Founder and Coordinator (main contact point)
Gyda M Sindre is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) 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 of the special issue Transforming state visions: Ideology and ideas in armed groups turned political parties (2019) (with Devon Curtis). Her research interests include comparative party politics in post-civil war states, contemporary processes of state-building and democratisation.
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 Senior 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 Associate Professor 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, non-state armed movements in Africa, and critical perspectives on conflict, peacebuilding, and development. Her field research concentrates on the Great Lakes region of Africa, especially Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Previously, Devon worked for the Canadian government and the United Nations Staff College, and she has been a consultant for the UK Department for International Development, the Overseas Development Institute, and a Visiting Senior Advisor to the International Peace Institute. She has had fellowships at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, and at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University.
Matthew Whiting is a Lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of York. His research approach is at the intersection of conflict studies and comparative politics. His research interests include the moderation and radicalisation of non-state armed groups, how states respond to internal security threats, and how local dynamics shape internal conflicts. He has a particular interest in the cases of Irish Republicanism in Northern Ireland and radical Kurdish groups in Turkey. He is the co-convenor of the Turkish Politics Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association. Matthew previously held positions at the University of Reading, the University of Birmingham, and at the LSE.
Jacqui Cho is a PhD Fellow at the swisspeace Mediation program and a PhD Candidate at the University of Basel. Her doctoral research is part of the research project ‘International Peacemaking in Pursuit of a “Good Peace”: Integration or Separation?’, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. She also supports swisspeace’s operational activities. Previously, she worked with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in East Africa, as well as with the UN Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
For full list of Network Members see Meet the Team.
Politics After War 