The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn worldwide attention to the difficulties inherent in managing disasters. Scholars across disciplines have been forced to consider the impact disasters have on interstate relations, state resilience, patterns of violence and hostility, and the vulnerabilities that condition conflict. This special issue offers new insights to help disentangle the relationship between disasters, conflict, and cooperation, by adhering to a three-pronged theoretical framework. First, all pieces in this issue are underpinned by a unified understanding of disasters as endogenous social phenomena. Second, we acknowledge that disasters occur as processes rather than discrete events. Finally, we explore the possibility that disasters and conflict are co-determined by a common set of factors. The articles herein were chosen not only because they advance academic thought about the disaster–conflict nexus, but also because of their potential to advance the practical impact of this line of research on the global conflict and disaster landscape. We highlight the relevance of this special issue for further work investigating the effects of conflict on disasters and the relationship between the hazards cycle process and patterns of violence and hostility, as well as the implications of adopting this suggested framework for policymaking and data collection.

COVID-19 大流行已引起全世界对灾害管理固有困难的关注。跨学科的学者被迫考虑灾难对州际关系、国家复原力、暴力和敌意模式以及导致冲突的脆弱性的影响。本期特刊通过坚持三管齐下的理论框架，提供了新的见解，有助于理清灾难、冲突与合作之间的关系。首先，本期的所有文章都以对灾害作为内生社会现象的统一理解为基础。其次，我们承认灾难是作为过程而不是离散事件发生的。最后，我们探讨了灾难和冲突由一组共同因素共同决定的可能性。之所以选择本文的文章，不仅是因为它们推动了关于灾难与冲突关系的学术思想，还因为它们有可能推动这一研究方向对全球冲突和灾难景观的实际影响。我们强调这一特刊与进一步研究冲突对灾害的影响以及灾害循环过程与暴力和敌对模式之间的关系的相关性，以及采用这一建议的政策制定和数据收集框架的影响。