CCDP Seminar Series III Features: Dr. Jerome Drevon

The CCDP Research Seminar Series showcases the latest work of CCDP researchers and affiliates, including doctoral candidates at the centre, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty members. The Spring 2019 series includes presentations of work at the empirical and theoretical forefront of research exploring the complex relationships between security and development. All seminars take place between 16:15 and 17:30 and will be followed by informal drinks. 

Numerous studies of salafi armed groups have questioned their behaviours and impacts in civil wars. The Syrian conflict has notably exposed substantially different trajectories between a group like Islamic State, which has alienated most other groups and the population, and Ahrar al-Sham, which has joined the mainstream opposition and rejected many salafi jihadi ideological tenets. This research argues that these contrasting trajectories are the outcome of institutional processes affecting armed groups in civil wars. This research accordingly proposes a new approach to armed groups’ institutionalisation along two dimensions. The internal dimension of institutionalisation refers to these groups’ formation and consolidation while the external dimension concerns their relational patterns of interaction with other actors. This approach presents a clearer understanding of armed groups’ organisational dynamics (in this case salafi armed groups) that exposes the range of choices made in civil wars.

Jerome Drevon is a research fellow of the SNSF at the CCDP where he analyses the institutionalisation of Islamist non-state armed groups.