Thomas Hinkel recently attained his PhD at the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, where his thesis work investigated the relationship between the Saharan smuggling economy and the region’s conflicts (particularly in Mali). He has visited and conducted field research in Bamako, Mali, where he has also published on the role of Mali’s religious leaders in the country’s conflict resolution process.

Previous to arriving in the UK, Thomas lived and studied in Cairo, Egypt, where he earned his master’s degree in political science from the American University in Cairo. Originally from Lexington, Kentucky, he gained his bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky and maintains a broad interest in the nexus between conflict and illicit economies, the role of religion in peacebuilding, and the social consequences of economic change.

Thomas is also a Research Assistant at the SCORE Religion & Peacebuilding project of the Department of War Studies, King's College London. 

Publications

• Thomas, Hinkel., Bakary, Fouraba, Traore. (2020). Mali’s peace networks: the role of Islamic religious leaders in conflict resolution. Conflict, Security & Development, 20(3):401-418. doi: 10.1080/14678802.2020.1775999
• Hinkel, T. (2019). Book review: Extralegal Groups in Post-Conflict Liberia. Contemporary Voices: The St Andrews Journal of International Relations. https://doi.org/10.15664/jtr.1523