Project Description

This project studies land governance as a decisive determinant of peace, justice, social cohesion, and state legitimacy. The project attempts to address the debatable issue of whether state-centric land administration promotes stability and peace through formalization and investment, or whether indigenous land systems offer more resilient peace and safeguards against elite capture and violent conflict focused on Ethiopia specifically in two woreda’s of Gojjam’s namely Sinan and Bichena. The central objective of the study is to reveal how indigenous moral authority, restorative justice, and communal mediation can complement formal state institutions, bridging local legitimacy with federal governance to offer a replicable pathway for sustainable peace in Ethiopia and other conflict-affected federations. In doing so, the study employs a participatory peace research framework grounded in decolonial methodology, centering community knowledge, lived experience, and restorative justice principles throughout the research process.

Bio

Tadie Degie Yigzaw is an assistant professor of Political Science and International Studies specializing in Security Studies and Foreign Policy Analysis in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at Bahir Dar University. His research centers on the intersection of security studies, geopolitics, and foreign policy analysis. He focuses specifically on scrutinizing how changing regional power dynamics, hybrid security threats, and competing great power interventions impact sustainable peacebuilding in fragile states; a core focus aimed at equipping policymakers, the international community, and academia with strategic frameworks to navigate contemporary global crises. He has also secured prestigious awards including the MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship Master Class at the University of Kassel, Germany in 2025, and guest researcher fellowship at the Nordic African Institute in Sweeden in 2026.  Outside of the research, Tadie Degie Yigzaw is Vice Dean for Graduate Studies, Research, and Community Engagement at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Bahir Dar University.