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Global Research Initiative Explores Shifting Security Landscape in Fragile Countries

Technical engineer monitoring surveillance system from CCTV for hostile aircraft.

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BERKELEY, CA (16 Dec. 2024) – As states and global institutions continue to navigate the greatest turmoil in global stability since World War II, a new initiative seeks to shed light on how piecemeal networks are providing security in fragile states — and how these partnerships may reshape the global order.

Led by the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), a research and innovation hub at the University of California, Berkeley, with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Security Programs in Disordered States Initiative will generate new evidence of how security is maintained in fragile states around the world. In effect, who is asked to build security in fragile states, who accepts, and what this means for international relations.

“This initiative examines security partnerships from an unconventional perspective,” said Dr. Aila Matanock, Associate Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley, the project’s lead as the Scientific Director on Conflict at CEGA. “By focusing on how security partnerships in weak states can influence global order, this initiative takes seriously host states, their partnerships, and the impact beyond their borders.”

The initiative will support in-depth research across three key regions — the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and West Africa — where researchers will identify both common themes and unique regional challenges facing these transnational security networks.

The project’s explicit geographic focus is enabled by partnerships with scholars and practitioners located in these regions. Based at eight different institutions, including in Australia, Ghana, and Singapore, the project team’s regional expertise will help generate rigorous evidence about the many ways that multi-actor security networks operate.

“To understand these transnational multi-actor security networks and how they shape the global order, this project is driven by an international network of researchers who will examine how these seemingly local networks have global impacts,” said Dr. Susanna Campbell, Provost Associate Professor at American University and director of the Research on International Policy Implementation Lab (RIPIL).

In addition to supporting new research projects, the initiative will produce a comprehensive analysis of multi-actor security networks and their impact on the global order, featuring detailed studies from regions of strategic significance. A series of workshops and conferences across the regions of interest will convene scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to share knowledge, inform policy, and ensure sustainability. To build a more comprehensive and systematic understanding of the international effects of peacebuilding and statebuilding, the researchers hope to convene networks of academic and policymakers in and across each region.

Two billion people live in fragile states, countries that lack the legitimacy or capacity to respond to shocks, and unconventional security networks are critical for establishing and maintaining peace. With the world experiencing rising strategic competition and the highest number of countries in conflict since the last world war, the risk to lives, livelihoods, and global stability has rarely been greater. With such high stakes, leaders need scholarly and policy insights that account for the patchwork of multi-actor security networks that have emerged to provide security around the world. Unfortunately, while multi-actor partnerships have become increasingly common in fragile states, they are not yet well understood, especially in terms of how they shape international relations.

To learn more about this initiative, please email Senior Program Manager Sean Luna McAdams at sean [dot] luna [at] berkeley [dot] edu. For researchers interested in contributing to this body of work, CEGA will open a request for proposals in Fall 2025.

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Notes to the Editor

Research Team

  • Naazneen Barma, Professor of Public Policy, University of Denver
  • Lina Benabdallah, Associate Professor, Wake Forest University
  • Emma Birikorang, Acting Director of Research, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center
  • Susanna Campbell, Provost Associate Professor, American University
  • Jonathan Chu, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore
  • Courtney Fung, Associate Professor, Macquarie University in Australia
  • Selina Ho, Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore
  • Tarcisius Kabutaulaka, Associate Professor, University of Hawaiʻi
  • Aila Matanock, Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley

About CEGA
The Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) is a hub for research, training and innovation headquartered at the University of California, Berkeley. CEGA generates insights that leaders can use to improve policies, programs, and people’s lives. Its academic network includes more than 173 faculty, 85 scholars from low- and middle-income countries, and hundreds of graduate students — from diverse academic disciplines across the globe — that produce rigorous evidence about what works to expand education, health, and economic opportunities for people living in poverty.

About Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Today the foundation works to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for the issues that Carnegie considered most important: education, democracy, and peace.

Media Contacts
CEGA
Matthew Kertman
Director of Strategic Communications
kertman@berkeley.edu

Carnegie Corporation of New York
Khafra Crooks
Communications Officer
KC@carnegie.org

Keywords
Conflict