About Kristina Petrova

Kristina Petrova is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Mannheim and a research fellow at the Centre for International Security at the Hertie School in Berlin. Her research examines migration and displacement in conflict-affected regions, the political consequences of conflict and climate-related disasters, and long-term projections of conflict and inequality. She completed her PhD in 2023 at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University. Previously, she was based at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and served as a Visiting Scholar at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University. 

Selected publications

• Peer- reviewed articles
  • Makki, M., Butt, F. A., Akash, S. A., Petrova, K., & Naeem, S. A. (2025). Fragile geographies and the climate-conflict nexus: Investigating climate-induced security risks, migration, and inequality in Balochistan, Pakistan. Alternatives, 50(2), 350–375.
  • Michelini, S., Petrova, K., Gong, C., & Zantout, K. (2024) 'Improving on Complexity: Ideas for Enhancing Quanti­tative Modeling of Climate Mobility', Annalen der Physik, 2300545. doi: 10.1002/andp.202300545.
  • Petrova, K. (2024) '[Review of:] Catastrophes, confrontations, and constraints: how disasters shape the dynamics of armed conflict', Environmental Politics. doi: 10.1080/09644016.2024.2317107
  • Petrova, K. and Rosvold, E.L., (2024). Mitigating the legacy of violence: Can flood relief improve people’s trust in government in conflict-affected areas? Evidence from Pakistan. World Development, 173, p.106372.
  • Carlsen, H., Weitz, N., Petrova, K., and Kemp-Benedict, E. (2024) 'Targeting historical lock-ins to achieve the 2030 Agenda', Sustainable Development, pp. 1–10. doi: 10.1002/sd.2929
  • Petrova, K., Olafsdottir, G., Hegre, H. and Gilmore, E.A., (2023). The ‘conflict trap’ reduces economic growth in the shared socioeconomic pathways. Environmental Research Letters, 18(2), p.024028.
  • Petrova, K., (2022). Floods, communal conflict and the role of local state institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Political Geography, 92, p.102511.
  • Nohrstedt, D., Parker, C.F., von Uexkull, N., Mard, J., Albrecht, F., Petrova, K., Nyberg, L., et al. (2022) 'Disaster Risk Reduction and the Limits of Truisms: Improving the Knowledge and Practice Interface', International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 67, 102661. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102661.
  • Petrova, K., (2021). Natural hazards, internal migration and protests in Bangladesh. Journal of Peace Research, 58(1), pp.33–49.
  • Hegre, H., Petrova, K., and von Uexkull, N. (2020) 'Synergies and Trade-Offs in Reaching the Sustainable Development Goals', Sustainability, 12(20). doi: 10.3390/su12208729
  • Hegre, H., Allansson, M., Basedau, M., Colaresi, M., Croicu, M., Fjelde, H., Hoyles, F., Hultman, L., Högbladh, S., Jansen, R., Mouhleb, N., Muhammad, S. A., Nilsson, D., Nygård, H. M., Olafsdottir, G., Petrova, K., Randahl, D., Rød, E. G., Schneider, G., … Vestby, J. (2019) 'ViEWS: A political violence early-warning system', Journal of Peace Research, 56(2), pp. 155–174. doi: 10.1177/0022343319823860.
• Blog posts and reports:
  • Petrova, K., & Hegre, H. (2024). The ‘conflict trap’ reduces economic growth in the SSPs. SSP Extension Explorer. ssp-extensions--learn-conflict.scse-apps-stage.ece.iiasa.ac.at/learn/
  • Hegre, H., Petrova, K., Olafsdottir, G., & Gilmore, E. A. (2023, February 3). Bias in economic models ignores the impact of war in poor nations. PRIO Blog. www.prio.org/Blogs
  • Peters, K., Mayhew, L., Borodyna, O., Petrova, K., Nicoson, C., Nordqvist, P. and Peters, L.E., (2020). Climate change, conflict and security scan: December 2018–March 2019.