The Cross-Border Conflict, Evidence, Policy and Trends (XCEPT) research programme explores conflict-affected borderlands, how conflicts connect across borders, the intersection of climate stresses and conflict, and the factors that shape violent and peaceful behaviour. Funded by UK International Development, XCEPT offers actionable research to inform policies and programmes that support peace.  

XCEPT is the most ambitious conflict research programme ever undertaken by the UK Government. Bringing together world-leading experts and local researchers from across the world, XCEPT’s multidisciplinary approach focuses on the causes and consequence of conflict in some of the world’s hardest to reach places. We use technology to complement traditional research methods, using satellite imagery and open-source investigations together with traditional mixed-methods research to better understand protracted conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia. 

Running from 2018 to 2027, XCEPT’s approach includes a cross-border local research network dedicated to building the capacity of local researchers, and a flexible and responsive £8 million Research Fund, managed by Chemonics UK, lead implementer of XCEPT.  

XCEPT’s research falls into four clusters:

Stability and governance in borderlands:

• How is power gained and exercised in peripheral spaces? How does centre-periphery contestation shape conflict in borderlands and across borders?
• How does trade (licit and illicit) in borderlands intersect with transnational conflict? How are local livelihoods, governance, and stability impacted?
• How can donor, regional, and national interventions adapt to better support conflict reduction, stability, and improved governance in borderlands?

Illustrative research projects:

1. What is life like for women living in areas controlled by JNIM, the largest Islamist militant group in West Africa?
2. How did northern Kenya’s borderlands gain political leverage over the centre?
3. How do Rohingya refugees navigate the everyday challenges of displacement?
4. How do the Rapid Support Forces govern in the areas of Sudan they control?
5. What role do checkpoints play in conflict economies?

Conflict connectors and ecosystems: 

• How do flows of people, weapons, goods and ideas connect conflicts across borders and regions?
• How should interventions in the security, development, peacebuilding, and governance spheres adapt to deal with the transnational dimensions of conflict?

Illustrative research projects:

1. How do supply chains fuel transnational conflict in the Middle East?
2. How does one conflict economy – human trafficking – create a transnational continuum of violence from Nigeria to Libya?
3. Is the transnational ‘Axis of Resistance’ defeated, or might it prove more resilient than predicted?
4. With the Assad regime gone, what will happen to its massive drug production and smuggling operations?
5. How can a focus on local governance result in greater stability at a global level?

Climate and conflict:

• How do climate mitigation efforts influence conflict dynamics across different regions? What are the peacebuilding challenges and opportunities associated with the mining of minerals for the green transition?
• In what ways can climate adaptation strategies be designed to reduce conflict and enhance resilience?
• How effective are regional stabilisation efforts in addressing climate-related peace and security risks?

Illustrative research projects:

1. When, why, and in what ways are conflicts over critical minerals – such as lithium and cobalt – intensifying amid the global energy transition?
2. Do locally driven, regional stabilisation efforts help prevent climate-related security risks?
3. What role is climate change playing in fuelling clashes along the Afghan-Iranian border?
4. How will climate change affect livelihoods in Bangladesh?
5. How might climate change grant greater political power to previously marginalised regions?
   

Violent and peaceful behaviour: 

• What are the pathways to violent and peaceful behaviour? What role is played by exposure to conflict and trauma-related mental health problems, or individual and social factors?
• What builds resilience and protects communities and individuals from the impact of conflict? What promotes post-traumatic growth or resilience after conflict or trauma?
• How does (lack of) trust in institutions interact with other factors to affect attitudes to violence and reconciliation?
• How does cross-generational trauma and memory shape dispositions vis-à-vis the state and communal solidarity?

Illustrative research projects:

1. What do revolutionaries do when the revolution is over?
2. How do state responses to kidnappings affect victims’ families and their views on the state, justice, and revenge?  
3. What does it take to heal a city – and its residents – after its wartime devastation?
4. How should governments reintegrate and educate children and families that joined ISIS?