Publications by Sansom Milton
International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, 2025
Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility of mud brick houses as an alterna... more Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility of mud brick houses as an alternative to the more widely adopted emergency shelters used in war-torn Syria. It focuses on the mud houses' sustainability, cost effectiveness, cultural preference, income generation and security. Design/methodology/approach-This study uses a qualitative research approach to a single case study. Interviews were conducted with field experts from the Qatar Red Crescent Society and members of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) community living in mud brick houses. Findings-The findings reveal that the utilisation of mud houses is a good alternative in relief efforts. The houses are sustainable and cost-effective, take into consideration cultural dynamics and provide economic empowerment to IDPs. However, the maintenance of mud brick houses turns out to be the largest flaw, and this problem requires further research. Originality/value-The paper highlights the inefficiency of current emergency sheltering practices in Syria and reveals that tents are not a preferred mode of shelter. It further sheds light on a unique case study in which mud houses were used by an aid and development organisation, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. This paper contributes to practical discussion and ideation on more appropriate housing for IDPs.
World Development Perpsectives, 2024
This paper explores the barriers to and opportunities for Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG 16... more This paper explores the barriers to and opportunities for Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG 16) in fostering peace in Arab states. Examining the region's recurring conflicts, the analysis emphasises the need for peacecentered sustainable development. The paper identifies the main challenges facing the implementation of SDG 16 and offers strategic opportunities for overcoming them.
Development Policy Review, 2025
Motivation: Qatar's humanitarian role in Afghanistan, a less-explored example of a non-traditiona... more Motivation: Qatar's humanitarian role in Afghanistan, a less-explored example of a non-traditional actor, is crucial in understanding international responses to geopolitical crises. Examining Qatar's involvement provides insights into the complex dynamics of humanitarian assistance, diplomatic efforts, and post-crisis challenges. Purpose: The study examines Qatar's multifaceted role in Afghanistan since 2021, highlighting its impact as a non-traditional actor in complex humanitarian operations and diplomacy. Approach and methods: The research combines a desk review of online sources, academic literature, reports, non-governmental organization documents, and media articles with first-hand observations and informal stakeholder interviews. It also analyses international aid statistics from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' Financial Tracking Service and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Development Assistance Committee. Findings: Qatar emerged as a key humanitarian player in Afghanistan, adopting a whole-of-society approach. Its efforts encompassed emergency relief, evacuations, educational support, and humanitarian diplomacy, effectively bridging the Taliban with international actors after the takeover. Policy implications: This research highlights the impactful role of non-traditional donors, as seen with Qatar in Afghanistan, emphasizing their potential in complex humanitarian scenarios. The study advocates recognizing and leveraging the unique capabilities of smaller states and non-traditional actors in humanitarian responses, promoting capacity building to harness their institutional agility and societal resources effectively.
Gaza’s Cycle of Destruction and Rebuilding, 2024
The Israeli war of aggression on the Gaza Strip from 7 October 2023 brought about devastating imp... more The Israeli war of aggression on the Gaza Strip from 7 October 2023 brought about devastating impacts on the beleaguered and besieged Palestinian territory. With a view to informing the emerging discourse around the “Day After,” this chapter outlines several strategic considerations for the future reconstruction of the Gaza Strip following the 2023–2024 war. It begins by providing a brief contextualisation of the Gaza Strip, the impact of Israel’s 2023–2024 war on the territory, and the estimated costs of reconstruction. The chapter presents several major lessons that can be learned from previous rounds of reconstruction in the Gaza Strip. These lessons are then reflected upon in terms of the extent to which they remain applicable in the context of any “Day After” scenario following the 2023–2024 war, entailing strategic discussion of the issue of who runs the Gaza Strip and the role of regional actors in resource mobilisation. Finally, the concept of “The Day After” is itself subject to critical interpretation in light of the need to end the cycle of rebuilding and destruction in Gaza. The purpose of the chapter is to provide analytical insights to support more effective and grounded reconstruction process in the Gaza Strip.
Mediterranean Politics, 2025
Qatar's role in mediation diminished following the 2017 Gulf Crisis and the regional backlash to ... more Qatar's role in mediation diminished following the 2017 Gulf Crisis and the regional backlash to its interventionist policy during the Arab Spring. After the resolution of the Gulf Crisis in 2021, the Qatari role in conflict mediation reemerged with a return to third-party mediation in the early 2020s, receiving widespread attention following the U.S.-Taliban agreement. The post-crisis return of Qatar to playing central mediator and facilitator roles in conflict management has, however, been subject to discontinuities as well as continuities in its mediation style as a result of the crisis in its international relations. This article analyses the evolution of mediation strategy, utilizing case studies of Qatar's mediation in Afghanistan, Chad, and Libya through a framework focusing on results, modality, acceptability and reception. The analysis identifies key comparative findings on Qatar's post-2020 renewed role in conflict mediation.
Higher education and sustainable development goal 16 in fragile and conflict-affected contexts
Higher Education, 2020
Sustainable Development Goal 16 commits to ‘promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustaina... more Sustainable Development Goal 16 commits to ‘promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels’. While the concerns of SDG16 with violence reduction, rule of law, and governance are relevant to all societies, this paper focuses on fragile and conflict-affected countries, many of which have the hardest task in achieving SDG16. It analyses how higher education can contribute towards—or detract from—SDG16 through teaching, research, governance, and external leadership. It then analyses four dynamics influencing the agency of universities in fragile and conflict-affected contexts in engaging with SDG16: resource mobilisation and the public good; securitisation; academic freedom, insecurity, and politicisation; and tensions between demands for localisation and the universalising logics of liberal peacebuilding models and the SDGs.
Disasters, 2020
This paper examines the siege of the Gaza Strip since 2007. Research on sieges tends to address t... more This paper examines the siege of the Gaza Strip since 2007. Research on sieges tends to address the coping strategies employed by besieged communities, and humanitarian issues of the impact of siege, humanitarian access, and the prioritization of needs with little or no attention to reconstruction. However, Gaza is unusual as a siege context under which reconstruction has become a high priority in the aftermath of its three destructive wars with Israel. Following an overview of research on sieges in contemporary warfare and a brief contextualisation of Gaza, this paper examines why reconstruction outcomes have varied over time through the application of a theoretical framework that stipulates the importance of four factors-time, needs, political context, and scarcity. Based on these factors, Gaza was found to represent a most-likely case for reconstruction under siege. However, despite these conditions, the large-scale reconstruction necessary to transform Gaza has not actualized.
International Journal of Educational Development, 2019
After more than seven years of conflict, Syrian higher education continues to function. This obse... more After more than seven years of conflict, Syrian higher education continues to function. This observation defies expectations that higher education suffers more than other educational levels during conflict and contradicts media depictions that Syrian higher education collapsed during conflict. This paper challenges this narrative of collapse. Based on interviews with Syrian students and academics, it finds that while the system quantitatively survived for various reasons, significant negative qualitative shifts have transformed Syrian higher education through eroding quality and equity and deepening control of campuses as a means of regime security. (Uploaded file is pre-print).
This article examines the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM) – the main institutional mechanism ... more This article examines the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism (GRM) – the main institutional mechanism regulating the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip since the 2014 war. Proponents of the GRM hold that it is a crucial lifeline enabling the entry of humanitarian and reconstruction goods into Gaza while assuaging Israel’s security concerns. In contrast, this article argues that the GRM has introduced a bureaucratic and cumbersome mechanism that has created new bottlenecks that are impeding effective reconstruction and have institutionalized and depoliticized the siege of the Gaza Strip by passing the responsibility for its maintenance on to the international community.
This is a pre-print. The published version can be found at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17502977.2018.1450336
This book offers a critical review of higher education and post-conflict recovery. It provides th... more This book offers a critical review of higher education and post-conflict recovery. It provides the first systematic study with a global scope that investigates the role of higher education systems in conflict-affected contexts. The first part of the book analyses the long-standing neglect of higher education in post-conflict recovery, the impact that conflict can have on the sector, and efforts to rebuild and reform higher education systems affected by violent conflict. The second part of the book considers the positive and negative contributions that higher education can make to a range of areas of recovery including humanitarian action, forced displacement, post-conflict reconstruction, statebuilding, and peacebuilding. With its reasoned defence of the importance of higher education for post-conflict recovery, the book will appeal to researchers, university students, and humanitarian and development policy-makers and practitioners.
The Neglected Pillar of Recovery: A Study of Higher Education in Post-war Iraq and Libya
This article examines the role of higher education in the recovery of conflict-affected societies... more This article examines the role of higher education in the recovery of conflict-affected societies and argues that while the sector is typically a very low reconstruction priority, it has the potential, if addressed strategically, to act as a catalyst for effective and sustainable post-war recovery. The article begins by contextualising higher education within broader debates around post-war recovery and education. It then analyses the relationship between higher education and four core intervention agendas in conflict-affected societies: stabilisation and securitisation, reconstruction, statebuilding and peacebuilding.
Over the past few years, higher education has been a frequent casualty of the violent conflicts s... more Over the past few years, higher education has been a frequent casualty of the violent conflicts sweeping the Middle East. Campuses have been bombed in Syria, Gaza and now Yemen; occupied or closed in Libya and Iraq; and been the subject of severe police crackdowns across the region. What institutional measures can both regional entities and international bodies take to protect institutions of higher learning in the Arab world? Beyond this, how can strategies of protection be incorporated into programs of reconstruction and development for this much-maligned sector?
Sultan Barakat and Sansom Milton, in a new Brookings Doha Center Policy Briefing, contend that higher education is often an unrecognized casualty of these conflicts, with priority given to more pressing humanitarian needs. They assert that the protection and rebuilding of such institutions across the Middle East forms a crucial response to present concerns, helping to shelter and develop strategically vital youth populations. Crucially, they hold that an action plan for higher education in the Arab world cannot end at rebuilding shattered classrooms or rescuing individual scholars.
Ultimately, Barakat and Milton argue for a regional approach to defending and advancing higher education, as a key tool to combat violent extremism, address economic challenges, and encourage social stability. A strategy of “building back better” would allow higher education to serve as an engine for regional revitalization, living up to the historical example set by the region’s centuries-old institutions of higher learning.
University Values Bulletin, Dec 2013
How Higher Education Can Help Libya Recover From War
Papers by Sansom Milton
Higher education, conflict causation and post-conflict peacebuilding 1
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Publications by Sansom Milton
This is a pre-print. The published version can be found at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17502977.2018.1450336
Sultan Barakat and Sansom Milton, in a new Brookings Doha Center Policy Briefing, contend that higher education is often an unrecognized casualty of these conflicts, with priority given to more pressing humanitarian needs. They assert that the protection and rebuilding of such institutions across the Middle East forms a crucial response to present concerns, helping to shelter and develop strategically vital youth populations. Crucially, they hold that an action plan for higher education in the Arab world cannot end at rebuilding shattered classrooms or rescuing individual scholars.
Ultimately, Barakat and Milton argue for a regional approach to defending and advancing higher education, as a key tool to combat violent extremism, address economic challenges, and encourage social stability. A strategy of “building back better” would allow higher education to serve as an engine for regional revitalization, living up to the historical example set by the region’s centuries-old institutions of higher learning.
Papers by Sansom Milton