Michael Jones

Michael Jones is a Senior Research Fellow in the Terrorism and Conflict team examining political violence, non-state armed group governance, and the convergence of violent extremism and insurgent militancy in East and Sub-Saharan Africa. He has led investigative fieldwork across numerous countries; managed conflict focused projects focused on Somalia and Sudan; worked in RUSI’s Nairobi Office; and explored the efficacy of UK foreign policy across the Horn.

As of 2023, he leads the research and violence monitoring component of the UK’s REINVENT programme, addressing insecurity in Kenya, and continues to analyse relationships between conflict, organised crime and the wider political economies of Kenya and Nigeria as part of RUSI’s OCTA project.

He is a co-author of the 2019 bookHuman Trafficking: An Organised Crime?(Hurst/Oxford University Press) and was accredited as a member of DFID/FCDO’s conflict advisor cadre in 2020. Michael has also worked as a consultant analysing peacekeeping in Somalia (Saferworld) and corruption in Sudan (Transparency International).

In 2018 Michael was selected as a member of the Commonwealth CVE Panel of Experts. Before starting at RUSI, he was Lead Researcher for the Africa programme at the Institute of Islamic Strategic Affairs, examining 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, and a BA Joint Honours in History and Politics from the University of Warwick.