Dr. Giustozzi holds a PhD from the LSE (International Relations) and a BA in Contemporary History from the University of Bologna. He was at the Crisis States Research Centre (LSE) until January 2011. He served with UNAMA (United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan) in 2003-4. Currently also affiliated with RUSI.

Areas of expertise

• Afghanistan
• Pakistan
• Insurgencies
• Security sector reform
• State building

Dr. Giustozzi is currently working on Pakistani’s jihadist groups. In the past he has carried several large research projects in Afghanistan, where he still carries out some consultancy work. Other areas of continuing interest are training and advisory missions, demobilisation and reintegration and international insurgent groups (global jihadists and others).

 

Publications

Books

• The Taliban at war, London : Hurst, 2019
• The Islamic State in Khorasan, London ; Hurst, 2018
• [with Artemy Kalinovsky] Missionaries of modernity: Advisory Missions and the Struggle for Hegemony, from the 1940s to Afghanistan, London : Hurst, 2016
• The Army of Afghanistan: a political history of a fragile institution, London : Hurst, 2016
• [with Mohammad Ishaqzadeh] Policing Afghanistan: The Politics of the Lame Leviathan, London : Hurst, 2013
• The Art of Coercion: The primitive accumulation and management of coercive power, London : Hurst, 2011
• Empires of mud: wars and warlords of Afghanistan, London : C. Hurst & Co and New York : Columbia University Press, 2009
• Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop: the rise of the Neo-Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, London : C.Hurst & Co. and New York : Columbia University Press, 2007.
• War, politics and society in Afghanistan, 1978-1992, London : C. Hurst & Co. and Georgetown University Press, 2000.
• Post-conflict Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration: bringing state-building back in, Hants ; Ashgate, 2012.
• Decoding the New Taliban: Insights from the Afghan field, London : C. Hurst & Co and New York : Columbia University Press, 2009.

Book chapters

• ‘Flawed Afghanisation: Underestimating and Misunderstanding the Taliban’, in David Fitzgerald, David Ryan, and John M. Thompson (eds.), Not even past: How the United States Ends Wars, New York ; Berghan Books, 2020
• ‘The Arab-Gulf connections of the Taliban’, in C. Jaffrelot and L. Louer (eds), Pan-Islamic Connections, London : Hurst, 2017

Research articles

• ‘Struggle for power: Al Nusra and Al Qaida in Syria’, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2020 [online only] 2021 [paper edition]
• [with Anna Matveeva] ‘The Central Asian militants: cannon fodder of global jihadism or revolutionary vanguard?’, Small Wars and Insurgencies, n. 3 2018
• [with Reinoud Leenders] ‘Outsourcing state violence: The National Defence Force, ‘stateness’ and regime resilience in the Syrian war’, Mediterranean Politics, n. 4, vol. 22, 2017
• [with Artemy M. Kalinovsky] ‘The professional middle class in Afghanistan: from pivot of development to political marginality’, in Humanity Journal, Volume 8 issue 2, 2017
• ‘Counterinsurgency Challenge in Post-2001 Afghanistan’, Small Wars & Insurgencies, 28:1, 2017, 12-33

Policy papers

• ‘Can the Afghan state intervene successfully in the conflict between nomads and settlers?’, Kabul : AREU, February 2020
• ‘Nomad-settler conflict in Afghanistan today’, Kabul : AREU, October 2019

Media articles

• ‘Territorial defeats, leadership losses, and internal fragmentation underscore significant challenge faced by the Islamic State in Afghanistan’, Jane’s Terrorism and Security Monitor, 23 July 2020
• ‘Taliban peace deal at risk amid renewed internal divisions and regional rivalries’, Jane’s Terrorism and Security Monitor, 3 July 2020
• ‘Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent: Ambition over means’, Jane’s Terrorism and Security Monitor, 23 June 2020
• ‘Jaish-e-Mohammed takes lead among pro-establishment jihadist groups in Pakistan’, Jane’s Terrorism and Security Monitor, 28 April 2020