Staff Profiles

Modules taught

Current teaching:

Undergraduate

• U23173/POLI6004 Conflict and Peacebuilding (module leader)

Postgraduate

• P23118  Violence and Peacebuilding (module leader)

Dr Steenkamp is also the subject coordinator for the Politics (PO) Joint Honours and International Relations and Politics (RX) Single Honours subjects.

 

Supervision

Dr Steenkamp invites applications from prospective research students with interests in issues related to violent intrastate conflict, organised crime and peacebuilding, or in the conflicts of the Middle East.

 

 

Chrissie conducts research in the broad area of Peace and Conflict Studies, with an emphasis on intrastate violent conflict and its resolution. She is particularly interested in the study of violence and organised crime in the context of peacebuilding.

She has carried out extensive fieldwork in Northern Ireland, Jordan and South Africa on issues related to post-conflict violence,  organised crime and its relationship to violent conflict. She has written two books on violence and crime during war and peace, and has published several journal articles on these and related topics. Dr Steenkamp is currently working on several projects, including investigating the use of tunnels in conflicts in the Middle East, and the impact of the illegal amphetamine Captagon on Jordan. She has started writing a new book about the relationship between peacebuilding and organised crime in the Middle East.

Her research has been funded by the GCRF, the Quaker Foundation and the National Research Foundation (South Africa).

Dr Steenkamp has acted as a reviewer for various peer reviewed journals and academic publishers, and has externally examined PhD theses at universities in South Africa, England and Australia. 

She is the co-ordinator of the Critical Security Studies research group within the Department and is a member of the Board of the Centre for Global Politics, Economy and Society.

 

Research group membership

Critical Security Studies research group

State and Society research group

 

Research grants and awards

Current funding:

£10 137 from GCRF Global Challenges Collaborative Research Awards 2019-22. Project title: The impact of the amphetamine Captagon on Jordan.

Research projects

Current projects include:

- 2020: The role of tunnels in conflict in the Middle East (journal article)

- 2021-22: The impact of the amphetamine Captagon on Jordan (funded research project)

- 2020-2022: Conflict, organised crime and peacebuidling in the Middle East (book project)

 

 

 

Research impact

Dr Steenkamp has extensive experience in engaging with non-academic user groups to disseminate research findings, with audiences including representatives from NATO; the UN; NGO’s and national level policy makers.

Books

• Steenkamp C, Violent Societies: Networks of Violence in Civil War and Peace, Palgrave (2014)
  ISBN: 9780230272033 eISBN: 9781137290656
  Abstract This book investigates the relationships between political violence, social violence and economic violence using examples from South Africa, Northern Ireland, Lebanon and Syria. It examines the cultural impact of war and argues that a culture of violence can explain the high levels of violence which are frequently found in post-war societies.Website 
• Steenkamp C, Violent Societies: Networks of Violence in Civil War and Peace, Palgrave Macmillan UK (2014)
  ISBN: 9780230243767 eISBN: 9781137290656
  Abstract

  This book investigates the relationships between political violence, social violence and economic violence using examples from South Africa, Northern Ireland, Lebanon and Syria. It examines the cultural impact of war and argues that a culture of violence can explain the high levels of violence which are frequently found in post-war societies. -- Provided by publisher.

  Website 
• Steenkamp C, Violence and post-war reconstruction: managing insecurity in the aftermath of peace accords, I B Tauris (2009)
  ISBN: 978-1845117696
  Abstract The uncomfortable truth about peace accords is that often they do not bring about a real and lasting peace: while the conflict is officially over, civilians still live with the daily threat of violence. It is generally assumed that this does not pose a threat to the peace process yet the author shows how, in reality, violence that occurs at this time and within this context has a unique potential to cause damage.In this much needed and pioneering study the author shows the impact of continuing physical insecurity upon the postwar reconstruction process. Examining the type of violence, when it occurs and the identity of those who commit it, she reveals the serious implications for the reconstruction of state, polity and society and for the quality of peace that emerges. She shows how the use of violence to address everyday problems becomes increasingly acceptable, explores the use of violence by organized groups in society, and pays particular attention to civilian reactions to post-accord insecurity. In a final chapter she identifies a range of important considerations for the better understanding of a vital yet often neglected aspect of postwar reconstruction.

Journal articles

• Steenkamp C, 'The impact of tunnels on conflicts in the Middle East'
  International Affairs (2022)
  ISSN: 0020-5850 eISSN: 1468-2346
  Abstract

  
  

• Steenkamp C, 'The crime-conflict nexus and the civil war in Syria'
  Stability 6 (1) (2017)
  ISSN: 2165-2627
  Abstract There is a strong relationship between organised crime and civil war. This article contributes to the crime-conflict nexus literature by providing a consideration of the role of organised crime in the Syrian conflict. It provides an overview of pre and post-war organised crime in Syria. The article then builds the argument that war provides opportunities for organised crime through the state’s diminished law enforcement ability; the economic hardship which civilians face during war; and the abundance of armed groups who all need to generate revenue. Secondly, the paper argues that organised crime also affects the intensity and duration of war by enabling militants to reproduce themselves materially and to build institutions in the populations where they are active. The relationships between armed groups and local populations emerge as a central theme in understanding the crime-conflict nexus.Website 
• Steenkamp C, 'In the shadows of war and peace: making sense of violence after peace accords'
  Conflict, Security and Development 11 (3) (2011) pp.357-383
  ISSN: 1467-8802
  Website 

Book chapters

• Steenkamp C, 'Post-accord Crime and Violence' in Roger Mac Ginty, Anthony Wanis-St. John (ed.), Contemporary Peacemaking, Palgrave-Macmillan (2022)
  ISBN: 9783030829612 eISBN: 9783030829629
  Abstract

  This chapter addresses the counter-intuitive phenomenon of high levels of violence in post-peace accord societies. From South Africa to Northern Ireland, Colombia to Bosnia-Herzegovina, the evidence shows that many post-accord societies are at risk of becoming even more violent and insecure than during the war. This ubiquity of post-accord violence raises some important questions: what forms does the violence take; who is responsible for this violence, why does violence continue at such high levels and how does it affect post-war societies? The chapter argues that conditions which arose from both the preceding conflict and the peace process itself are responsible for generating the perpetrators, causes and types of violence which characterise post-accord societies. Continuing high levels of violence after war raises important questions about the quality of the ‘peace’ that is taking root and exposes the failure of many peace accords to progressively transform the daily life of civilians.

  Website 
• Steenkamp C, 'The Crime-Terror Nexus in Syria and Iraq' in Letizia Paoli, Jan Wouters and Cyrille Fijnaut (ed.), Nexus Between Organized Crime and Terrorism: Types and Responses, Edward Elgar (2022)
  ISBN: 9781788979290 eISBN: 9781788979306
  Abstract

  This chapter investigates the connection between the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and organized crime in Iraq and Syria. It argues that the crime-terror nexus here is one where an organization whose primary aim is overwhelmingly political, largely develops its own use of organized crime methods to raise funds for its political and military aims – with some opportunistic cooperation with existing organized crime networks. The chapter outlines the involvement of ISIS in oil smuggling, the illegal trade in antiquities and human trafficking (including kidnapping). Its shows how three factors determine the nature of the nexus in this case:  pre-existing networks and practices of organized crime; the availability of valuable resources and lastly, ISIS’s objective of territorial control and state building. The chapter ends with a consideration of ISIS’s involvement in organized crime since the fall of the Caliphate. 

• Steenkamp, Christina. (Forthcoming 2021) ‘Post-accord violence’ in MacGinty, R. and Anthony Wanis St John (eds.) Contemporary Peacemaking. Peace processes, peacebuilding and conflict. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Steenkamp, Christina. (Forthcoming 2020) ‘The Crime-Terror nexus in Iraq and Syria’, in Paoli, Letizia; Jan Wouters and Cyrille Fijnaut (eds.) Organized Crime and Terrorism: What is the Nexus? Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
• Steenkamp, Christina. (2017) 'The Crime-Conflict Nexus and the Civil War in Syria', Stability: The International Journal of Security and Development, 6(1): pp.1-18.
• Steenkamp C. (2011) 'In the shadows of war and peace: making sense of violence after peace accords', Conflict, Security and Development, 11 (3): pp. 357-383.
• Steenkamp, Christina. (2009) Xenophobia in South Africa: What does it say about trust?’, The Round Table: Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs,  98(403), pp. 439-448.
• Steenkamp, Christina. (2008) ‘Loyalist paramilitary violence after the Belfast Agreement’, Ethnopolitics, 7(1), pp. 59-176.
• Steenkamp, Chrissie. (2005) ‘The legacy of war: Conceptualizing a ‘Culture of Violence’ to explain violence after peace accords’, The Round Table. The Commonwealth Journal of International Relations, 94(2), pp. 253-268.

Encyclopedia entries:

• Steenkamp, C. (2010) 'Low Intensity Violence', in the Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace, Nigel Young (ed). Oxford: Oxford University.
• Steenkamp, C. (2010) 'Violence and Social Conflict', in the Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace, Nigel Young (ed). Oxford: Oxford University.
• Steenkamp, C. (2010) 'South Africa: Anti-Apartheid Struggles', in the Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace, Nigel Young (ed). Oxford: Oxford University.

Areas of expertise

Peacebuilding

Organised crime and the Syrian civil war

Organised crime and the Iraq conflict

Post-war violence

Peace processes and violence

Membership of professional bodies

Member of the Conflict Research Society (CRS)

Member of the ECPR (European Consortium of Political Research)

Member of ISA (International Studies Association)

Conferences

Selected Conference Papers

• Steenkamp, C. (2019) ‘ The Peace-Crime nexus: Organised crime and peacebuilding in the Middle East’, ISA annual conference, Toronto, 27-30 March 2019.
• Steenkamp, C. (2018) ‘Organised Crime and Peace Mediation’, at Rethinking Peace Mediation workshop, British Mission at the UN, New York, 15-16 November 2018.
• Steenkamp, C. (2018) ‘ The Peace-Crime Nexus: How organised crime can support and challenge peacebuilding‘, Conflict Research Society conference, Birmingham University, 17-18 September.
• Steenkamp, C. (2018) ‘Post-war reconstruction and the commemoration of war’, Mellon-Sawyer Research Seminar Series, Oxford University, 10 February.
• Steenkamp, C. (2017) ‘Narcotics and the war in Syria: What does it mean for peace?’, Conflict Research Society conference, Oxford, 18-19 September.
• Steenkamp, Christina. (2017) ‘Roundtable: The conflict in Syria: Dilemmas and Implications.’ ISA-CISS conference, Bologna, 28-30 June.
• Steenkamp, Christina. (2016) 'Crime, war and the prospects for peace in Syria', BISA Annual Conference, Edinburgh, 15-17 June.
• Steenkamp, Christina. (2014) 'From the crime-war nexus to the crime-peace nexus: crime and the prospects for peace in the Syrian civil war', Peace Studies Conference, University of Bradford, 1-3 May.
• Steenkamp, Chrissie. (2011) ‘Coping with Violence: The responses of African foreigners to xenophobia in South Africa’. National and International Perspectives on Crime Reduction and Criminal Justice Conference, organised by the Institute for Security Studies, South Africa. Johannesburg, 1-2 December.
• Steenkamp, Christina (2009) ‘Violent crime and democracy after peace accords’, ECPR 5^th general conference, Potsdam, 10-12 September.

Further information