Natasja Rupesinghe

Natasja Rupesinghe is a Research Fellow at the European University Institute (EUI), holding the Max Weber Fellowship in Florence, Italy. She completed her DPhil in International Relations at the University of Oxford, affiliated with Nuffield College and the Department of Politics and International Relations. She is also a Fellow at the Centre on Armed Groups in Geneva. Her research focuses on civil war dynamics, civilian agency in conflict zones, and international peacebuilding efforts, with a regional specialization in the Sahel, particularly Mali. Her doctoral research examined community responses to jihadist mobilization in Central Mali, supported by fieldwork conducted between 2021–2022 and funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

Previous roles include a Research Fellowship at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), where she contributed to studies on Sahelian insurgencies and African Union peace operations. She also served as a Policy Officer in the African Union’s Peace Operations Division (2016–2017). Her academic background includes a BSc from University College London and an MSc in Conflict Studies from the London School of Economics.

Her publications analyze civilian resilience mechanisms in conflict zones, multinational crisis response coordination failures, and gender dimensions in peacekeeping operations. Current research explores evolving dynamics of armed groups in fragile states, with a focus on governance and stabilization strategies.