Refugees, forced migration, and conflict: Introduction to the special issue Alex Braithwaite School of Government and Public Policy, University of Arizona Idean Salehyan Department of Political Science, University of North Texas Burcu Savun Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh Abstract Few issues in international politics have dominated public debates, both in domestic and international arenas, as much as refugee movements across borders in recent years. By the end of 2017, more than 68.5 million people – one in approximately every 110 people on the planet – had been displaced from their homes, either as internally displaced persons (IDPs) or as refugees, due to violent conflict, persecution, famine, or natural disasters. This article introduces a special issue on refugees, forced migration, and conflict. It describes the evolution of the international refugee regime and identifies theoretical and methodological advances in the relevant literature. It concludes with a discussion of the individual contributions to the issue, which seek to address gaps in the literature with respect to explaining motivations for refugee departures, understanding the relationship between refugee populations and political instability in host countries, and tracking public attitudes towards hosting refugee populations. Keywords forced migration, political violence, refugees By the end of 2017, more than 68.5 million people – one in approximately every 110 people on the planet – had been displaced from their homes due to violent conflict, persecution, famine, or natural disasters (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: UNHCR, 2018a). As shown in Figure 1, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has increased rapidly over the past decade to the point today where more than two-thirds of all displaced persons remain in their home country. The remaining one-third of displaced people are refugees; of whom more than two-thirds come from five conflict-ridden countries: Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, and Somalia. Both refugee and IDP populations are now at record levels for the post-World War II period. The previous record for refugees came shortly after the conclusion of the Cold War. This movement of IDPs within conflict countries and the flow of refugees out of conflict countries is clearly a humanitarian disaster. It is also a major issue in contemporary world politics, with economic, demo- graphic, political, and security implications for host states (Greenhill, 2010; Milton, Spencer & Findley, 2013; Miller & Ritter, 2014; Miller & Peters, 2018; Salehyan & Gleditsch, 2006). The Syrian refugee crisis in particular has captured headlines as countries in the region, as well as throughout Europe, have scrambled to form an appropriate response. Mass migration has entered squarely into political debates in multiple Corresponding author: burcu@pitt.edu Journal of Peace Research 1–7 ª The Author(s) 2018 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0022343318814128 journals.sagepub.com/home/jpr