From Protracted Conflict to Sustainable Peace?: The Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus and International Law

Across the globe, the number of protracted armed conflicts is rising, with many societies enduring the consequences of violence and conflict-related socio-economic disruption for decades. These enduring conflicts present complex and evolving challenges—legal, (geo)political, institutional, humanitarian, developmental, and environmental—that demand new approaches.

In response, policy frameworks increasingly advocate for the so-called Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus (the 'Triple Nexus'), which seeks to bridge traditionally siloed agendas in favour of a more integrated response to protracted conflict. Yet, despite growing policy interest, the legal dimensions of protracted conflict and the implications of the Triple Nexus remain under-explored in international law.

From Protracted Conflict to Sustainable Peace? offers the first comprehensive legal and interdisciplinary examination of how international law engages with the realities of protracted conflict. Drawing on a wide range of legal fields—including international humanitarian law, development law, economic law, refugee law, human rights law, criminal law, and peacebuilding law—contributors explore how legal regimes interact, overlap, and at times conflict in these complex settings.

Through a conceptual framework and a series of thematic chapters, the volume addresses the lived impacts of protracted conflict, the role of international institutions and the challenges they face, and the potential of legal frameworks to respond to long-term crises. It provides scholars and practitioners with a vital resource for rethinking legal strategies in the face of enduring violence and for imagining pathways toward sustainable peace.

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Heike Krieger, Professor of Public Law and International Law, Freie Universität Berlin,Giedre Jokubauskaite, Senior Lecturer in International Law, University of Glasgow,Asli Ozcelik, Senior Lecturer in International Law, University of Glasgow,Andreas Buser, Senior Research Associate, Freie Universität Berlin

Heike Krieger is Professor of Public Law and International Law at Freie Universität Berlin. She was Chair of the DFG-funded research group 'The International Rule of Law - Rise or Decline?' and Principal Investigator of the AHRC-DFG-funded project on 'The Law of Protracted Conflicts'. She has held visiting professorships at the Centre for Transnational Legal Studies, London, and at the Universities of Macerata and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Professor Krieger is President of the German Society of International Law and a member of the DFG Senate. Her research focuses on general international law, international humanitarian law, and the protection of human rights.

Giedre Jokubauskaite is Senior Lecturer in International Law at the University of Glasgow. She has previously been a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Rosario (Bogotá, Colombia), a Research Fellow at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law at the University of Cambridge, and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Durham Law School. She was guest editor of a special issue on the Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) of the World Bank, published by the Leiden Journal of International Law. Her research includes case studies of development projects in Colombia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Cameroon, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Asli Ozcelik is Senior Lecturer in International Law at the University of Glasgow, where she co-directs the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in International Law of Global Security, Peace and Development. She was also Co-Investigator of the AHRC-DFG-funded project on 'The Law of Protracted Conflicts'. Previously, she served as Postdoctoral Researcher and Academic Coordinator at the Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security. Her research focuses on international peace and security, with particular emphasis on armed conflict and peacemaking.

Andreas Buser is Senior Research Associate at Freie Universität Berlin and was Co-Investigator of the AHRC-DFG-funded project on 'The Law of Protracted Conflicts'. He has held fellowships with the Berlin Potsdam Research Group 'The International Rule of Law - Rise or Decline?' (funded by the German Research Foundation) and the Jean Monnet Center at New York University (Émile Noël Fellowship). His research interests include international economic law, international environmental law, international humanitarian law, human rights, and German constitutional law. Dr Buser is a fully qualified German lawyer.