Toon Dirkx

Toon Dirkx is a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding at the Geneva Graduate Institute. His academic journey includes a PhD in Political Science from the University of Basel, followed by visiting positions at the University of Cambridge (2023-2025) and fellowships at Addis Ababa University and the University of Juba. Dirkx has also worked with swisspeace and the Centre for Conflict Studies at Utrecht University.

Dirkx's primary research focuses on governance by armed groups in civil wars, the legacies of rebel governance, relations between armed groups and foreign actors, and the politics of peace- and state-building. His work combines archival research with qualitative fieldwork conducted in Afghanistan, Colombia, and the Horn of Africa. His research has been supported by prestigious organizations including the Dutch Research Council, the University of Basel, the French Centre for Ethiopian Studies, and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Dirkx's scholarly output demonstrates significant contributions to understanding rebel governance and post-conflict state building, with publications spanning multiple continents and conflict contexts. His work examines how armed groups govern territories during civil wars and how these governance structures affect post-conflict political stability, with particular attention to cases in Eritrea, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and South Sudan.

His research has practical applications as evidenced by his secondment to the Policy and Operations Evaluations Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands in 2022, where he co-authored an evaluation of the Dutch contribution to NATO's Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan. This demonstrates the policy relevance of his academic work in the field of conflict studies and peacebuilding.