Bruno Braak (1987) is senior policy researcher with the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB). Until August 2024, Bruno worked as post-doctoral researcher at the Van Vollenhoven Institute in the research project ‘Access to Justice in Libya’, an unprecedented 4-year research project with a large team of Libyan scholars and professionals. In 2022, Bruno defended his PhD based on a monograph 'Overcoming Ruptures: Zande identity, governance and tradition during cycles of war and displacement in South Sudan and Uganda (2014-9)'. For this thesis, Bruno conducted multi-sited ethnographic research in South Sudan and Uganda. The thesis shows how people attempt to construct continuity and coherence in times of conflict, displacement, and change, and it shows what roles traditional authorities play in that regard. Elements of Bruno’s research were published with the Rift Valley Institute, the Africa-blog of London School of Economics and Political Science, Civil Wars Journal, Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis, and the Journal of North African Studies.

Bruno studied Peace and Conflict Studies (MLitt) at the University of St Andrews. His master’s thesis on peace missions in Kosovo was awarded the Sir Menzies Campbell Prize for the best thesis written in the School of International Relations. Before that, he studied Cultural Anthropology at Leiden University with a thesis on conflict and mining in the DR Congo. Bruno interned with NRC Handelsblad, the Netherlands Embassy in Sudan, the Clingendael Institute and Stichting Duurzame Samenleving Papua. He has also set up a website with video-interviews: https://warandpeacetalk.com.

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Publications