Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, over four million people have been killed in internal and regionalized forms of conflict. It is estimated that one-third of the world’s population is exposed to armed conflict. More than half the countries in Africa are affected by armed conflicts. These conflicts are not temporary emergencies, but have systemic and enduring features. The chronically poor increasingly live in contexts of chronic insecurity. This paper is one of a number of studies prepared for the Chronic Poverty Research Centre. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the literature on chronic poverty and conflict, map out current policy debates and identify areas for future research.