Conflict and Polarization

A large body of research has shown the substantial role that violent conflict plays in underdevelopment around the world, particularly in the most vulnerable communities. The Conflict and Polarization initiative fosters an interdisciplinary community of scholars at Stanford from fields including political science, economics, social psychology, and finance who are interested in helping to solve the problems of violent conflict and political polarization by cultivating new ideas about the causes, effects, and prevention of violent conflicts around the world and their impact on global development.

Initiative activities

• Reading group: A regular, internal, and inclusive reading group on conflict that spans disciplinary lines, where members of different units become acquainted with each other’s work and have a chance to identify frontier opportunities for interdisciplinary research. 
• Research assistant: Opportunities for Stanford students and predoctoral opportunities more generally. 
• Policy outreach: We are eager to partner with other research groups and organizations working to reduce polarization and conflict. If you have projects that might be good fits for a project-based class involving faculty and students, in particular, let us know.

Research and working papers

Essential readings

This evolving list of readings introduces some core ideas developed by our group on conflict and polarization that we believe are useful for practitioners and researchers, across disciplines, who are interested in mitigating conflict.

Economics, International Relations, and Political Science

• Jha and Shayo (2019) Valuing Peace: The Effects of Financial Market Exposure on Votes and Political Attitudes, Econometrica
• Jha (2018) Trading for Peace, Economic Policy
• Acharya, Laitin and Zhang (2017) "Sons of the Soil" A Model of Assimilation and Population Control, forthcoming, Journal of Theoretical Politics
• Fearon (2017) Civil War and the Current International System, Daedalus
• Bhavnani and Jha (2014)  Gandhi's Gift: Lessons for Peaceful Reform from India's Struggle for Democracy Economics of Peace and Security Journal
• Fearon and Laitin (2014) Does contemporary armed conflict have "deep historical roots"?, ungated working paper version
• Jha and Wilkinson (2012)  Does Combat Experience Foster Organizational Skill? Evidence from Ethnic Cleansing During the Partition of South Asia, American Political Science Review
• Fearon and Laitin (2011) Sons of the Soil, Migrants, and Civil War, ungated working paper version
• Fearon and Laitin (2003) Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War, American Political Science Review

Psychology and Organizational Behavior

• Van Bunderen, Greer and Van Knippenberg (2018) When interteam conflict spirals into intrateam power struggles: the pivotal role of team power structures, Academy of Management Journal
• Nakashima, Halali and Halevy (2016) Third parties promote cooperative norms in repeated interactions, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
• Sinha, Janardhanan, Greer, Conlon and Edwards (2016) Skewed task conflicts in teams: what happens when a few members see more conflict than the rest, Journal of Applied Psychology
• Halevy, Chou and Murnigham (2012) Mind Games: The Mental Representation of Conflict, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
• de Wit and Greer (2012) The Paradox of Intragroup Conflict: A Meta-Analysis, Journal of Applied Psychology
• Halevy, Bornstein and Sagiv (2008) "In-Group Love" and "Out-Group Hate" as Motives for Individual Participation in Intergroup Conflict, Psychological Science

Visit the research page for a more complete list of the team's related research.

Team

Project Lead:

• Saumitra Jha, Graduate School of Business,  Political Economy

Core faculty members:

• Michele Gelfand, Graduate School of Business, Organizational Behavior
• Nir Halevy, Graduate School of Business, Organizational Behavior
• David Laitin, Political Science

Initiative fellows:

• Aala Abdelgadir
• Boaz Abramson
• Feyaad Allie
• Zuhad Hai
• Marcos Manuel Salgado
• Tom Yu

Alumni

• Alexandra Blackman
• Naomi Fa-Kaji
• Mashail Malik
• Chunchen Xu
• Andres Yany

In the media

• David Laitin receives the 2021 Skytte Prize in Political Science, Stanford Today, April 2021
• My 9 year old son trades stocks on Robinhood. It isn't all risky bets, Insights by Stanford Business, July 2021
• Dissolve Disagreements: How Communication Impacts Conflict, Stanford GSB, April 2021
• What is the link between economic crises and political ruptures? The Economist January 2021
• Heroes and Villains: The Effects of Combat Heroism on Autocratic Values and Nazi Collaboration in Wartime France, with Julia Cagé, Anna Dagorret and Pauline Grosjean, VoxEU, January 2021
• What is the link between economic crises and political ruptures? The Economist, January 2021
• Markets cheer prospect of divided US Congress after election 2020 ABC News November 2020
• Don’t Let Politics Poison the Workplace: Some Advice from Business School Experts, Stanford GSB, November 2020
• Investing in Peace, Stanford GSB, July 2020
• Not all communal riots are local. Social media is now making them national The Print, March 2020
• Business leadership, not police or politicians, holds key to fixing India’s communal crisis CNBCTV, March 2020
• Office Artifact: Saumitra Jha's Arabic astrolabe, Stanford GSB, October 2020
• Pulling Back the Curtain on Racial Bias, Stanford GSB, June 2020
• Stanford business students present awards for teaching and service, The Dish, July 2020
• De Verdun à Vichy, de héros a traîtres- évolution politiques des anciens combattants, with Julia Cagé, Anna Dagorret and Pauline Grosjean, AOC, February 2021
• Bridging local divides could be a balm for bipolar politics The Financial Times October 2019
• If you want Israelis to favor peace negotiations, let them trade stocks, by Sam Winter-Levy, Washington Post, July 2018
• The Short and Long-Term Consequences of Partitioning India, with Prashant Bharadwaj, VoxDev, August 2017
• Dealing with the "Devil's Advocate" in your team, People Matters, May 2016
• Do you have a contrarian on your team?, Stanford GSB, November 2015
• How conflict goes viral, Inc., May 2014
• Power struggle? Why your top performers fight and what to do about it, Inc., March 2014
• How to manage conflict, Stanford GSB, October 2014
• Can Financial Innovations Mitigate Ethnic and Civil Conflict? World Financial Review, March 2013

Friends of the initiative:

On campus:

• Stanford Center for Social Innovation

Stanford alumni:

• The Depolarization Project 
• Pnyka.com