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Welcome to my personal webpage. I am a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at the University of York, the Deputy Director of the York Centre for Conflict and Security (YCCS) and the founder and convener of the Politics After War Network (PAW-scholars).  I am currently the Director of the School of Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at the University of York.

My main research expertise and interests focus on conflict, peace and security transitions, with specific focus on rebel group political transformations, DDR, mediation and post-war governance. In my current work, I also engage with themes of peace and sustainability, natural resource governance and land rights as part of peacebuilding. My research is comparative in nature, with specific geographical expertise of the regions of South and Southeast Asia and the Western Balkans. See publications and books for more information.

I am currently involved in a second project – the Mass Atrocities Resistance Project – funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and based at the Norwegian Centre for Holocaust and Minorities Studies, in which we seek to identify and understand the strategies threatened groups employ to protect themselves against atrocities, and how these groups may be able to mobilise support domestically or internationally.

I am part of the Integrated DDR Training Group, which is aimed to increase the coordination and exchange between research, policy, training and practice in the field of DDR. I regularly take on consultancy as advisor to international organisations working in the fields of democracy support, DDR and peacebuilding and have consulted on several such programmes and projects over the years. See policy tab for recent policy engagements and publications.

To date, my research has been funded by the European Commission, the Norwegian Research Council, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Philomathia Foundation, Westminster Foundation for Democracy alongside several smaller grants and awards.