Past Event
In-Person
Seminar

Unravelling a Conflict from Afar: Violence Against Civilians During the Tigray War

Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

The presentation will outline a research agenda for how new technologies for remote data collection can be used to create an empirical baseline of violence against civilians in low-information contexts such as the Tigray War, 

For more information, contact susan_lynch@hks.harvard.edu 

Desta Haileselassie sits at his desk
Desta Haileselassie sits at his desk in Stockholm, Sweden, Sept. 19, 2021. Cut off from Tigray due to a communications blackout, Desta has been compiling a list of Tigrayan victims of war. He is one of many in the Tigrayan diaspora who have waited for months to know whether loved ones are alive.

Speaker: Mikael Hiberg Naghizadeh, Postdoctoral Fellow, International Security Program

The 2020–2022 Tigray War in Ethiopia was a humanitarian catastrophe which upended the lives of millions through violence, forced displacement, and famine. While the conflict has been one of the deadliest in recent years, it has received scant academic attention due to conflict data being inaccessible or non-existent. 

The advent of new technologies for remote data collection, such as satellite-based sensors, provides a potential solution to this problem. The presentation will outline a research agenda for how these tools can be used to create an empirical baseline of violence against civilians in low-information contexts such as the Tigray War, which allows for research into variance in civilian targeting at the micro-level.

Admittance is on a first come–first served basis.  Tea and Coffee Provided.