The War and Peace Studies track offers you a comprehensive understanding of the historical, theoretical, and practical dimensions of war and peace, while addressing the complex challenges of conflict and peacebuilding in the contemporary world.

In 2025, GTGC co-organised with the City of The Hague and the Hague Humanity Hub a Just Peace Festival, a vibrant platform on the pressing global challenges of peace with justice. The festival involved a wide range of different activities, including dialogues, exhibitions, performances, film evenings,…

The Just Peace Dialogues were a set of meetings for public deliberation of key aspects of building peace in today’s world. The dialogues were held across seven days at the heart of the Just Peace Festival (16 - 22 June 2025).

From 1 August 2018, Alanna O'Malley was appointed as Chair of United Nations Studies in Peace and Justice, focusing on the ‘lesser-known actors’ of the UN: women, the youth, the agents of informal diplomatic networks within the UN and actors from the Global South. This Special Chair has been created…

This project maps the policy of ‘Paz Total’ (Total Peace) and ongoing peace negotiations between non-state armed groups and the government of Colombia under the presidency of Gustavo Petro (2022-2026).

On the brink of war, what influences decision makers to attack another country? Using innovative theoretical angles, Femke E. Bakker explores whether the basic assumptions of democratic peace theory are indeed correct. She stresses the microfoundations of conflict, questioning the assumptions on…

Teaching excellence is one of the core functions of the War, Peace and Justice (WPJ) research group. WPJ members engage in diverse forms of public engagement, but all share a commitment to education.

Conceptualizing ceasefires as bargaining instruments challenges established ideas about the processes that lead up to conflict settlement, and about war re-emergence, with important implications for our understanding of war and peace.

The specialization Peace, Justice and Development at Leiden University examines the legislation that governs international relations in a global society.

The War, Peace and Justice group unites scholars and practitioners to explore war dynamics, peace promotion, and justice’s role in conflict and global affairs.

Tom Buitelaar assesses how 'agency' is addressed in peacekeeping studies and identifies gaps.

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda arising from United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 has reached a critical juncture in its short 20-year history. Despite comprising ten resolutions designed to bolster the agenda and expand its scope and normative power, serious challenges to the…

This book addresses the definition of history and how people are influenced by it.

In this article, Jasmijn Boeken, explores in which ways the defining characteristics of the different zones can be found in the digital sphere.

International Coalitions for Peace in the Era of Decolonization, 1918-1970

Perception of material culture, design and digital knowledge applications

When researching languages in historical context, our goal is to understand the nature of linguistic variation in the past, and explain the extent to which the socio-cultural context of bygone times contributed to shaping linguistic variation and change.

This thesis investigates the historical development of Japanese pitch accent.

Are you thinking about studying Crisis and Security Management: War and Peace Studies? Learn more and watch the videos.

Law and peace in the work of Hans Kelsen. A re-evaluation of Kelsen’s legal philosophy: legal pacifism as tacit meaning of his Pure Theory of Law

Onderzoek van de onderzoeksgroep 'War, Peace and Justice'

How is it possible that people kill each other? And above all: how is it possible that people who are able to peacefully live with each other at one moment, can kill each other at another one?

The specialisation Global Order in Historical Perspective of the master’s in International Relations at Leiden University focuses on examining the historical processes and practices in the making of global order.

Travel back in time and learn about how the University has changed over the centuries.

Osteoarchaeology is a rich field for reconstructing past lives in that it can provide details on sex, age-at-death, stature, and pathology in conjunction with the cultural, social, and economic aspects of the person’s environment and burial conditions. While osteoarchaeological research is common in…

The study of language in change.

The topic of Historical Linguistics and Philology at LUCL is language change in its broadest sense.

How did institutions and structures operate throughout the Muslim world from the earliest history of Islam into the early modern period?

Memory, Imagination, and Mimetics in Contemporary Composition and Historical Performance

The current study focuses on Walpole’s social network and the language as contained in the letters of the network members.

What is the origin of educational ideas, e.g., the idea that intervention in infancy has long-lasting effects on development.

How and to what extent the historic house (re-)constructs identity through image-making in China.

Are you thinking about studying Global Order in Historical Perspective? Learn more and watch the introduction video.

Historical geo data are gaining in importance. Provided that they are exactly geo referenced, they can be stored into a GIS and thus be combined with all kinds of maps (topographical, pedological, etc.) and datasets. This makes it possible to analyze historical developments in space and time on a detailed…

Johannes Boer's research intends to question the way explicit knowledge is applied in order to restore and perform music from the past with the intention to get as close as possible to its original meaning.

Through extensive archaeological and documentary research, this study aims to provide a detailed analysis of the maritime cultural landscape of St. Eustatius over the past four centuries. It focuses on bridging the gap between the marine and terrestrial worlds and demonstrates that in order to truly…

In this project the already developed parcel based historical GIS (HISGIS) for the Dutch province of Friesland (Frisia) will be extended with a series of crucial datasets and map layers.

This book, edited by Joost Augusteijn, Constant Hijzen and Mark Leon de Vries, explores how democratic regimes have dealt with anti-democratic forces in society, from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century.

The map application includes information from old and new buildings archaeological projects. This makes it possible to investigate whether water facilities (wells, cisterns) and waste facilities (cesspits, sewers) were the privilege of Leiden’s wealthy elite in the late 16th and 17th centuries or whether…

In this paper for Defence Strategic Communications, Alastair Reed and Jennifer Dowling seek to show the importance of historical narratives to propaganda by identifying and exploring five ways in which such narratives are exploited to reinforce the extremists' 'competitive system of meaning'.

The Peace Run was held in The Hague on 14 September as part of the Just Peace festival. The event aimed to gather funds for UNICEF the Netherlands. A large team from Leiden University took part in the Run. Altogether a successful day!

Buitelaar argues that IOs micro-level discourse adapts imperfectly to macro-level changes, balancing adaptation to pressures with commitment to values.

Amidst today’s armed conflicts, authoritarian governments, cyber-attacks, organized crime, economic insecurity, and ecological destruction, it can be hard to imagine peace. What do we mean by ‘peace’, beyond the absence of war? What kind of peace are we seeking? What makes people and society at peace?…

Chinese materia medica (CMM), comprising a diverse array of natural substances from plants, animals, and minerals, has been integral to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) throughout history. This study investigates the dynamic evolution of CMM, noting shifts in species for improved therapeutic effects…

This paper explores whether multilateral surveillance and policy coordination under the ES was based on a path-changing or a path-dependent mechanism