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I am research associate at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) (Centre on Conflict, Development & Peacebuilding (CCDP). I study armed groups' organisational transformation, including how insurgents emerge, institutionalise, and interact with their broader political environments.
I previously served as senior analyst on Jihad and Modern Conflict at the International Crisis Group (ICG) and advisor for Non-State Armed Groups at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). I bridge academic research and practitioners policy advise. My work combine conceptual analysis with field-based insights to better understand how armed actors evolve.
While much of my empirical research analyse jihadis — including extensive fieldwork in conflict zones such as Syria —, my work is ultimately about how ideologically driven organisations change over time, create new structures of governance, and reshape political authority. My field research has involved interviews with a wide range of actors, from armed groups' political and religious leaders to frontline fighters, providing unique perspectives on organisational change in armed conflicts.
I hold a PhD from Durham University. I formerly held research fellowships at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID)(Centre on Conflict, Development & Peacebuilding (CCDP)) the University of Oxford (the Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR) and the Blavatnik School of Government), and the University of Manchester's Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis.
You can follow me on academia.edu, bluesky, google scholar, linkedin, mastodon, research gate and twitter. For all media enquiries, please visit my contact page.
My research focus
My research examines armed groups' organisational evolution and institutionalisation. Drawing on institutional, organisational, and network-based perspectives, my work engages with social movement theory and contentious politics to understand how armed actors evolve over time.
I use very rich empirical cases in Egypt and Syria to explore broader questions about armed groups' trajectories, including how ideologically driven actors become more pragmatic, engage in governance, and seek political legitimacy.
Methodologically, my research combines extensive fieldwork and interviews with leaders and rank-and-file as much as rich primary sources. These empirical foundations inform the development of theoretical frameworks that travel beyond individual cases and contribute to wider debates in conflict studies.
Across my work, I reconceptualise armed groups not only as agents of violence but as institution-builders embedded within social relations and contested authority structures. This perspective highlights how organisational dynamics, strategic adaptation, and interaction with surrounding environments shape the evolution of armed actors as much as — or more than — ideology alone.
My research contributes to broader debates on organisational change in armed conflicts, including armed group alliances, institutionalisation processes, and the emergence of governance beyond the state.
My research has been supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMPES), and the Durham Energy Institute (DEI).
I have conducted extensive field work in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Mauritania, Nigeria, Palestine, Rwanda, Syria (pre 2011, Idlib between 2019 and 2024, post-2025), Thailand, and Turkey.
My books
My three books trace several successive phases in armed groups' trajectories from insurgents to governors, drawing on rich empirical research on jihadi groups in Egypt and Syria.
Institutionalizing Violence explores how Egyptian groups adopted violence and institutionalised short of territorial control from the formation of Islamic Jihad and al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya in the 1970s through their interactions with al-Qaeda in the 1990s and partial engagement with politics after 2011.
From Jihad to Politics examines how jihadis emerged and imposed their territorial control, navigated domestic and international alliances, and politicised during the Syrian conflict, focusing on Ahrar al-Sham and, to a lesser extent, Jabhat al-Nusra within the Syrian armed opposition.
Transformed by the People analyses the transition of a former Islamic State/al-Qaeda affiliate into governance, tracing how Jabhat al-Nusra evolved into Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as it rejected global jihad and sought domestic and international normalisation, which culminated in the group's rise to power in Damascus in December 2024.
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