arXiv subjects

Steven M. Radil

Publications and source records attributed to Steven M. Radil.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Cities and political violence in West Africa

This paper examines how political violence in West Africa is distributed between urban agglomerations and their surrounding areas using spatially disaggregated conflict and population data. Covering seventeen countries from 2012 to mid-2025, the analysis shows that political violence remains clearly tied to cities and their peripheries with the majority of violence occurring within and around urban agglomerations. Large cities record the highest number of incidents within their boundaries, while smaller towns, which are more frequently situated near borders, typically experience higher levels of violence outside their boundaries. However, urban-centric violence has also declined since 2012, indicating a progressive ruralization of conflict. These findings provide important regional context to the urbanization of conflict narrative by showing that West African insurgent movements use both urban and rural environments strategically. They also underscore the ongoing vulnerability of peripheral populations and the need for mobile and community-based security approaches outside major cities. Finally, they highlight the importance of strengthening border infrastructure, transport networks, and civic institutions as tools of both development and security.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2026

Mapping the long-term trajectories of political violence in Africa

Existing models of political violence often emphasize discrete transitions, when conflicts emerge, escalate, or subside, without considering the longer trajectories of violence that accumulate across time and space. This paper introduces a spatially explicit longitudinal sequence analysis to address this gap. Using event-level data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset covering Africa from 1997 to 2024, we classify locations according to the intensity and spatial concentration of violence, tracing how these states evolve into distinct conflict trajectories. Applying optimal matching and clustering techniques, we identify six recurrent patterns ranging from short-lived, localized outbreaks to protracted high-intensity conflicts. We further assess how these trajectories align across neighboring areas, revealing evidence of spatial interdependence, particularly in border regions. By highlighting the temporal rhythms and geographic linkages of political violence, the study advances conflict research beyond isolated transitions and provides a framework for understanding the life cycles of violence.

cs.SI↗

arXiv2022

Introducing the Spatial Conflict Dynamics indicator of political violence

Modern armed conflicts have a tendency to cluster together and spread geographically. However, the geography of most conflicts remains under-studied. To fill this gap, this article presents a new indicator that measures two key geographical properties of subnational political violence: the conflict intensity within a region on the one hand, and the spatial distribution of conflict within a region on the other. We demonstrate the indicator in North and West Africa between 1997 to 2019 to show that it can clarify how conflicts can spread from place to place and how the geography of conflict changes over time.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2019

Social networks and geography: a review of the literature and its implications

The spatial metaphor of the network along with its accompanying abstractions, such as flow, movement, and connectivity, have been central themes throughout the relational turn in human geography. However, to date networks in geography have been primarily explored either through actor-network theory or assemblage thinking, both of which embrace the network metaphor without specifically and formally interrogating networks themselves. We seek to problematize the treatment of networks in geography by exploring the largely underutilized literature on social networks as an alternative to the now dominant actor-network and assemblage frameworks. Our paper discusses the conceptual connections between key concepts in geography, such as place, distance, scale, and power, and those in network theory, such as centrality, density, and homophily. Voluntarily written from the periphery of human geography, our paper opens new directions for geographers that are interested in more than the metaphor of the network.

cs.SI↗