I am a terrorism and security researcher with expertise in project management, methodological rigour and innovation, cross-cultural communication, insurgent ideologies and behaviours, and Russia and Eurasia. I am currently Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Portsmouth.
My research focuses on insurgent ideologies and behaviours, with a particular interest in Russia’s North Caucasus. I have written about the evolution of the ideology of the group known as the Caucasus Emirate, the involvement of ‘Russian-speaking’ fighters in the conflict in Syria and Iraq, leadership transition within insurgent movements, and practices of restraint. Current projects explore the challenges of disengaging from political violence, assessing the impact of insurgent movements, and the ethics and implications for conflict dynamics of deploying non-Western private military companies. You can find my academic and non-academic publications in the Research tab — all free to access.
My core expertise includes:
- Social science research leadership
- Designing innovative and methodologically robust data collection and analysis strategies
- Project management
- Research network development
- Public speaking and communication
- Violent and nonviolent resistance
- Russian and Eurasian politics and security
- Qualitative research skills, including fieldwork and interviewing.
- Excel, PostgreSQL, Visual Basic, ArcGIS, NVivo.
- Russian, German, Turkish
Mark Youngman 