Dr Ashley Jackson is the co-founder of the Centre on Armed Groups, an organization that supports research on and engagement with armed groups. Ashley’s current work broadly focuses on negotiating with armed groups, and she has advised various UN agencies, NGOs and governments on humanitarian access and conflict mediation.

She has a special interest in Afghanistan, and has written extensively on the conflict in Afghanistan and the Taliban. Her first book, Negotiating Survival: Civilian-Insurgent Relations in Afghanistan (Hurst & Co., 2021), focuses on life under Taliban rule and the nature of civilian agency in wartime. Alongside this, she has advised the UK Parliament, the US State Department, and others on Afghanistan policy.

Ashley has also researched, written, and advised on engagement in Somalia, Syria, the Central Africa Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, and elsewhere. She has contributed to several books, including The Political Economy of Civil War and UN Peace Operations (Routledge, 2023) and The Rule is for None but Allah: Islamist Approaches to Governance (Hurst, 2023), and is a research associate with both ODI and the King's College London Conflict, Security and Development Research Group.

In addition to her academic and policy work, Ashley frequently writes for Foreign Policy, and has contributed to a number of other outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Telegraph, Project Syndicate, Al Jazeera, Politico, Public Radio International, the Guardian, and Current History.  Her media appearances include the BBC World Service, CNN, New Yorker, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, Washington Post, Reuters, NBC News, and the Foreign Policy Editor’s Roundtable podcast. In recognition of her work, she was also named a Foreign Policy Interrupted Fellow.  

Ashley began her career as an aid worker, with the Red Cross, Oxfam and the UN Department of Political Affairs. She 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, and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College.

She is originally from New York, but currently resides in Nairobi.

 
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