Kars de Bruijne is a Senior Research Fellow at Clingendael's Security Unit. At the Conflict Research Unit (CRU), Kars heads the Greater Sahel Programme which focuses on the manifestation of hybrid governance under fragmented sovereignty in the Sahel and Coastal West Africa. His expertise is on the study of political violence (conflict dynamics, gangs and rebel movement strategy), subnational governance arrangement and their link to the central power, and elite politics in West Africa. Kars holds a PhD in conflict studies on rationalist explanations for (civil) conflict and degrees in International Relations, History, and Philosophy. Previously, he worked as a Senior Researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) heading among others the West Africa Desk. He is also a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sussex in the ERC-consolidator project Violence, Elites and Resilience in States under Stress (VERSUS).