This July, Teri Murphy, Associate Director for Peacebuilding Research at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, travels to Bogotá, Colombia to host a workshop with co-hosts Roddy Brett, University of Bristol, and Pedro Valenzuela, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.

The three-day workshop, entitled From Armed Conflict to Criminality: Understanding the War to ‘Peace’ Trajectories of Armed Actors, brings together experts from diverse countries and backgrounds to explore the nexus between violent political conflict and criminality from the perspective of scholars, practitioners and policymakers. Focus will be given to the case studies of Colombia, Guatemala, and El Salvador. This workshop represents the first stage in the development of a two-year multi-university and multi-agency research project. The purpose of the workshop is to build foundational insights for the project in addition to consolidating research questions and identifying conflict sensitive research methodologies.

Ultimately, the project itself aims to generate new knowledge that advances academic understanding of conflict and criminality, build theory through engagement with empirical case studies, and inform practical strategies for policymakers at the international and national levels that lead to rupturing cycles of violence and building sustainable peace. 

A follow-up workshop will be held at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies October 2-3, 2025. More details to follow. 

Learn more about the background, aims, methodology, schedule and participants for the July 21-23, 2025 workshop From Armed Conflict to Criminality: Understanding the War to ‘Peace’ Trajectories of Armed Actors