South-East European Research Centre (SEERC)

Mr Armend Bekaj is a PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof Paul Knepper and Dr Mark Brown from the University of Sheffield and Dr Pavlos Koktsidis from SEERC. His PhD topic is entitled "Rearranging the puzzles of security in post-conflict democracies: a  comparative study of the transformation and political integration of armed groups in Kosovo and FYR Macedonia". The thesis examines the transformation and integration of former combatants into post-conflict security structures, and by consequence their role in these emerging democracies. Mr Bekaj's interests lead him to focus on the common denominators of these two case studies, and through the means of participatory observation to analyse the interplay between their representatives and democratic institutions in the two afore-mentioned countries.

Supervisors: Dr Mark Brown and Dr Pavlos Koktsidis