Contemporary peace and conflict studies are experiencing a transformative shift as the meanings, conduct, and outcomes of war expand beyond physical clashes to encompass digital spaces and symbolic dimensions. The emergence of real-time information flows, social media platforms, and globalised digital cultures now shapes how states, non-state actors, and societies conceive of conflict and pursue peace. Recent scholarship observes that mediatised narratives, images, and symbols play a central role in legitimising or contesting violence, mobilising support, and redefining enemy and ally identities. Landmark cases such as the Russia–Ukraine war reveal how information operations, disinformation, digital propaganda, and the contestation of legitimacy unfold as vigorously online as on the ground. While research has begun to map these shifts, critical questions remain about how digital mediation, symbolic narratives, and institutional frameworks interact to influence demilitarisation, the transition to peace, and sustainable post-conflict governance.

This Research Topic aims to bring together scholarship that interrogates the nexus between state actors, media dynamics, symbolic practices, digital cultures, and the resilience of institutions in the construction and transformation of conflicts. Central questions include: How are wars and post-conflict realities narrated and legitimised in digital and symbolic arenas? What are the mechanisms through which state and non-state actors weaponise discourse or counter divisive narratives online? In what ways do strong, accountable institutions help translate digital and symbolic peace initiatives into durable governance arrangements? The overarching objective is to explore frameworks and empirical evidence that illuminate how narrative power, communicative politics, and institutional strength can reconfigure trajectories from violence to dialogue and sustainable peace.

The scope of this Research Topic focuses on the interplay between media, digital culture, state strategy, and institutional governance in shaping both the phenomenology of conflict and the processes of demilitarisation and peacebuilding. Submissions are welcome from a wide range of disciplines, including—but not limited to—international relations, political science, peace and conflict studies, communication, law, and public policy. To gather further insights in this complex landscape, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
• Digital and symbolic mediation of conflict and peace processes
• The construction and contestation of legitimacy through media narratives
• The use of propaganda, disinformation, and symbolic icons in warfare and demilitarisation
• The resilience and evolution of institutions amid mediatised conflict environments
• The relationship between algorithmic platforms, power politics, and digital diplomacy
• The role of civil society and NGOs in mediating peace narratives
• Legal and policy considerations for governance in digital battlefields
• Trust, transparency, and legitimacy of institutions in the face of digital and symbolic challenges

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From Battlefields to Round Tables: Digital Cultures, Symbolic Narratives, and Institutional Power in Contemporary Conflict and Peacebuilding

Topic Coordinator