What is the format of the SPSP 20th International Conference and General Assembly?

The event is an international conference and general assembly, suggesting a format that includes both structured discussions and organizational meetings.

SPSP 20th International Conference and General Assembly

Name: SPSP 20th International Conference and General Assembly
Start: 2026-10-05T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-10-09T00:00:00Z
Location: Ibadan

Oct 5–9, 2026Ibadan, NigeriaIn-person

Registration open

The SPSP 20th International Conference and General Assembly is scheduled to take place in Ibadan, Nigeria. This gathering serves as a significant forum for professionals and academics to engage in discussions and exchange perspectives on pertinent issues. The event spans several days in the fall, offering a comprehensive program designed to foster collaboration and advance understanding within its field.

Committees & topics

Topics
Security Governance and Global Dynamics · Epistemological, Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Security Studies · Global Uncertainties, Geopolitical Competition, and Regional Security Dynamics · Regional and International Organisations in Peace and Security Governance · Security Governance in Fragile, Conflict-Affected and Transitional Contexts · Peacebuilding, State Legitimacy, and Institutional Trust · Armed Conflict, Insurgency, Terrorism, Violent Extremism, and Banditry · Community Security, Local Peace Architecture, and Early Warning Mechanisms

Why it matters

This conference holds particular importance as it convenes in Ibadan, Nigeria, a nation grappling with complex socio-political dynamics. The discussions and insights generated at this event can contribute to a deeper understanding of regional challenges and potential solutions. By bringing together diverse viewpoints, the conference aims to facilitate meaningful dialogue that extends beyond academic circles, influencing policy considerations and practical approaches.

The gathering in Nigeria underscores the relevance of local contexts in addressing global issues. Participants will have the opportunity to explore how theoretical frameworks and international best practices can be adapted and applied within specific regional realities. This focus on localized perspectives is crucial for developing effective and sustainable strategies, making the conference a vital platform for both scholarly advancement and real-world impact.

How to prepare

To prepare effectively for this conference, delegates should conduct thorough research into the socio-political landscape of Nigeria. Understanding the historical and contemporary political developments in Nigeria will provide a valuable context for the discussions. Familiarity with key domestic and regional issues will enable more informed participation and a greater appreciation of the nuances presented during the sessions.

Delegates should also consider how their own areas of expertise intersect with the themes likely to be explored at the conference. Reviewing relevant academic literature and policy papers will be beneficial. Furthermore, preparing questions and potential discussion points in advance can enhance engagement and contribute to a more dynamic exchange of ideas. Consider exploring lessons such as "gender-dynamics-across-cultures" and "hidden-stakeholders" to broaden your analytical framework.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Nigeria

Host nation and focal point for discussions on regional socio-political dynamics.

Role in topic

As the host country, Nigeria provides the immediate context for many of the discussions, particularly those related to regional stability, governance, and development. Its experiences and challenges will likely be central to case studies and policy debates.

United States

Potential contributor to international development and security dialogues.

Role in topic

The United States often plays a significant role in international development and security initiatives globally, including in Africa. Its perspective might inform discussions on foreign aid, international partnerships, and conflict resolution strategies.

United Kingdom

Historical ties and ongoing engagement in African affairs.

Role in topic

The United Kingdom has historical connections and ongoing diplomatic and economic engagements across Africa. Its perspective could be relevant in discussions concerning post-colonial legacies, trade relations, and governance support.

South Africa

Key regional power with significant influence on continental issues.

Role in topic

South Africa is a prominent regional power within Africa and often takes a leading role in continental organizations and initiatives. Its insights into African solutions to African problems, regional integration, and peacebuilding efforts will be valuable.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Security Governance and Global Dynamics

Security governance has evolved beyond the state-centric paradigm that defined the Cold War era into a multi-layered enterprise involving states, international organisations, private actors, and civil society. The end of bipolar competition in 1991 initially produced optimism about cooperative security, embodied in the expansion of UN peacekeeping and the rise of human security frameworks in the late 1990s. However, the post-9/11 period, the 2008 financial crisis, and the return of great-power competition after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and the deepening US-China rivalry have reshaped the global security landscape into a more contested arena. Today, security governance must reconcile traditional military concerns with transnational threats such as climate change, pandemics, cyber operations, and disinformation. Debates centre on whether liberal multilateral institutions can adapt, whether emerging powers will reform or rival them, and how to govern technologies — AI, biotech, space — that outpace existing treaty frameworks. The fragmentation of consensus at the UN Security Council, illustrated by repeated vetoes on Syria, Ukraine, and Gaza, underscores the difficulty of producing coherent global security responses.

Key players

Epistemological, Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Security Studies

The study of security has been contested terrain since the discipline's consolidation in the mid-twentieth century. Traditional realist and liberal paradigms treated security primarily as state survival and inter-state war, but the Copenhagen, Welsh (Aberystwyth), and Paris schools broadened the field from the 1980s onward, introducing concepts of societal security, securitisation, and critical security studies. The 1994 UNDP Human Development Report formalised 'human security,' shifting referent objects from states to individuals and communities, while feminist, postcolonial, and decolonial scholars have since challenged the Western-centric assumptions underpinning mainstream security knowledge. Methodologically, the field is divided between quantitative conflict studies — drawing on datasets such as UCDP, ACLED, and COW — and interpretive, ethnographic, and discourse-analytic approaches. Contemporary debates concern the ethics of fieldwork in conflict zones, the use of AI and big data in conflict prediction, the replicability crisis, and the politics of knowledge production between Global North and Global South institutions. These epistemological questions directly shape how policymakers diagnose threats and design interventions.

Key players

Global Uncertainties, Geopolitical Competition, and Regional Security Dynamics

The international system has entered a period of compounded uncertainty marked by intensifying US-China strategic competition, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine since February 2022, war in Gaza since October 2023, and instability across the Sahel following coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. The erosion of arms control architecture — including the demise of the INF Treaty in 2019 and the suspension of New START participation by Russia in 2023 — has compounded fears of unconstrained military build-ups. Simultaneously, the Indo-Pacific has emerged as the principal theatre of great-power rivalry, with flashpoints in Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the Korean Peninsula. Regional security dynamics increasingly interact with global rivalries: the BRICS expansion in 2024, the proliferation of minilateral arrangements such as AUKUS and the Quad, and the contested roles of the Wagner/Africa Corps in African states all illustrate how local conflicts are entangled with systemic competition. Energy transitions, climate displacement, and supply-chain securitisation further complicate the picture, blurring lines between economic and security policy.

Key players

Regional and International Organisations in Peace and Security Governance

Since 1945 the UN has held primary responsibility for international peace and security, but Chapter VIII of the Charter envisaged regional organisations as partners in this task. The African Union, established in 2002 to succeed the OAU, developed the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and has authorised missions in Somalia (AMISOM/ATMIS), Darfur, and most recently in support of stabilisation efforts in the Sahel and Horn of Africa. The European Union has built CSDP missions, NATO has expanded eastward following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and bodies such as ECOWAS, ASEAN, the OSCE, and the Arab League play differentiated roles in mediation, sanctions, and observation. The relationship between these bodies and the UN has been uneven. ECOWAS's responses to coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger exposed the limits of regional enforcement, while the AU's reliance on UN-assessed funding (advanced under Resolution 2719 in December 2023) marks a potential turning point for predictable financing of African-led peace operations. Persistent debates concern subsidiarity, burden-sharing, comparative advantage, and the legitimacy deficits that arise when regional bodies act without UNSC authorisation.

Key players

Security Governance in Fragile, Conflict-Affected and Transitional Contexts

Fragile and conflict-affected states host an increasing share of the world's extreme poor and account for the majority of forcibly displaced persons, which exceeded 120 million globally by 2024 according to UNHCR. Security sector reform (SSR), disarmament-demobilisation-reintegration (DDR), and transitional justice emerged as core international toolkits following operations in the Balkans, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in the 1990s and 2000s. Yet experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan, and the Sahel has demonstrated the limits of externally driven state-building when political settlements are absent and donor priorities shift. Contemporary fragile contexts are also marked by hybrid governance: non-state armed groups, traditional authorities, and private military companies such as the Wagner Group/Africa Corps deliver order in parallel with — or against — formal state institutions. The 2020 OECD States of Fragility framework and the World Bank-UN Pathways for Peace report (2018) have pushed donors toward prevention and locally-led approaches, but the gap between policy aspiration and operational practice remains significant, particularly amid shrinking humanitarian funding.

Key players

Peacebuilding, State Legitimacy, and Institutional Trust

Modern peacebuilding doctrine took shape with the 1992 'Agenda for Peace' and matured through the creation of the UN Peacebuilding Commission, Peacebuilding Fund, and Peacebuilding Support Office in 2005. The 2015 'Sustaining Peace' resolutions (UNSC 2282 and GA 70/262) reframed peacebuilding as a continuous task spanning prevention, conflict, and recovery, while the 2020 review and the New Agenda for Peace (2023) emphasised national ownership, financing, and the nexus between development, humanitarian action, and peace. A central insight of contemporary research — from the OECD, World Bank, and academic studies — is that durable peace depends less on the formal architecture of institutions than on perceived legitimacy and trust. Afrobarometer, Latinobarómetro, and Edelman Trust data consistently show declining confidence in public institutions even in established democracies, while in post-conflict settings corruption, exclusion, and unmet expectations frequently trigger relapse. Debates focus on how to measure legitimacy, the trade-offs between elite bargains and inclusive politics, and the role of social cohesion programming.

Key players

Armed Conflict, Insurgency, Terrorism, Violent Extremism, and Banditry

Global battle-related deaths reached their highest level in three decades by 2023, according to UCDP, driven by wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Ethiopia (Tigray and Amhara), and Myanmar. Alongside inter-state and civil wars, jihadist insurgencies have shifted geographically: the so-called Islamic State's territorial caliphate collapsed in 2019, but affiliates have expanded in the Sahel (JNIM, ISGS), Lake Chad Basin (Boko Haram, ISWAP), Mozambique (Cabo Delgado), and Afghanistan-Pakistan (ISKP, TTP). The Global Terrorism Index has documented a steady transfer of terrorism's epicentre from the Middle East to sub-Saharan Africa. A distinguishing feature of contemporary violence is its hybridity. In northwest Nigeria, banditry blurs into kidnapping economies; in Mexico and Haiti, criminal organisations rival the state's coercive capacity; and in eastern DRC, the M23 and dozens of other armed groups operate alongside foreign forces. Counter-terrorism frameworks built after 2001 — including UNSC resolutions 1373 and 2178 — are increasingly criticised for overreach, weak human-rights safeguards, and ineffectiveness against locally rooted insurgencies driven by governance failures and grievance.

Key players

Community Security, Local Peace Architecture, and Early Warning Mechanisms

Community security approaches emerged from the limits of top-down state-building, drawing on traditions of conflict resolution found in customary justice systems, religious mediation, and civil society networks. The African Union's Continental Early Warning System (CEWS), ECOWAS's ECOWARN, and IGAD's CEWARN — alongside national infrastructures for peace in countries like Ghana and Kenya — institutionalised the principle that early warning must be coupled with early response at multiple levels. The UN's Local Peace Committees in Sudan, Nepal, and South Sudan, and Colombia's Territorial Development Programmes (PDETs), illustrate efforts to anchor peacebuilding in subnational realities. Recent innovations include data-driven early warning that combines ACLED event data, satellite imagery, and machine learning with community-sourced reporting via SMS and radio. Persistent challenges include the politicisation of warnings, donor short-termism, weak linkages between local committees and national security institutions, and the risk that 'local' is romanticised in ways that obscure intra-community power asymmetries, including gendered exclusions. The Women, Peace and Security agenda under UNSC Resolution 1325 (2000) remains central to making local peace architectures inclusive.

Key players