Aaron Atimpe is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Political Science.

More information about Aaron Atimpe

Aaron Atimpe is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Political Science, Leiden University. His research examines how civilians exercise agency in response to preventive security governance under hybrid political orders, analysing how legitimacy shapes civilian choices of cooperation, resistance, or disengagement.

He draws on comparative research in the borderlands of northern Ghana and Benin, where preventive security interventions have expanded in response to the regional spread of jihadist violence from the Sahel. He is affiliated with the “Countering Jihadi Insurgencies in Africa: Repress, Resist & Reorder (COUNTERRR)” project led by Dr. Corinna Jentzsch.

Prior to joining the Institute of Political Science, Aaron earned an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), United Kingdom, and a BA in Geography and Rural Development with Political Science from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana.

He has worked extensively as an international development practitioner and applied researcher on stabilisation, peacebuilding and preventing/countering violent extremism. His geographic focus is West Africa, with particular interest in the Coastal States bordering the Sahel.

He currently works as a National Advisor for the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), supporting locally-led approaches to building resilience against radicalization and violent extremism. Through his doctoral work, Aaron aims to contribute to advancing scholarship on civilian agency, legitimacy, and preventive security governance while informing more legitimate and context-sensitive approaches to security governance in Africa.