Michael Jones
Research FellowTerrorism and ConflictBiography
Michael is a Research Fellow in the Terrorism and Conflict team examining political violence, governance by non/pseudo-state armed groups, and the convergence of violent extremism and insurgent militancy in East and sub-Saharan Africa. He has led investigative fieldwork across various countries including Sudan, Kenya and Lebanon; managed conflict focused projects looking into Darfur and Somalia; and worked in RUSI’s Nairobi Office on a range of projects related to the EU’s STRIVE Horn of Africa and STRIVE II programming.
He is a co-author of the 2019 book Human Trafficking: An Organised Crime? (Hurst/Oxford University Press), assessing slavery, smuggling markets and the political economies of Sudan and Eritrea. Additionally, Michael was accredited as a member of DFID’s conflict advisor cadre in 2020, and has worked as a consultant analysing peacekeeping in Somalia and corruption in Sudan for Saferworld and Transparency International, respectively.
In 2018 Michael was selected as a member of the Commonwealth CVE Panel of Experts. Before starting at RUSI, he was a Resident Researcher and subsequent Lead Researcher for the Africa programme in the Institute of Islamic Strategic Affairs, analysing the intersections between crime, local militancy and transnational terrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa. He holds an MSc in Conflict Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where his dissertation explored the hybridisation of jihadism in Somalia and Yemen, and a BA Joint Honours in History and Politics from the University of Warwick.
Exploring Extremism is a podcast series produced by UNDP’s Oslo Governance Centre. In this episode RUSI Research Fellow Michael Jones discusses the impact of communication interventions and considers what actually works and the metrics for measuring success.