Alexandre Gernigon

Primary research areas

Alexandre Gernigons primary areas of research are peace, conflict and development in French-speaking West Africa. With a background in peace and conflict studies, he focuses particularly on the conflict in the Sahel region, including the role of international security and development actors. Alexandre Gernigon is interested in the geopolitical dimensions of the conflict and more specifically France's role as an old colonial power in the region.

Current research

Alexandre is a research assistant working on the program War Without Allies: The EU's New Role in Global Security, which examines how the effects of European and other external security interventions in West Africa's Sahel region shape the EU's role as a global security actor.

With a bachelor's degree in peace and conflict studies from Lund University and a master's degree in political science from the University of Copenhagen, specializing in international relations and conflict resolution, he draws on his knowledge from his bachelor's thesis on terror discourses in France and his fieldwork in Mali on local peacebuilding NGOs. He also uses his experience from working in the development field to investigate the role of international donors and local NGOs in the Sahel. His upcoming PhD thesis deals with the concept of La Françafrique and France's sphere of influence in the country's old colonies in Africa. More specifically, the thesis examines the contemporary dimensions of the relationship, the political tensions between local governments and France, the local population's perceptions of the relationship with France, as well as the consequences of the deteriorating relationship for France's role in the world.