CAS will launch a new MSc in Conflict Security and Development that will open for applications in October 2023.

A new Masters by Research in Sustainable African Futures and the Wits-Edinburgh Sustainable African Futures (WESAF) joint PhD programme have also been launched in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.

The MSc Conflict, Security, and Development programme focuses on the intersection of conflict, security and development, both conceptually and in practice. It critically explores the notion that security is a precondition for development and that development leads to security.

This ‘security-development nexus’ has become a central theme in the way development programmes are designed and implemented, particularly those focused on the Global South. Yet there are many important debates and unsettled questions about the linkages between conflict, security and development. For example, what is the role of poverty in conflict? Whose security is the focus in development interventions? Has the aid sector been securitized and if so, what does this mean for our understanding of the historical and global drivers of conflict? How does this framing of development affect our understanding of issues such as inequality, democracy and justice? How do everyday imaginations of security interact with high-level security politics?

In line with the Edinburgh Student Vision, the MSc Conflict, Security, and Development will train students to critically engage with debates around security and development, develop analytic skills for understanding the evidence on conflict by learning across different settings, and provide practical skills for jobs in the development and policy sector.