Antonia Witt

Dr. Antonia Witt serves as a Senior Researcher and Head of the Research Group 'African Intervention Politics' at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), part of the Leibniz Association. Her work examines how international peacebuilding efforts and conflict situations affect people's everyday lives in Africa, with particular focus on local perspectives on regional interventions.

Her academic background includes a Ph.D. in Global and European Studies from the University of Leipzig (2016) and a Master's in African Studies and Political Science from the same institution. Prior to joining PRIF, she held research positions at Goethe University Frankfurt's Cluster of Excellence 'The Formation of Normative Orders' (2014-2017), the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa (2014), and the University of Bremen's DFG Junior Research Group (2011-2014).

Witt's research pioneered methodological approaches to study African interventions 'from below,' shifting focus from institutional analyses to societal perspectives. Her work reveals the 'multiplexity' of local views on African Union and ECOWAS interventions, showing how communities simultaneously hold multiple, sometimes contradictory perspectives. She has conducted extensive field research in West Africa, particularly in Burkina Faso and The Gambia, examining how regional organizations respond to crises.

Her research has been featured in leading journals including International Peacekeeping, Millennium, and Global Studies Quarterly. She is the author of the monograph 'Undoing Coups: The African Union and Post-coup Intervention in Madagascar' (Zed Books, 2020) and has contributed to numerous edited volumes on African peace and security architecture.

Witt serves on the Advisory Board of the Development and Peace Foundation (sef:) and the Advisory Board to the Federal Government for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding. She is frequently consulted by media outlets including Deutsche Welle, Frankfurter Rundschau, and Zenith magazine for expert commentary on African politics, peacebuilding, and security issues, particularly regarding coups in the Sahel region and Germany's engagement in Mali and Niger.

She leads multiple research projects including African Non-military Conflict Intervention Practices (ANCIP), 'Preparing for Peace: International and Local Responses to the Spread of Violent Extremism,' and 'The Role of Coercion in Peacebuilding: Insights from Africa in an Inter-Regional Perspective.' Her current work examines how climate change and resource scarcity intersect with conflict dynamics in West Africa and how these factors shape local perceptions of security interventions.