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Alessio Iocchi

Former employee

Contactinfo and files

Summary

Alessio Iocchi was a Senior Research Fellow in NUPI's Research group on peace, conflict and development. 

Expertise

  • Terrorism and extremism
  • Africa
  • Conflict
  • Migration
  • Insurgencies
  • Governance

Aktivitet

Publications
Publications
Working paper

Working Paper on enabling environments, drivers, and occurrence/nonoccurrence of violent extremism

Why does violent extremism not occur in enabling environments? Based on recent field work in the Sahel and the Maghreb region this is the main question we seek to understand in this working paper. To understand non-occurrence and thereby the foundations of social and individual resilience, we also need to understand the drivers of violent extremism and why they gain traction among some populations while others show much higher degrees of resilience. To achieve this, we will zoom in on cases in Mali, Niger, Tunisia and Morocco, showcasing different trajectories of occurrence and non-occurrence.

  • Terrorism and extremism
  • The Middle East and North Africa
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  • Terrorism and extremism
  • The Middle East and North Africa
Publications
Publications
Scientific article

The end of stability - how Burkina Faso fell apart

Not so long-ago Burkina Faso was considered an ‘island’ of stability in a conflict-prone part of Africa. This is not the case anymore as armed insurgencies have caused widespread insecurity. While spill-over effects from the conflict in Mali clearly play a role, we argue that the sudden demise of the rule and regime of Blaise Compaoré also is an important contributing factor. To decipher to what extent regime transition shaped the current state of affairs, we show that what kept Burkina Faso stable and out of the conflicts in the region was a ‘big man deep state’ of formal and informal networks of security provisions. When this ‘deep state’ vanished with the ousting of Compaoré and his allies, local security providers have sought new solutions, and this strengthened the role of self-defence militias but also led them to compete against each other, at times also violently. This provided fertile terrain for jihadi insurgents. Therefore, this paper is an attempt to provide a conceptual understanding of how weak rulers actually rule, how some succeed in preserving their rule for a lengthy period of time, and what can happen when they eventually fall.

  • Security policy
  • Africa
Screenshot 2022-10-28 at 09.34.07.png
  • Security policy
  • Africa
Event
YouTube
Engelsk
Sahel - fragile-states-violent-entrepreneurs-plakat.png
Event
YouTube
Engelsk
2. Feb 2022
Event
YouTube
Engelsk

The Sahel - fragile states and violent entrepreneurs

The Sahel has recently gotten attention from the international community because of the many challenges this realm faces. This webinar marks the end of a three-year long project that has taken a closer look at the Sahel.

Research Project
2021 - 2025 (Ongoing)

Strengthening Fragile States through Taxation (FRAGTAX)

How is the political authority to tax established, exercised and maintained over time? State-building requires predictable income. Without a domestic revenue base, even core activities states are expe...

  • International economics
  • Economic growth
  • Development policy
  • Fragile states
  • Insurgencies
  • Governance
  • Comparative methods
  • International economics
  • Economic growth
  • Development policy
  • Fragile states
  • Insurgencies
  • Governance
  • Comparative methods
Event
15:00 - 17:00
Microsoft Teams
Engelsk
Event
15:00 - 17:00
Microsoft Teams
Engelsk
2. Dec 2020
Event
15:00 - 17:00
Microsoft Teams
Engelsk

WEBINAR: Launch of special issue of International Spectator

We are happy to promote the launch of a special issue of the "International Spectator" journal on Governance, Fragility and Insurgency in the Sahel: A Hybrid Political Order in the Making, guest edited by Morten Bøås and Francesco Strazzari.

Publications
Publications
Scientific article

The Dangers of Disconnection: Oscillations in Political Violence on Lake Chad

Narrations on fragility and resilience in the Sahel paint a picture about the region’s inherent ungovernability that lead to consider an endless state- and peace-building process as the most feasible governance solution. Everyday practices of violent entrepreneurship, coalescing with inter-community and land-tenure conflicts, now inform social relations and are transforming moral economies around Lake Chad. While competition over territory suitable for farming, grazing and fishing has intensified, dispute-settlement practices organised by community-level authorities have proven ineffective and lacking the necessary means to respond to the encroachment of a wide range of interests claimed by increasingly powerful actors. Meanwhile, communities organised in self-defence militias are undergoing a process of progressive militarisation that tends to normalise violence and legitimise extra-judicial vigilante justice, further empowering capital-endowed arms suppliers gravitating in the jihadi galaxy, such as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

  • Terrorism and extremism
  • Africa
  • Peace operations
  • Conflict
  • Fragile states
  • Terrorism and extremism
  • Africa
  • Peace operations
  • Conflict
  • Fragile states
Publications
Publications
Scientific article

Il flusso migratorio sul continente africano

An overview of migratory issues on the African continent

  • Africa
  • Migration
  • Africa
  • Migration
Publications
Publications
Report

The “Faceless Evildoers” of Cabo Delgado: an Islamist Insurgency in Mozambique?

A brief assessment about the emergence of a jihadi group in Mozambique

  • Terrorism and extremism
  • Africa
  • Insurgencies
  • Terrorism and extremism
  • Africa
  • Insurgencies
Publications
Publications
Report

Chad’s Pivotal Role in the Regional Crisis

An analysis of Chad's regime role in the context of the military and humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad Basin

  • Africa
  • Humanitarian issues
  • Conflict
  • Africa
  • Humanitarian issues
  • Conflict
Publications
Publications
Chapter

Jihad globale o insurgency locale? L'ISIS in Africa, da Boko Haram allo Stato Islamico nel Grande Sahara

This chapter sums up the evolution of jihadi activity in Mali and around Lake Chad, connecing local events to the concurrent emergence and evolution of the Islamic State.

  • Terrorism and extremism
  • Africa
  • Terrorism and extremism
  • Africa
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