Research areas

Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde researches conflicts and Western interventions in Africa's Sahel region. Her work focuses particularly on understanding how international actors address security threats from terrorism, migration, and organized crime in light of regional geopolitical shifts. Her research is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Mali, Niger, and South Africa. Additionally, Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde's research explores the connections between local resource conflicts, state formation processes, and jihadist insurgencies.

Geographically, her research centers on Africa, particularly Mali, Niger, and South Africa. She also focuses on Western states and international organizations, including NGOs, the UN, and the EU.

Geographically, her research takes point of departure in Africa, particularly Mali, Niger, and South Africa. Moreover, she focuses on Western intervening states and organizations, including NGOs, the UN, and the EU.

Projects
Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde is the Principal Investigator of the research project In War Without Allies: The EU’s Role in Global Security, funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. This project views the African Sahel region as a testing ground for how the EU acts and defines its role as a global security actor amidst changing geopolitical order. The project focuses on the effects of the EU's security interventions in the Sahel and examines how Europe and the West are perceived as security actors by their partners and the populations in the Sahel region.

Additionally, Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde is part of the research project TRANSJIHAD, a five-year study aimed at exploring the dynamics behind transnational jihadism, focusing on Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The project investigates how jihadist conflicts become transnational and under what conditions they might be contained.

Previously, Signe was involved in the collaborative research project Borderwork - Migrants, Brokers and European Border Governance in West Africa funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (FKK). This project examined the consequences of contestation over European border control in West Africa by various international, national, and local actors. Focusing on new EU-supported initiatives—border control in Niger, repatriations in Mali, and information campaigns in Senegal—the project highlighted the collision between expanded border control measures and local hopes and aspirations.