Ben Harrison

Profile

I completed my BA in French and Politics at the University of Leeds (2020-2024). This involved a year-long study abroad opportunity at the Université d’Orléans, during which I enhanced my French language proficiency and deepened my engagement with alternative social science approaches and themes. I then built on these experiences during my MA in International Relations at the University of Leeds (2024-2025), before starting my PhD in 2025.

Research interests

My PhD thesis examines how Salafi-jihadist rebel governments in the Sahel instrumentalise the strategic provision and denial of food security to expand their material and normative influence. I identify food security as holding significant normative value within local African and Islamic frameworks, thus rendering its exploitation both materially consequential and normatively charged. Rebel governance is conceptualised as a Constructivist norm, with food security serving as a proxy for the legitimacy and life cycle of rebel governance. The analysis explores how rebel violence corresponds with food security at the subnational level, and how such violence cascades across physically neighbouring subnational units and transnational rebel networks. It then situates food security management within wider non-violent strategies of rebel governance.

The thesis employs a mixed-methods approach. It operationalises existing quantitative data within spatial and broader econometric models to identify the association between food security and rebel violence, and to examine the spatial diffusion of food security-related violence. This is complemented by qualitative sources that provide grassroots insights via illustrative examples.

This project builds upon my strong academic background in African politics, and maximises my French language skills to analyse local media sources and conduct interviews.

Qualifications

• MA International Relations | Distinction
• BA French and Politics | First-Class Honours

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Global Security Challenges
• Centre for African Studies