Unlocking protracted displacement If protracted -- and often forgotten -- situations of displacement are to be 'unlocked', the international community must circumvent the rigidity of existing solutions and search for new and innovative strategies. The concept of protracted displacement situations is built on assumptions of largely sedentary populations waiting for durable (ie permanent and sustainable) solutions, and a regulated and documented existence within defined and accepted boundaries (of state, of official status and of expected behaviour). Merely imposing the label 'protracted' implies that they are somehow exceptional, yet over two-thirds (7.1 million) of the world's 10.4 million refugees are to be found in protracted exile [1] and situations of protracted internal displacement persist in over 40 countries. So these are hardly exceptional situations; rather it is arguably now the norm with few situations of displacement satisfactorily resolved. 'Unlocking crises of protracted displacement for refugees and IDPs' is the title of a recent study conducted by the Refugee Studies Centre in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, the Norwegian Refugee Council and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, and funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The study attempts to develop new thinking and different approaches to help unlock situations of protracted displacement by looking at two current cases (Somalia and Iraq) and one past case (Central America), and addressing four main issues: the relationship with state fragility and patterns of governance and conflict the perceptions and interests of the displaced people -- and the host communities, transnational networks