Professor Nina Caspersen
Associate Dean (Research)

Profile

Biography

My research focuses on the dynamics of intra-state conflicts, peace processes and peace settlements, unrecognised/de facto states, rebel governance, and state recognition. I examine dynamics within communal groups - and am particularly interested in intra-communal contestation, popular mobilisation and legitimising strategies, and issues of governance - as well as external dimensions of intra-state conflicts, including the significance of kin-states and patron states.

My research is comparative in nature, and while much of it has focused on the Caucasus and the Balkans, I have also done empirical research in Cyprus and Colombia. My articles have appeared in several leading journals and I am the author of three monographs: Peace Agreements (Cambridge: Polity, 2017), Unrecognized States (Cambridge: Polity, 2012), and Contested Nationalism (Oxford: Berghahn, 2010).  

I am currently working on two projects: a large collaborative EU-Horizon funded project, GEO-POWER-EU, which focuses on urgent security challenges in the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood and the Western Balkans, and a project on the relationship between de facto states and their external patrons, funded by the Norwegian Research Council and led by the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. Prior to that, I was involved in a large interdisciplinary project on the health consequences of the conflict in Colombia (jointly funded by DFID, ESRC, MRC and the Wellcome Trust). I was awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for my project Peace Agreements: Resolving intra-state conflicts since the end of the Cold War, and my earlier work on unrecognised states was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Over the years, I have worked with a number of international organisations, NGOs and think tanks. This work resulted in an Impact Case Study for REF2021. I am a Trustee of International Alert, one of the world's leading peacebuilding organisations.  

Google Scholar page

X/Twitter: @NinaCaspersen

Career

I hold a PhD in Government from the London School of Economics and Political Science. After finishing my PhD, I was a Lecturer at Lancaster University. I joined the University of York as Senior Lecturer in 2012 and was promoted to Professor in 2016. From 2019 to 2023, I was Head of the Department of Politics

Departmental roles

Co-Director and Founder, York Centre for Conflict & Security  and Peace Lab

University roles

Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Social Sciences. 

Memberships include:

• Faculty Strategy Group
• Faculty Executive Board
• Faculty Research Group (Chair)
• Open Research Strategy Group (Chair)
• University Research Committee
• Senior Leaders Group
• Steering Committee, Centre for Applied Human Rights (Chair)

Previous memberships include:  University Planning Committee; Capital, Enterprise Systems & Infrastructure Strategy Board

Research

Overview

My research is broadly focused on the dynamics of intra-state conflicts, peace processes and peace settlements, statehood, and sovereignty. This has resulted in three main projects/themes that I continue to work on: 1) unrecognised/de facto states, 2) peace processes and agreements, 3) rebel governance

1. Unrecognised/De Facto States

My work on this subject started with an ESRC-funded project entitled 'The Politics of Unrecognised States' (RES-000-22-2728). This project drew on a range of examples (from Abkhazia to Somaliland) and on two in-depth case studies: Nagorno Karabakh (Azerbaijan) and Republika Srpska Krajina (Croatia). The aim of the project was to improve our understanding of unrecognised states and thereby engage with, and question, dominant conceptions of sovereignty, statehood, democratisation, and conflict resolution.

This project resulted in the very well-received book Unrecognized States: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Modern International System (Cambridge: Polity, 2012)."An essential addition to the literature, which dispels the myth of unrecognised states as dark spots on the world map." Political Studies Review

Subsequently, I did a lot of work on engagement with de facto/unrecognised states.

Currently, I am working on a project which examines the relationship between de facto states and their external patrons, funded by the Norwegian Research Council and led by the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. I examine how patrons exert their influence, including in peace processes involving de facto states, and how the relationship between the patrons and their clients is renegotiated following a significant change in the position of the de facto state. Case studies include: Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia, Northern Cyprus and Repuplika Srpska

Through the South-East European Research Centre, I am also part of a large, interdisciplinary project, GEO-POWER-EU (funded by the European's Union's Horizon programme), which focuses on strengthening the security dimension of the EU’s policies in the Eastern Neighbourhood and the Western Balkans. This includes a focus on unresolved conflicts and the impact of geopolitical competition. 

2. Peace Processes and Peace Agreements

My project Peace Agreements: Resolving intra-state conflicts since the end of the Cold War, funded by a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship, provided a systematic and comprehensive analysis of peace agreements signed in separatist conflicts since the end of the Cold War and aimed to uncover:

1. How contentious issues – relating to territory, security, power and justice – have been addressed
2. How the institutional design, and its success or failure, was affected by the context of the conflict
3. The interaction between the conflict context, the content of the agreement and the peace process.

The main output from this project was a monograph, Peace Agreements: Finding Solutions to Intra-State Conflicts (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2017)

I am currently examining the significance of ambiguity in peace agreements and how this uncertainty affects the acceptance and implementation of negotiated settlements. I am also continuing to work on peace processes and agreements in conflicts involving de facto states.

3. Rebel governance

I have recently expanded my research on de facto states to a broader focus on rebel governance. Together with colleagues from the Centre for Health Economics, University of York; the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; and Escuela de Gobierno, Universidad de los Andes, I worked on a large interdisplinary project that investigated the health consequences of the conflict in Colombia - before and after the signing of the 2016 peace accord: War and Peace – the Health and Health System Consequences of Conflict in Colombia.  This project was funded by a large grant from the Joint Health Systems Research Initiative (the Department of International Development, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, and the Wellcome Trust). 

My part of the project examined the extent and form of healthcare provisions by FARC, and the effect of this wartime rebel governance on post-war state governance. The findings are currently being written up.

Supervision

PhD Supervision: 

• Burak Caliskan: Complex Border Problems and Enclaves in Fergana Valley
• Fawzia Ehsani: Exploring perplexities of Capacity Development Initiatives in Post-Conflict Countries: Examining Afghanistan’s civil aviation sector;
• Eduardo Álvarez-Vanegas: Tracing Fragmentation and Cohesion: The Cases of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia;  
• Coline Cardeño Rakidzija (1+3 - PhD students from Spring. WRDTP Collaborative Award on peacebuilding with International Alert - title TBC ) 

Professor Nina Caspersen welcomes PhD applications in the following areas:

• Conflict dynamics
• Peace processes
• Peace agreements
• State recognition
• De facto states
• Rebel governance
• Balkans
• Caucasus
• Will also consider projects on post-war peacebuilding and statebuilding 

Teaching

Undergraduate

Not teaching any modules in 2024/25

External activities

Overview

Over the years, I have worked with a number of international organisations, NGOs and think tanks. Examples include: the Berghof Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Conciliation Resources, the Council on Foreign Relations, InterPeace and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.  

The impact of my research outside of academic resulted in an Impact Case Study for REF2021.

I am a Trustee of International Alert, one of the world's leading peacebuilding organisations.  

Memberships

I am on the Advisory Board of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) an Honorary Fellow at the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies (EXCEPS), and a member of the ESRC Peer Review College. 

Editorial duties

I am on the Editorial Board of the journal Ethnopolitics, and I review articles for leading academic journals and publishers

Invited talks and conferences

I am frequently invited to present my work at international conferences and workshops. 

Recent invited talks include: 

• Keynote speech: ‘De Facto States Then and Now’, launch of the ECPR Research network of Statehood, Sovereignty and Conflict, June 2021
• Invited participants. Three-day meeting of the Karabakh Contact Group, organised by Conciliation Resources, ‘Preparing peoples for peace: Implications for Armenian-Azerbaijani peacebuilding.’ Tbilisi, Georgia, May 2019.
• Roundtable discussion with H.E. Ambassador Lamberto Zannier, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities: ‘Inter-ethnic relations and international security in the former Soviet states,’ , Chatham House, March 2019.
• Invited speaker at workshop organised by the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination at Princeton University and the Liechtenstein Mission to the United Nations: ‘Lessons from Dialogue: Self-Determination in Conflict Prevention, Mediation, and Resolution,’ December 2018
• Roundtable-Discussion Hosted by MEP Rebecca Harms, European Parliament: ‘Engagement with the South Caucasus de facto States: A viable Strategy for Conflict Transformation?’ , Brussels, December 2018