ASHLEY JACKSON
Research Associate, Centre on Conflict, Development & Peacebuilding, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies
Ashley Jackson is a co-director at the Centre on Armed Groups, an NGO focused of research and engagement with armed actors to reduce conflict and civilian suffering. Ashley’s research and policy work broadly focus on armed groups, conflict, peacebuilding, political economy, humanitarianism and international aid. She began her career as an aid worker in southeast Asia and Afghanistan, with the Red Cross, Oxfam and the UN. She has written widely on negotiating with armed groups and advised various UN agencies, NGOs and governments on humanitarian access and conflict mediation.
She has written extensively on the conflict in Afghanistan and the Taliban. Her first book, Negotiating Survival: Civilian-Insurgent Relations in Afghanistan (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2021), focuses on life under Taliban rule and the nature of civilian agency in wartime. She has also advised the UK Parliament, the US State Department and others on the Afghan war.
In addition to her academic and policy work, Ashley has written for Foreign Policy, the New York Times, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Politico, and others. Ashley holds a PhD from the War Studies Department at King’s College London, an MSc in Gender and Development from the London School of Economics.
Areas of expertise:
- Conflict and violence
- Armed groups and de facto authorities
- Humanitarian negotiations
- Humanitarian action
- Mediation and negotiation
- Civilian protection
- Peacebuilding
