The ICR group is currently conducting research on the link between inequality and political violence, focusing on ethno-political and ethno-economic inequalities and civil war, as well as on ethnic inclusion and power sharing. The group also maintains interest in a wider notion of political inequalities as a part of macro-historical processes, such as nationalism, state formation and democratization. Much of this research has been funded through a series of projects.

Inequality and political violence

Whereas many researchers doubt that inequalities and grievances are related to the outbreak of political violence, our research argues that ethnic inequality and ethnonationalist mobilization are likely to trigger civil war. Following the publication of Cederman and Girardin (2007), we have spent several years collecting data on, and analyzing, ethnic groups and their participation in conflict processes. The book Inequality, Grievances and Civil War authored by Lars-Erik Cederman, Kristian Gleditsch (Univ. of Essex) and Halvard Buhaug (PRIO), provides an overview of this research.

Macro-historical processes and conflict

Complementing the subnational focus on inequality among ethnic groups, the ICR Group also retains a strong interest in how collective actors, such as states and nations (see Cederman 1997), emerge from macro-historical processes, including state formation, nationalism and democratization. This research stream relies mostly on computational modeling.