Corentin Cohen

BA, MPhil, PhD

AFFILIATION

International Relations Network

Government and Politics Network

College

St Peter's College

Corentin Cohen is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations and a Junior Research Fellow at St Peter’s College.

Corentin is interested in the transformations of the political economy of Africa and Latin America and how these processes affect foreign policy, producing opportunities for political actors and governments. He currently conducts research on the role of groups of professionals and private companies in crafting new relationships between states. He is looking at cases in Angola, Brazil, Nigeria and South Africa. He also develops works on global value chains and the different legal, informal and illegal activities they entail. Corentin is keen on using interdisciplinary approaches and ethnography.

Corentin Cohen has received his PhD in political science and international relations from Sciences Po and was a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge (POLIS). His thesis relied on extensive fieldwork in North East Nigeria and in Brazil to develop a political sociology of conflicts and their mediatisations. He analysed how interactions between armed factions, journalists, politicians, professionals of reputations management and diplomats shaped global policies and interventions. His work received the research prize of the French association for the study of war in 2018.

Before joining the department, Corentin was OxPo postdoctoral fellow working between the Center for International Studies (CERI) of Sciences Po in Paris and the DPIR. He lectured on international relations and on African politics at Sciences Po and the Sorbonne.

Publications

Articles

2022

Cohen, C. and SOARES DE OLIVEIRA, R. (2022) “Authoritarian Reputation Laundering in Paris and Lisbon”. National Endowment for Democracy.

2021

Cohen, C., Rupesinghe, N. and Hiberg Naghizadeh, M. (2021) “Reviewing Jihadist Governance in the Sahel”. NUPI.

Journal Articles

2023

Cohen, C. (2023) “The global value chain of second-hand cars and scraps: An ethnographic account of on-the-ground practices, labour and regulations in Ghana”, Tempo Social, 35(1), pp. 67–86.

2022

Cohen, C. (2022) “The ‘Nigerian mafia’ feedback loop: European police, global media and Nigerian civil society”, Trends in Organized Crime, 26(4), pp. 340–357.

Available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-022-09471-0

Cohen, C. and Klantschnig, G. (2022) “Prohibition from below: Moral negotiations, local contestations, and their limit”, Politique africaine (Paris, France : 1981) [Preprint].

Available at https://doi.org/10.3917/polaf.163.0007

Cohen, C. (2022) “Nigerian confraternities to conquer the world?”, Les etudes du CERI [Preprint], (258 bis).

2021

Cohen, C. (2021) “Les confraternités nigérianes à la conquête du monde ?”, Les Études du CERI [Preprint], (258).

Cohen, C. (2021) “The ’debate’ and the politics of the PCC’s informal justice in Sao Paulo”, CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL SCIENCE [Preprint].

Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2021.1998588

Cohen, C. and Klantschnig, G. (2021) “Introduction au thème: La prohibition par le bas: négociations morales et contestations locales”, Politique Africaine, 163(3), pp. 7–22.

Available at https://doi.org/10.3917/polaf.163.0007

2016

Cohen, C. (2016) “Boko Haram, une impossible sociologie politique? Un groupe armé catalyseur de la violence armée régionale”, Afrique contemporaine, 255(3), pp. 75–92.

Available at https://doi.org/10.3917/afco.255.0075

Cohen, C. and Lefebvre, H. (2016) “Structuration régionale et déterminants ethnoreligieux de la violence politique au Nigeria depuis la fin de la dictature militaire”, Hérodote, 159(4), pp. 45–57.

Available at https://doi.org/10.3917/her.159.0045

Chapters

2023

Cohen, C. and Bat, J.-P. (2023) “Les présidents d’Afrique centrale et la stratégie du guépard (1990-2019)”, in M. Tannous (ed.) Fréquenter les infréquentables: Le choix des interlocuteurs en diplomatie. CNRS Editions, pp. 217–238.

Reports

2022

Cohen, C. (2022) Will France’s Africa Policy Hold Up?. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Open letter: Transparency over university funding in the UK

In April 2024, Corentin Cohen was one of more than 120 academics, politicians and campaigners who signed an open letter calling for transparency over university funding in the UK.

Find out more at Open Democracy's website

Open Democracy