How do we know what happens in violent conflicts and wars? Researchers, governments and international organisations rely on indicators, datasets, journalistic reports, expert assessments, early-warning systems, verification mechanisms and algorithmic tools to make conflict and security problems knowable. Yet the arrangements through which such knowledge is produced do not simply capture reality. They can shape what becomes visible, what is considered credible, and what actors subsequently look for. This workshop explores how these arrangements transform the conditions under which further knowledge is produced and evaluated. We advance the concept of epistemic recursion and welcome contributions from diverse disciplinary approaches.
Understanding violent conflict and international security depends on arrangements that distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, credible from questionable evidence, and significant from insignificant developments. Conflict indicators, early-warning systems, peacebuilding assessments, intelligence, verification, algorithms, and reflexivity shape what can be known about conflict, peace and security (Axyonova & Lozka, 2023; Burlyuk & Musliu, 2023; Leander & Wæver, 2018; Lobato & Santos, 2023; Muggah & Whitlock, 2022; Phythian & Strachan-Morris, 2024; Tomiak, 2019, 2022). These arrangements and practices are intended to improve knowledge about conflict, peace and security. Yet what happens when they also change the conditions under which subsequent knowledge is produced?
Building on practice-centered approaches to knowledge and expertise in international politics (Bliesemann De Guevara & Warnecke, 2025), and viewing practices as part of wider epistemic arrangements, this workshop treats knowledge production as potentially recursive. The arrangements through which conflict and security are made knowable can transform the objects they seek to know, the standards by which knowledge is evaluated, and the conditions under which future knowledge becomes possible (Brenner & Han, 2021; Gani & Khan, 2024; Jones & Squire, 2025). We are particularly interested in when such recursion enables learning and correction, and when it instead stabilises categories, creates blind spots, reinforces existing hierarchies of knowledge, or changes the very problem it was intended to address. Bringing together Peace and Conflict Studies, Critical Security Studies and related fields, this workshop is intended as a first step towards developing a Special Issue on epistemic recursion in conflict, peace and security.
Axyonova, V., & Lozka, K. (2023). ‘We are at war’: Reflections on positionality and research as negotiation in post-2022 Ukraine. Journal of International Relations and Development, 26(4), 711–721. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-023-00297-z
Bliesemann De Guevara, B., & Warnecke, A. (2025). Practice Approaches to Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics. In B. Bliesemann De Guevara, K. Kaczmarska, X. Kurowska, B. Poopuu, & A. Warnecke (Eds.), Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics (1st ed., pp. 287–296). Oxford University PressOxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192871145.003.0020
Brenner, D., & Han, E. (2021). Forgotten Conflicts: Producing Knowledge and Ignorance in Security Studies. Journal of Global Security Studies, 7(1), ogab022. https://doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogab022
Burlyuk, O., & Musliu, V. (2023). The responsibility to remain silent? On the politics of knowledge production, expertise and (self-)reflection in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Journal of International Relations and Development, 26(4), 605–618. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-023-00318-x
Gani, J. K., & Khan, R. M. (2024). Positionality Statements as a Function of Coloniality: Interrogating Reflexive Methodologies. International Studies Quarterly, 68(2), sqae038. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqae038
Jones, B., & Squire, V. (2025). You Already Know Enough: Certainty and Ignorance in Data-Driven Humanitarianism. Geopolitics, 30(3), 1101–1124. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2025.2463005
Leander, A., & Wæver, O. (Eds.). (2018). Assembling Exclusive Expertise: Knowledge, Ignorance and Conflict Resolution in the Global South (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351136747
Lobato, L. C., & Santos, V. (2023). Digital tools as experts in international peace and security. International Affairs, 99(5), 1929–1951. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiad183
Muggah, R., & Whitlock, M. (2022). Reflections on the Evolution of Conflict Early Warning. Stability: International Journal of Security and Development, 10(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.5334/sta.857
Phythian, M., & Strachan-Morris, D. (2024). Intelligence & the Russo-Ukrainian war: Introduction to the special issue. Intelligence and National Security, 39(3), 377–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2024.2330132
Tomiak, K. (2019). Fieldwork and Emotions: Positionality, Method Choices, and a Radio Program in South Sudan. In L. Johnstone (Ed.), The Politics of Conducting Research in Africa (pp. 97–113). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95531-5_6
Tomiak, K. (2022). Researcher effects in survey‐based research: Insights from research in South Sudan. Development Policy Review, 40(6), e12629. https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12629
1: How do knowledge arrangements shape what becomes visible, knowable and actionable?
2: How do verification, evaluation, reflexivity and positionality affect conflict knowledge credibility?
3: When do recursive effects enable learning or stabilise categories, create blind spots or increase authority?
4: When and how do knowledge arrangements travel across spaces and shape what becomes a security problem?
5: How do different forms of conflict and security knowledge transform the conditions for future knowledge production?
1: Knowledge production on conflict, conflict intervention, peace and security
2: Conflict indicators, datasets and other forms of conflict measurement
3: Early-warning systems and the production of knowledge about future violence
4: Intelligence, verification and the production of credible conflict knowledge
5: Algorithms, AI and datafication in conflict and security knowledge production
6: Reflexivity, positionality and epistemic authority in conflict research
7: Knowledge practices that shape what becomes visible, knowable or actionable
8: The recursive effects of knowledge production on conflict, peace and security
