Sub themes

Conflict and Security

This sub theme addresses the causes, consequences and potential solutions to conflict and security issues across a number of geographic regions.

The newly-established Strategy and Security Institute will feature prominently in this theme in collaboration with colleagues in politics, economics, sociology and history (the latter involving the Centre for War, State and Society).

This theme will cover a range of issues including the changing character of future conflict and developing the appropriate governance structures at the national and international levels to address crisis management.

The sub theme will draw upon Exeter’s renowned expertise in the Middle East and in Central Asia.

Resource Insecurity

Increasing concerns over food security, access to natural resources and addressing the global impact of climate change will form the basis of research on resource insecurity.

The emphasis in this sub theme will relate to the global aspects of these issues including promoting food security across different regions, how globalisation impacts on resource insecurity and the potential conflicts between and within nations associated with competition for and access to scarce natural resources, drawing on the expertise in economics, politics and history.

There will also be scope for collaboration with other strategic themes including Environment and Sustainability, Food Security and STEM-related strategies including Climate Change and Sustainable Futures.

Globalisation and Distribution

Globalisation does not proceed evenly across all societies or economic sectors. It creates winners and losers and therefore gives rise to concerns about inequality.

How societies today address the distributional issues associated with increasing global inter-connectedness – and have addressed such issues in the past – is therefore crucial in addressing the appropriate responses to mitigate the risks associated with conflict and addressing the concerns of the most vulnerable.

The legacy of the colonial past in terms of patterns of migration, trade, investment, access to resources, and conflicts within as well as between societies will also feature in this theme. These issues will be addressed by cross-disciplinary research in economics, politics, sociology and history with the latter placing perspectives on current issues in an historical context.

The Challenge of Rising Powers

While many of the challenges to the global economy arise over security and conflict in troubled regions and access to scarce resources, a broad range of issues arise with respect to emerging powers, most notably India and China.

These potentially significant structural shifts in the world economy will give rise to a broad range of issues that will impact on the global economic and political agenda in the future. These include not only the impact of the changing competitive advantage of these nations on developed countries via trade and investment but also how these countries deal with internal issues such as ensuring food security and access to resources.

This sub theme will involve researchers from business, economics, politics and history and draw on recent collaborative projects with institutions in India in particular.

Coping with an Uncertain World

Research on global uncertainties requires insights on the appropriate methodology to deal with risk and insecurity and the development of appropriate policies and governance structures to mitigate and adapt to the potential consequences of these risks.

The theme addresses these issues in two inter-related ways: first, by drawing on expertise in economics and politics on policies to address these issues including the delivery of these policies through appropriate governance and regulatory structures and, second, via formal theoretical analysis drawing on the newly-established Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Centre for Risk and Ambiguity.