• This Expert insight discusses Sudan’s place in Russian maritime calculations and the implications of its potential transformation into a strategic pivot along a route extending from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and then to the Red Sea.

  • How renewed fighting in Ethiopia could connect with the war in Sudan and the wider competition over the Red Sea. This policy paper argues that the region is not yet facing a single regional war, but is moving toward a more interconnected regional conflict system in which escalation in one arena can quickly affect another. 

  • Sudan’s Privacy Gap: Balancing Digital Transformation and Data Laws – Intro

    This first piece maps the gap: a country pushed onto digital financial and AI platforms it neither owns nor regulates, with no privacy law to govern them, and a framework, already within reach, that Sudan has yet to enact or implement.

  • Paused, Not Resolved: The Saudi-UAE Rivalry and the War in Sudan

    The 2026 Iran war reshaped, but did not resolve, the growing strategic competition between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with important implications for the war in Sudan.

  • The October 2025 conviction of Ali Kushayb by the International Criminal Court (ICC) marks a historic first: the first completed ICC case on Darfur, the first conviction stemming from a United Nation Security Council (UNSC) referral, and the ICC’s first conviction for gender-based persecution.

  • This paper aim to analyze the escalation pathways that led to the April 2023 war in Sudan, drawing on Wolfram Lacher’s theory of “escalation processes.”

Who We Are

The Sudanese Center for Policy Studies (SCPS) is an independent, non-profit research institution and public policy think tank. It was established by a group of political activists who took part in Sudan’s December 2018 Revolution, in response to the significant absence of effective public policies—particularly in areas related to democratic transition and the establishment of a modern, democratic, and developmental state in Sudan.

Programs

This program focuses on promoting economic reform in Sudan through improved economic governance, stronger financial transparency, anti-corruption measures, and enhanced oversight of state-owned enterprises, the financial sector, and key extractive industries.

The program seeks to redefine civil–military relations by clarifying the role of the military, taking into account the structure of the armed forces and the presence of parallel forces such as the Rapid Support Forces and armed movements. It explores pathways and best practices toward a unified, national, professional army, while addressing the withdrawal of the military from politics, civilian life, and the economy.

The program addresses the key challenges facing Sudan’s democratic transition by preparing citizens and political and social actors to engage with core transition issues, including democratization, institution-building, freedoms, peace and transitional justice, constitution-making, local governance reforms, women’s and youth political participation, party reform, public sector reform, and elections.

Sudan Signal

Monthly analytical brief from SCPS, tracking developments in Sudan’s war, politics, economy, and humanitarian situation.
Sudan Signal – August

Sudan Signal – August

This month’s analysis examines the continued geographical and regional expansion of Sudan’s war. The army consolidated gains along the Khartoum–El Obeid corridor, while a coordinated RSF–SPLM-N offensive…

Sudan Signal – July

Sudan Signal – July

This month’s analysis examines a shifting battlefield in Sudan, with Kordofan at the centre of the war. The RSF intensified its encirclement and drone campaign around El…

Latest Publications

WHO GOVERNS THE ROOM?.. Formalisation and  Legitimacy of Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms

WHO GOVERNS THE ROOM?.. Formalisation and Legitimacy of Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms

Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms have become essential to civilian survival during the war, organising food,…

Financing The Divide: Sudan’s Parallel War Economies and the Case for an Economic Track to Peace

Financing The Divide: Sudan’s Parallel War Economies and the Case for an Economic Track to Peace

More than three years into Sudan’s war, the conflict is reshaping not only the country’s…

Beyond Protection: Data Rights, Consumer Autonomy, and Digital Economic Sovereignty

Beyond Protection: Data Rights, Consumer Autonomy, and Digital Economic Sovereignty

Every time we use a banking app, browse social media or shop online, we generate…

Policy Paper: Before The Fronts Merge

Policy Paper: Before The Fronts Merge

This paper examines how conflicts and geopolitical rivalries across the Horn of Africa and the…

Sudan’s Privacy Gap: Balancing Digital Transformation and Data Laws – Intro

Sudan’s Privacy Gap: Balancing Digital Transformation and Data Laws – Intro

A five-part series on why data privacy has become vital for a Sudan navigating both…

Paused, Not Resolved: The Saudi-UAE Rivalry and the War in Sudan

Paused, Not Resolved: The Saudi-UAE Rivalry and the War in Sudan

The 2026 Iran war reshaped, but did not resolve, the growing strategic competition between Saudi…

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