Welcome! I am an Assistant Professor of International Relations and Comparative Politics at the American University of Paris (AUP). My research focuses on non-traditional security issues related to rebel finance and governance, borders, conflict, mobility, and identity, particularly in Africa and the Mediterranean Basin. I have conducted fieldwork in Algeria, Mali, Mauritania, Sénégal, and France.
My book project “Smuggling for a Cause: Order, Control, and Violence,” examines smuggling as a political strategy instrumentalized by insurgent actors to support a political cause. My PhD dissertation explored the relationship between smuggling as an enabler of rebel capacity and the production of violence in the Sahel region. My doctoral research has been supported by the United States Institute of Peace and the Minerva Initiative, the Cross-Border Conflict, Evidence, Policy, Trends Programme (XCEPT), the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy and the Global Studies Program at Temple University, as well as the Fulbright Program.
Prior to starting at AUP, I was a USIP-Minerva Peace and Security Scholar and a Research Fellow of the Local Research Network of the XCEPT Programme. I also held visiting research positions at the African Union Counter Terrorism Centre (AUCTC) and the Centre for Political Research at Sciences Po (CEVIPOF)
I received my Ph.D in Political Science from Temple University, my MA in International Security from the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po, and my BA from Sciences Po.
Contact:
ilyssayahmi.phd(at)gmail(dot)com
mailing: History and Politics, The American University of Paris, 129 rue de l’Université, Paris, 75007, France.
