Sarah G. Phillips

Sarah G. Phillips is Professor of Global Conflict and Development at the University of Sydney, a Future Fellow with the Australian Research Council, and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Sana'a Centre for Strategic Studies (Yemen). Her research draws from years of in-depth fieldwork (particularly in Yemen, Somaliland, Iraq, Kenya, and Jordan), and focuses on international intervention in the global South, knowledge production about conflict-affected states, authoritarianism, and critical terrorism studies.

She lived in Yemen for nearly four years, and has published two books and many articles on its politics, the latest of which is "Trivializing Terrorists: How Counterterrorism Knowledge Undermines Local Resistance to Terrorism” (with Nadwa al-Dawsari), Security Studies (Open Access, 2023): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09636412.2023.2250253?src=

Sarah's most recent book, "When There Was No Aid: War and Peace in Somaliland", was awarded the Australian Political Studies Association’s biennial Crisp Prize for the best scholarly political science book (2018-20). It was also listed as a ‘Best Book of 2020’ by Foreign Affairs, a ‘Book of the Year' (2020) by Australian Book Review, and was shortlisted for both the Conflict Research Society’s 'Book of the Year Prize' (2021), and the African Studies Association’s 'Bethwell A. Ogot Book Prize' (2021).