent conflict will require an understanding of the status quo and its history, and a comprehensive perspective accommodating the changing dynamics of both the Kurdish Conflict and the broader geopolitics of the Middle East.
We invite submissions for an International Journal of Conflict and Violence Focus Section on “Geopolitical Shifts and Ethnic Conflicts: The Transnational Kurdish Conflict in the Contemporary Middle East”. Papers for this Focus Section should
focus on empirical research and theoretical perspectives concerning the process of transformation of the cross-border, transnational Kurdish Conflict in the light of contemporary and historical geopolitical shifts and changing dynamics in the world and the Middle East;
We welcome empirically and theoretically grounded submissions from the social sciences and informed by interdisciplinary perspectives. We define “empirical” very broadly to include ethnographies, field studies, archival work, and of course quantitative methods. The planned focus section has the potential to become a milestone in improving knowledge about the Kurdish conflict and to broaden our understanding of how internal and external dynamics and structures act together to influence conflict, violence and peace.
Topics to be addressed include:
The Kurdish conflict through the lens of the geopolitics of Kurdistan in past and present
The rise and transformation of modern Kurdish nationalism
Formations and transformations of Kurdish national movements and strategies of Kurdish political mobilization and resistance
Intra-Kurdish relations: political, military, economic, social (tribes, sects, NGOs, associations)
Cross-border mobility of the Kurds via (forced) migration
Kurdish media
Securitization and militarization of Kurdish-populated regions
Economic and natural resource conflicts in Kurdish-populated regions
Multiple insecurities and Radicalization in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria
Perspectives on conflict resolution and peace
Timeline
Deadline for abstract submissions: 15 February 2021
Decision on submitted abstracts: 1 March 2021
Deadline for final papers: 15 June 2021
Publication: January 2022
Instructions for authors
Abstracts should be of no more than two pages with a clear indication of the theoretical framework and empirical background. Final papers must not exceed 6,000 words, excluding tables and references. All submissions must comply with the submission guidelines of the International Journal of Conflict and Violence (https://www.ijcv.org/index.php/ijcv/about/submissions).
Submit abstracts to Arzu Yilmaz:
International Journal of Conflict and Violence
Since 2007 IJCV has provided a forum for scientific exchange and public dissemination of up-to-date scientific knowledge on conflict and violence. The IJCV is independent, peer reviewed, open access, and included in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) as well as other relevant databases (e.g., SCOPUS, EBSCO, ProQuest, DNB), The topics on which we concentrate — conflict and violence — have always been central to various disciplines. Consequently, the journal encompasses contributions ranging from criminology, economics, education, ethnology, history, political science, psychology, social anthropology, sociology, the study of religions, and urban studies, among others.
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Editors
Leena Malkki
University of Helsinki, Finland
Sarah Marsden
Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom
Steven F. Messner
University at Albany, NY, United States
Andres F. Rengifo
Rutgers University, School of Criminal Justice, NJ, United States
Philipp Süssenbach
University of Applied Sciences of SMEs (FHM), Bielefeld, Germany
Associate Editors
Heiko Mata
Bielefeld University, Germany
Kurt Salentin
Bielefeld University, Germany