Lecture
Guilt by Location: Forced Displacement and Population Sorting in Civil Wars
- Date
- Tuesday 3 March 2026
- Time
- Serie
- Diplomacy and Global Affairs Research Seminar Series 2026
- Address
-
Wijnhaven
Turfmarkt 99
2511 DP The Hague - Room
- 3.60
Registration
Participation is free, but registration is required. Please note: this is an English-language event.
Apply hereAbout the event
Population displacement is a devastating feature of contemporary conflict with far-reaching political and humanitarian consequences. In this seminar, Dr. Adam Lichtenheld will discuss the extent to which displacement is a deliberate strategy of war, not just a consequence of it. Moving beyond instances of ethnic cleansing, his research draws on field research in Uganda and Syria, case studies from Burundi, Indonesia, and Vietnam, and original data from 166 civil wars to show that armed groups often uproot civilians to sort the targeted population, not to get rid of it. When lacking information about opponent identities and civilian loyalties, combatants use human mobility to infer wartime affiliations through 'guilt by location'. Different displacement strategies occur in different types of civil wars, with some relying on spatial profiling rather than ethnic profiling. As displacement reaches record highs, these findings have important implications for the study of forced migration and policy responses to it.
About the speaker
Dr. Adam Lichtenheld is an Assistant Professor of Peace Studies, Conflict Resolution, and International Relations at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) at Leiden University in The Hague, Netherlands. Adam’s research explores the dynamics of forced displacement, conflict, political violence, and peacebuilding. He has advised various governments, donors, and NGOs on designing and evaluating humanitarian and development programmes in over a dozen countries, and has served as a consultant for UNHCR, the World Bank, the Danish Refugee Council, Refugee International, and USAID. He has published numerous articles and policy analyses on conflict-related population displacement, refugee resettlement, foreign aid, and international intervention mechanisms.
Diplomacy and Global Affairs (DGA) Research SeminarÂ
The Diplomacy and Global Affairs (DGA) Research Seminar is a series launched by the Research Group on Diplomacy and Global Affairs at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs. The seminars of internationally acknowledged guest researchers and faculty members deal with current research topics in diplomacy, international relations, global affairs, and political economy broadly conceived and target a broad audience through their interdisciplinary focus.
If you have any questions, please contact Arash Pourebrahimi.