Aleksi Ylönen is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for International Studies, University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal. He holds a doctorate degree in International Relations and African Studies from Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, and specializes in analyzing politics and armed conflicts in the Horn of Africa and the Sudans. His thematic research interests include causes, dynamics, and termination of armed conflicts, political and armed opposition, and separatism and international recognition of states.