Staff Profiles

Modules taught

Current teaching:

Undergraduate

• POLI6004 Conflict and Peacebuilding (module leader)

Postgraduate

• INRL7008 Violence and Peacebuilding (module leader)

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

 

Supervision

Chrissie 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.

 

 

I conduct research in the broad area of Peace and Conflict Studies, with an emphasis on intrastate violent conflict and its resolution. I am particularly interested in the study of violence and organised crime in the context of peacebuilding, and often participate in interdisciplinary collaborations.

I have done extensive fieldwork in conflict contexts on three continents on issues related to post-conflict violence, organised crime and its relationship to violent conflict. I have written two books on violence and crime during war and peace, and have published several journal articles on these and related topics. In recent years, I have focused my research on conflict and peacebuilding in the Middle East, and I am currently working on several projects in the Middle East, including writing a book about the relationship between peacebuilding and organised crime in the Middle East (under contract with Cambridge University Press).

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

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

I am also the co-ordinator of the Critical Security Studies research group within the School and I am co-director of the Centre for Global Politics, Economy and Society (GPES).

 

Research group membership

Co-director of the Centre for Global Politics, Economy and Society (GPES)

Critical Security Studies research group

State and Society research group

 

 

Research grants and awards

Current funding:

GCRF Global Challenges Collaborative Research Awards 2019-22. Project title: The impact of the amphetamine Captagon on Jordan. (In collaboration with Prof Mayyada Wazaify, University of Jordan).

British Academy Humanities and Social Sciences Tackling Global Challenges 2020 scheme. Project title: Double Trouble: The effect of violent conflict on the abuse of prescription and non-prescription medicine. Duration: January 2021 – December 2022. (In collaboration with Prof Mayyada Wazaify, University of Jordan).

Research projects

Current projects include:

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

- 2021-22: Double Trouble: The effect of violent conflict on the abuse of prescription and non-prescription medicine. (British Academy funded research project)

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

 

 

 

Research impact

Chrissie 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 98 (2) (2022) pp.689-706
  ISSN: 0020-5850 eISSN: 1468-2346
  Abstract

  The battlefields in the contemporary conflicts in the Middle East are multi-level conflicts. They take place in the air and on the ground, but an important and often overlooked dimension of these conflicts is found under the surface. This article recognizes the usefulness of political geography's ‘volumetric turn’ as it examines the use of tunnels in conflict, particularly in the post-2001 conflicts in the Middle East. It asks questions about who uses tunnels, for which purposes and about the impact of tunnels on conflicts. It proceeds to show how tunnels are used by a range of actors (including states, insurgents, civilians and organized crime groups) for various, often overlapping purposes (including offensive, defensive and smuggling/economic purposes). The article argues that tunnels impact on conflicts by benefiting the weaker side in asymmetrical warfare, by directly affecting states’ military strategy, by either generating or challenging political legitimacy and lastly, by becoming central to the economic survival of civilians in conflict. A greater recognition of the subterranean dimension of contemporary Middle Eastern conflicts will provide a more nuanced understanding of the duration, intensity and consequences of these wars.
  

  Website 
• 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, '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. 

  Website 
• 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 

Other selected publications:

• 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 conflicts in the Middle East

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. (July 2022) 'Captagon and Conflict: The impact of the Syrian war on Jordan as a drug transit country', ECPR 4th General Conference on Organised Crime, to be held in Pisa, Italy, 4 – 6 July 2022. 

Steenkamp, C. (2021) ‘Going Underground: The role of tunnels in conflicts in the Middle East’, Conflict Research Society annual conference, online, September 2021.

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