Professor Paul Jackson

• PhD Public Policy (Birmingham)
• MSc Information Management (UCE)
• MA Development Studies (East Anglia)
• BA Economics and Politics (York)

Paul Jackson is a political economist working predominantly on conflict and post-conflict reconstruction. A core area of interest is decentralisation and governance and it was his extensive experience in Sierra Leone immediately following the war that led him into the area of conflict analysis and security sector reform. He was Director of the GFN-SSR and is currently an advisor to the Governance and Social Development Resource Centre which engages him in wide ranging policy discussion with donor agencies engaged in these activities, including various European Governments, the EU, the UN and the World Bank as well as the UK Government.

Paul was also Head of the School of Government and Society till July 2010 where he managed five academic departments and some 200 staff across political science and international studies, local government studies, sociology, Russian and European studies and international development. He remains a board member of the Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security (ICCS), a member of the University’s Cybersecurity Committee and Chair of the University’s Chaplaincy Committee. This latter role involves him in a series of student welfare committees.

Paul also works in several overseas locations for institutions ranging from the World Bank to local civil society organisations. These include Rwanda, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Bhutan, India, China and Nepal, amongst others. He is an experienced aid evaluator as well as governance and conflict analyst.

Programme director of the MSc International Development (Conflict, Security and Development), with additional teaching at Undergraduate level on War Torn States.

Director of the Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR)

Research interests

The basic question I am interested in is the creation, destruction and reconstruction of states, particularly in Africa. The focus of a lot of my current work has been on the following:

1. The nature of the liberal state and the politics of liberal state-building in post-conflict situations.
2. Security sector reform, DDR and the relationship between security and development.
3. Governance and security.
4. Decentralisation, governance and community involvement in governance.

Current and recent projects

What happens to combatants after wars? Tracing Maoists back to civilian life in Nepal (Government of Sweden)

International Perceptions and African Agency: Uganda and its Donors 1986-2010 (ESRC) with Dr Jonathan Fisher

Local Ownership in post-conflict security interventions (Marie Curie, EU) with Dr Nicolas Lemay-Hebert

Saving Humans: Risk, Intervention, Survival, for the University of Birmingham Institute of Advanced Studies, with colleagues professor Nick Wheeler and Professor Heather Widdows.

• Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR) (Director)
• Sierra Leone Intervention (Various projects including writing up UK experience in intervening in Sierra Leone)
• Decentralisation and conflict (Sierra Leone, Northern Uganda)
• Sierra Leone decentralisation
• Ghana evaluation methodology
• Bhutan decentralisation
• Role of Government in Adjusting Economies

Membership of Professional Organisations

• Higher Education Academy (originally ILT)
• Registered practitioner with the HEA and also an assessor for the Certificate in teaching and Learning taken by all new staff within the University of Birmingham.
• Political Studies Association, British International Studies Association, African Studies Association and Royal African Society, American Political Science Association membership

Other professional roles

• Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA). Fellowship elected on the basis of my academic management role as an educator in public policy.
• Member of the African Security Sector Network, as an independent adviser, reviewing and editing, advice on funding and review.
• Senior Security and Justice Adviser, UK Stabilisation Unit, as a Deployable Civilian Expert (DCE)