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Conflict Studies Research Centre

former college of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ5160173 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Conflict Studies Research Centre (CSRC) is an independent military and international relations research company based in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1972, it was originally a component of the British Ministry of Defence Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, specialising in potential causes of conflict in a wide area ranging from the Baltics to Central Asia.

This geographical focus was inherited from the Centre's original incarnation as the Soviet Studies Research Centre (SSRC) in 1972, at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, examining the Soviet military threat. SSRC was an original red team which interpreted Soviet bloc "thinking and attitudes" at Camberley. The organization was renamed from Soviet studies to Conflict studies in 1993 – after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Centre later examined wider issues including foreign policy, energy security and demographic change.

CSRC hosted a small number of deep country specialists, providing in-house expertise on their subject countries to government and academic customers in the UK and beyond, as well as publishing research in their own right.

In 2006, CSRC was absorbed into the Advanced Research and Assessment Group (ARAG), another component of the UK Defence Academy. In 2010 the ARAG was disbanded and former research staff of the CSRC, laid off at its closure, re-formed the organisation independently of the Ministry of Defence. CSRC is now an independent, privately funded body providing expertise in security issues with a primary focus on relations with Russia, and specialist knowledge on military, domestic political, and cyber security questions.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Conflict Studies Research Centre” as former college of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1972, 1993, 2006, 2010—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1972. The account is most persuasive where Conflict, Studies and Research can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as former college of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5160173. VIAF identifies the subject as 167510885. The Library of Congress control number is no00025268. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1972, 1993, 2006 and 2010.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Conflict Studies Research Centre”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Conflict Studies Research Centre primary sources, Conflict Studies Research Centre archive and Conflict research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Conflict Studies Research Centre” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.