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Maria-Louise Clausen

Senior Researcher
Global security and worldviews
Bio

Primary research areas

Maria-Louise Clausen’s primary areas of research are conflict, security and peace in the Middle East. She is especially interested in state-building as both administrative practices and a site for competing notions of legitimate governance.

Current research

Maria-Louise Clausen’s current research focuses on how international actors influence relations between state and non-state actors in conflict-affected states. Clausen is also interested in how new technologies like big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) affect state-society relations. Currently, Clausen is exploring how the introduction of renewable energy impact localized power relations in conflict-affected states.

Clausen’s work within conflict studies is concerned with the implications of external involvement in intrastate conflict. Clausen focuses on the political and moral implications of remote warfare.

In her studies of notions of legitimate governance, Clausen combines an interest in rebel governance with the role played by the United Nations and NATO as well as regional organizations in both the implementation and understanding of state-building, peacebuilding and stabilization in the Middle East, particularly Iraq and Yemen. She has a special interest in the strategic use of narratives in conflict. 

Projects

Clausen is the Principal Investigator of a research project titled Violent Peacemakers (2022-2025). The project contributes to existing research by exploring theoretical and empirical implications of considering connections between external military intervention and state-building interventions aimed at (re)building the security sector. Empirically, the project focuses on Iraq and Yemen. The project is funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (Social sciences)

Maria-Louise Clausen is also part of the research project, TRANSJIHAD (2019-2023) which aims at advancing our understanding of the dynamics of transnational jihadism. The research project explores the questions of how jihadist conflicts become transnational and under which circumstances they can be contained. The project aims at developing an interdisciplinary analytical framework, which combines micro- and macro level approaches to jihadism, drawing from both Religious Studies, Security Studies and Peace & Conflict Studies. Empirically, it investigates patterns across different regions including Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Maria-Louise Clausen is also a non-resident fellow in the Sectarianism, Proxies & De-sectarianisation project (SEPAD) where she contributes with expert knowledge on Yemen and Iraq.