Dr Devon Curtis

Peace and security, power-sharing, international intervention, peacebuilding and conflict resolution, transitional governance, post-conflict ‘reconstruction’ and development, humanitarianism, rebel movements in Africa, the United Nations, the African Unio

Devon E. A. Curtis is the Director of the MPhil in African Studies. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Emmanuel College. Her main research interests and publications deal with power-sharing and governance arrangements following conflict, UN peacebuilding, non-state armed movements in Africa, and critical perspectives on conflict, peacebuilding, and development. Her field research concentrates on the Great Lakes region of Africa, especially Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Previously, Devon worked for the Canadian government and the United Nations Staff College, and she has been a consultant for the UK Department for International Development, the Overseas Development Institute, and a Visiting Senior Advisor to the International Peace Institute. She has had fellowships at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, and at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University.

Teaching:

Politics of Conflict and Peace

Politics of Africa

Post-Graduate Supervision Interests

Devon Curtis is interested in supervising on a variety of topics in African politics and international relations. She is particularly interested in research projects that focus on peacebuilding, the politics of knowledge in international affairs, rebel movements and non-state actors and the politics of north-south and south-south engagement.

Key publications:

Books

(2012) Peacebuilding, Power and Politics in Africa (co-edited with G Dzinesa), Ohio University Press, 2012. (See link for D. Curtis "Introduction: The Contested Politics of Peacebuilding in Africa")

Articles

(2022) ‘Memoirs of women-in-conflict: Ugandan ex-combatants and the production of knowledge on security and peacebuilding’. Security Dialogue. February. (with Florence Ebila and Maria Martin de Almagro)
(2021) ‘Postwar statebuilding in Burundi: Ruling party elites and illiberal peace’, International Affairs, Vol. 97, 4: 1221-1238 (with Ntagahoraho Z Burihabwa)
(2019) 'What is Our Research For? Responsibility, Humility and the Production of Knowledge About Burundi,' Africa Spectrum, 54, 1, pp. 4-21.
(2019) 'Transforming State Visions: Ideology and Ideas in Armed Groups Turned Political Parties,' Government and Opposition, 54, 3, pp. 387-414 (with Gyda M. Sindre)
(2019) 'The Limits of Resistance Ideologies? The CNDD-FDD and the Legacies of Governance in Burundi,' Government and Opposition, 54, 3, pp. 559-583 (with Ntagahoraho Z. Burihabwa)
(2015) 'Development Assistance and the Lasting Legacies of Rebellion in Burundi and Rwanda,' Third World Quarterly, 36, 7, pp. 1365-1381.
(2013) ‘China and the Insecurity of Development in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)’ International Peacekeeping, 20, 5.
(2013) 'The Limits to Statebuilding for Peace in Africa' South African Journal of International Affairs, 20, 1, (April), pp. 79-97.
(2013) 'The International Peacebuilding Paradox: Power Sharing and Post-conflict Governance in Burundi,' African Affairs, 112, 446, (January) pp. 72-91.

Selected Book Chapters

(2022) The United Nations, in John Baylis, Steve Smith and Patricia Owens (eds). The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations (Oxford University Press). Also previous editions in 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007, 2004.
(2021) Burundi: Recent History, in Africa South of the Sahara 2021 (Routledge). Also previous editions every year.

(2017) South Africa’s Peacemaking Efforts in Africa: Ideas, Interests and Influence, in Adekeye Adebajo and Kudrat Virk (eds), Foreign Policy in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Security, Diplomacy and Trade, (IB Tauris).

(2013) 'Post-conflict peacebuilding', in Nic Cheeseman, David Anderson and Andrea Scheibler (eds), Routledge Handbook of African Politics, London: Routledge.

(2010) ‘Complementary Approaches to Peacekeeping? The African Union and United Nations in Burundi’, in H Besada (ed), Crafting an African Security Architecture, Ashgate (with G Nibigirwe)

(2009) Rebel Movements and Political Party Development in Post-Conflict Societies, Working Paper for the Program on States and Security, 2009 (with Jeroen de Zeeuw)