Isak Svensson is Professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Sweden, and former Director of Research at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, New Zealand. His three main areas of expertise are 1) international mediation in civil wars, 2) religious and conflict, and 3) dynamics of strategic nonviolent conflicts.
He has published and edited ten books, and over 25 articles in international academic journals, including Journal of Peace Research, Journal of Conflict Resolution, European Journal of International Relations, and International Negotiation. His books include Ending Holy Wars: Religion and Conflict Resolution in Civil Wars (University of Queensland Press, 2012), and International Mediation Bias and Peacemaking: Taking Sides in Civil Wars (Routledge, 2015). Together with Ron Hassner, Isak Svensson has also edited International Relations & Religion, Vol I-IV (SAGE, 2016). Isak Svensson is project leader for the research project “Battles without Bullets: Exploring Nonviolent Conflicts,” leads the data collection project Violence in Civil Protest data at the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), and teaches the course “Nonviolent Conflicts: Causes, Strategies and Outcomes” (Master level) at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research.
Svensson is currently undertaking a survey-based project on explaining individual-level participation in the nonviolent uprising in Nepal 2006.