Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance

10/15/2026

📢 New publication from our PhD student!

When the last US forces left Erbil on Sept. 30, did Iraqi Kurdistan become safer, or more exposed?

In a new piece for The Conversation, CRHSGG PhD student Firmesk O. Rahim argues the withdrawal creates a paradox. Without American troops, the region may become a less attractive target for Iran and its allied militias. But it also loses the air and missile protection that helped it absorb more than 1,000 drone and missile attacks since February. A real question arises: "Which disappears faster: the threats or the protection?"

Among her key insights:

🔹 The Peshmerga were unified under a single command just days before the withdrawal, a historic milestone. But ground forces can’t stop drones, and Kurdistan now depends on a national Iraqi air-defense system that isn’t fully operational yet.

🔹 Sovereignty isn’t the same as security. Baghdad has pushed its deadline for bringing armed groups under state control to June 2027, which exposes the gap between formal sovereignty and effective control.

🔹 The US-Kurdish partnership is entering a new phase. Diplomacy, investment, and economic ties may now matter more than a military presence. The next few months will be telling. If attacks drop, the US presence was a driver of instability. If they don’t, Kurdish leaders’ worst fears are confirmed.

Congratulations, Firmesk! 👏

Read the full article:

The region may become less of a target for groups seeking to pressure the United States. But the Kurds also have less security support now, should they need it.

10/15/2026

🌉 GGHS UMass Boston was well represented at this year's Peace and Justice Studies Association conference at George Mason University!

Several GGHS doctoral students and members of the CPDD Education and Dialogue for a Peaceful and Just Future Lab presented their scholarly work:

Karen Ross, Jeff Pugh, Seth Karamage facilitated a roundtable entitled "Perspectives on mobilizing networks to increase peacebuilding impact"

Former CRHSGG faculty member Darren Kew will host PJSA as Dean of the Kroc School at the University of San Diego next year

Several of the CRHSGG cohort gathered for dinner at Jeff Pugh's house to celebrate the successful event.

10/14/2026

Join us tonight on Zoom for a panel discussion with four accomplished alumni of the Global Governance and Human Security (GGHS) PhD program who have excelled in non-academic career tracks: Allyson Bachta, Ph.D , Polly Cegielski, J. Michael Denney, and Kundan Mishra

10/08/2026

Please join the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance to celebrate 40 years of graduate education at the UMass Boston John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy & Global Studies.

10/06/2026

🌉 GGHS Well Represented at Bridging the Gaps 2026 New Era Workshop in Denver

We are proud to share that our department was well represented at the Bridging the Gap (BTG) 2026 New Era Workshop (NEW), held from September 24–26 in Denver, Colorado.

The workshop welcomed scholars to explore new approaches to policy engagement and strengthen connections between academic research and the broader policy community. Through scenario-based exercises, participants examined global challenges and developed strategies for translating emerging questions into research agendas.

The event also featured professional development discussions with BTG alumni and team members, along with conversations with policy practitioners and leading editors on engaging audiences beyond academia and navigating opportunities for impact.

Our GGHS contingent included:
Beth Fascitelli, GGHS alum
Weston Marume, GGHS student
Olga Skaredina, former GGHS student

We are thrilled to see our students and alumni engaging in these vital conversations at the intersection of scholarship and policy. Congratulations to all!

09/30/2026

🎉 New Publication: Professor Stacy VanDeveer Introduces H-Diplo Roundtable on Reluctant Conquest

We are pleased to share that Professor Stacy VanDeveer has authored the introduction to a new H-Diplo | Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum roundtable (18-7), published on 28 September 2026.

The roundtable reviews Kathryn C. Lavelle's Reluctant Conquest: American Wealth, Power, and Science in the Arctic (Yale University Press, 2025). It is a timely and important work examining the intersection of American power, scientific ambition, and Arctic governance.

Professor VanDeveer's introduction frames the roundtable's contributions and situates Lavelle's book within broader debates on international security, resource politics, and science's evolving role in statecraft. The roundtable brings together a distinguished group of scholars offering diverse perspectives on the book's arguments and implications.

An essential reading for anyone working at the intersection of Arctic governance, international security, science and technology studies, and U.S. foreign policy.

🔗 Read the roundtable here:

H-Diplo | Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum Roundtable 18-7 Kathryn C. Lavelle, Reluctant Conquest: American Wealth, Power, and Science in the Arctic. Yale University Press, 2025.

09/30/2026

🎉 Congratulations to Professor Michelle Jurkovich on the Publication of Descriptive Inquiry in Political Science!

We are thrilled to congratulate Professor Michelle Jurkovich on the publication of a special issue in International Politics (Volume 63, Issue 4, August 2026): Descriptive Inquiry in Political Science.

Carolyn Holmes, Meg Guliford, Mary Anne Mendoza-Davé, and Professor Jurkovich co-edited this special issue, which is the culmination of a series of descriptive research workshops hosted at UMass Boston over the past several years. The issue features 10 excellent articles that bring together scholars across International Relations, Comparative Politics, and American government subfields, reflecting our department's collaborative and interdisciplinary spirit and the broader scholarly community.

This is a significant contribution to the discipline, advancing the case for descriptive inquiry as both art and social science. We are proud to see our faculty leading this important conversation.

Congratulations, Professor Jurkovich, and to all the co-editors and contributors!

🔗 Read the special issue here:

International Politics is a journal that publishes scholarship on international relations, focusing on power struggles in international society.Explores a ...

09/28/2026

🎉 Book Launch Recap: Queering Women, Peace and Security

What a wonderful evening! On September 16th, we celebrated GGHS alumna Dr. Jamie J. Hagen's new book, Queering Women, Peace and Security: Expanding Feminist Approaches to Gender in Peacebuilding (Oxford University Press, 2025).

The event was a resounding success! We were joined by an enthusiastic audience who engaged deeply with Jamie's work by asking thoughtful questions and expressing genuine interest in learning more about how the Women, Peace and Security agenda can meaningfully include q***r and trans women in its programmatic work and conflict interventions.

Dr. Hagen drew on her research and interviews with LGBTQ experts in Northern Ireland and Colombia to offer rich insights into the gaps in current WPS architecture and practices.

Thank you to everyone who joined us, to our co-sponsors: the Consortium on Gender, Security, & Human Rights, the Department of Political Science, and the Department of Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, to Krystal-Gayle O'Neill Ph.D., Shivangi Basu, Clara Nithiaparan, M.Sc for the great questions and of course to Dr. Jamie Hagen for sharing her work with us!

09/25/2026

📢 Event Recap: Dr. Emrah Karakaya on AI as a Probabilistic General-Purpose Technology

On September 24th, our department had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Emrah Karakaya, Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial Economics and Management at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, for a colloquium talk on the organizational challenges of artificial intelligence.

Dr. Karakaya presented his research, "Artificial Intelligence as a Probabilistic General-Purpose Technology: Organizational Challenges and Mitigation Strategies," co-authored with Mats Engwall. He argued that unlike traditional general-purpose technologies such as electricity or the internal combustion engine, AI is fundamentally probabilistic—producing varied outputs, carrying margins of error, and remaining largely inscrutable even to its developers.

Drawing on case studies from innovation management, organization studies, and information systems, he identified four key themes where these challenges emerge: output reliability, model interpretability, data ethics, and task reconfiguration, and offered a typology of mitigation strategies for organizations navigating AI adoption.

Applied Ethics Center and the Center for Governance and Sustainability at UMass Boston co-sponsored the event, reflecting our shared commitment to examining the ethical, organizational, and governance dimensions of emerging technologies.

Thank you to Dr. Karakaya for a fascinating and timely presentation, and to all who joined us!

09/18/2026

Our esteemed PhD candidate Jiedine Phanbuh presented a paper at the 2026 Bath conference on Earth Systems Governance, titled “Measuring Success in Transboundary Water Governance: Justice, Allocation, and Adaptive Capacity in Three Major River Treaties,” based on her ongoing doctoral dissertation research. It compares three major transboundary water treaties, the Indus, Mekong, and Columbia River treaties to examine how adaptive and equitable treaty design can support both political cooperation and long-term environmental sustainability.

Congratulations, Jiedine!