Researchers

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Steering Group

Founder and Coordinator (main contact point): Gyda M Sindre is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie research fellow in politics at the University of Cambridge. In 2019, she will take up her new post as Lecturer in Politics at the University of York. She has authored several articles on the theme of Rebel-to-Party-Transformations and Political parties in post-war states (e.g. in Political Geography; Civil Wars and Party Politics) and is the co-editor (with Johanna Söderström) of the special issue Understanding Armed Groups and Party Politics in the journal Civil Wars (2016) and is currently co-editing (with Devon Curtis) another special issue, Former Armed Groups, Ideology and State Transformation. Her research interests include comparative party politics, state-building and democracy in Southeast Asia and the Balkans.

Steering Group

Carrie Manning is a Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. Much of her research focuses on the impact of post-rebel parties on electoral politics – and the ways that elections shape these parties – particularly over the longer term with multiple seminal publications including Party-Building on the Heels of War and the book The making of Democrats: Elections and party development in postwar Bosnia, El Salvador and Mozambique. Her most recent work tracks the incorporation of post-rebel parties in electoral politics in 50 countries over more than 20 years. 

John Ishiyama is a University Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Texas. He is also the former Editor in Chief of the American Political Science Review. His broad research interests are in Democratisation, Political Parties and ethnic politics. His most recent publications include seminal work on rebel-to-party transformation and party system development in the aftermath of war.  John is the editor of the special issue From Bullets to Ballots. Recent publications on PAW-related themes include the articles Does political inclusion of rebel parties promote peace after conflict (with Michael Marshall), Civil Wars and Party Systems and Electoral performance of former rebel parties after civil war.

Sarah Zukerman Daly is currently an Assistant Professor at the Kelloggs Institute for International Studies and the Kroc Institute for International Peace at the University of Notre Dame. Her book Organized Violence after Civil War: The Geography of Recruitment in Latin America  (2016) explores why some violent organizations choose to demilitarize following peace negotiations, whereas others choose to remilitarize and resume violence instead. The book was Honorable Mention for the Conflict Research Society’s 2017 Best Book of the Year Prize. Sarah is currently working on a second book on why citizens vote for political actors that used violence against the civilian population.

Alice Wilson is a Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex. An expert on the Middle East and North Africa, her research interests encompass state power and liberation movements in this region. Her first book Sovereignty in Exile: A Saharan Liberation Movement Governs examines sovereignty in the context of government-in-exile of Western Sahara’s liberation movement. Her current work also includes studies of liberation movement in Dhufar including Oman’s Consultative Council Election.

Mimmi Söderberg Kovacs is Head of Research at the Folke Bernadotte Academy with a long track record in research and policy involvement on rebel-to-party transformation, non-state actors in civil war, conflict resolution, post-war military reform and post-war democratisation, especially (but not exclusively) in Burundi, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Her publications of PAW-related themes include the co-authored (with Sophia Hatz) article Rebel-to-party transformation in civil war peace processes 1975-2011 and a recent co-edited book (with Jesper Bjarnesen): Violence in African Elections: Between Democracy and Big Man Politics.

Johanna Söderström is currently a EURIAS research fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies and the Social Sciences and a Researcher and Docent at the Department of Government, Uppsala University. Her work include research on post-war democratisation and ex-combatant politics. She has conducted research on ex-combatant politics in Liberia, Namibia, the US and Colombia. Johanna is the author of the book Peacebuilding and Ex-Combatants: Political Reintegration in Liberia, co-editor (with Gyda Sindre) of the Special Issue Former Armed Groups and Party Politics, alongside journal articles (with Ben Oppenheim) in Civil Wars, Political Studies and Journal of Development Studies. Johanna is a member of the research programme Varieties of Peace with the Project Living Peace and Elite Legacy: Comparative Life Histories of Peacemakers.

Véronique Dudouet is Programme Director for Conflict Transformation Research. She joined the Berghof research team in 2005 and has since managed various collaborative research projects on resistance/liberation movements, negotiations and third-party intervention in asymmetric conflicts, inclusive political/security transitions, post-war governance and civil resistance. She also carries out consultancy research for various civil society organisations and international agencies and serves as Academic Advisor of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict in Washington.

Devon Curtis is a University Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Emmanuel College. Her main research interests and publications deal with power-sharing and governance arrangements following conflict, UN peacebuilding, critical peace-building, and non-state armed movements in the Great Lakes region of Africa. Previously, Devon worked for the Canadian government, the United Nations Staff College, the UK Department for International Development, the Overseas Development Institute, and the International Peace Institute. She has held fellowships at Columbia University and Stanford University.

Network Members

Lovise Aalen (Christian Michelsen Institute)

Shama Ams (University of Cambridge)

Benedetta Berti (Security Analyst)

Ntagahoraho Z. Burihabwa (United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations)

Nina Caspersen (University of York)

Tim Epkenhans (Freiburg University)

Terrence Lyons (George Mason University)

Michael Christopher Marshall (Alma College)

Ragnhild Muriaas (University of Bergen)

Aslak Orre (Christian Michelsen Institute)

Burcu Özcelik (University of Cambridge)

Justin Pearce (University of Cambridge)

Ralph Sprenkels (Utrecht University)

Ellen Stensrud (Centre for Study of Holocaust and religious Minorities, Norway)

Emma van Santen (University of Cambridge)

Wahid Watanyar (University of Heidelberg)

Matthew Whiting (University of Birmingham)