Transitional Justice and Conflict Studies: Bridging the Divide

Abstract

This article identifies three aspects of conflict studies that are largely ignored in the transitional justice literature: debates over the causes of armed conflict, the transnational nature of contemporary violence, and the persistence of wartime actors and structures. It analyzes scholarly attempts that begin to bridge the divide between transitional justice and conflict studies. Those efforts demonstrate how engagement with conflict studies can open new research horizons in the study of transitional justice and lead to better understandings of how justice-focused interventions can bring about positive peace. However, innovation in primary data generation and methods is needed for this subfield to develop into a fully-fledged research program.