about

Sarah Phillips is Professor of Global Conflict and Development at The University of Sydney. Her research draws on in-depth fieldwork, and focuses on international intervention in the global south, knowledge production in conflict-affected states, state-building, and non-state governance, with a geographic focus on the Arabian Peninsula and Horn of Africa.

Sarah is the author of three books, and is published widely in top-tiered academic journals, including International Studies Quarterly, the European Journal of International Relations, African Affairs, Foreign Affairs, and International Affairs. Her piece in African Affairs (co-authored with Justin Hastings) was awarded the Stephen Ellis Prize for the most innovative article in 2014-15. Sarah has also been awarded a number of prestigious competitive grants, including three from the Australian Research Council (one examining state-formation and external finance in Somalia/Somaliland, another on the organisational dynamics of maritime pirate organisations and, most recently, a project that will explore perceptions of terrorist groups in conflict-affected states).

Sarah also holds a Sydney Outstanding Academic Research (SOAR) Fellowship, and is a Research Associate at the Developmental Leadership Program (University of Birmingham, UK) and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Sana’a Centre for Strategic Studies (Yemen and Lebanon). She has conducted extensive fieldwork (approximately five years total) in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa – particularly in Yemen, Somaliland, Kenya, Jordan, Pakistan, Oman, and Iraq – and has consulted to numerous governments and development agencies on matters pertaining to these areas.