Marta Driessen Cormenzana is Analyst in the Violent Radicalisation and Global Terrorism Programme at the Elcano Royal Institute and Associate Professor at Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC).
She has authored several reports and policy papers for the European Commission as part of the RAN Policy Support project and has coordinated the academic output of other authors within this initiative.
With a background in international relations and political science, she has previously worked at the Spanish Embassy and the Delegation of the European Union to Senegal, the NGO Doctors of the World, and WATHI, a Dakar-based think tank.
Research areas: peace, security, and governance in Africa, with a particular focus on West Africa; expansion of terrorism in the Sahel region; (de)democratization and regional integration processes; Africa-Europe relations; violent extremism (VE) in Europe, with special attention to the phenomenon of affective polarization and its connection to VE; roles of women in extremist movements, particularly within the far right.
Selected publications: The Nexus between Security and Development in the Sahel: West African Perspectives on EU Interventions, European Think Tanks Group, February 2025; Conflict and Unconstitutional Change of Government in Africa: Is there still a role for the EU-AU Partnership, European Think Tanks Group, February 2024; Quarterly Research Review: New trends in Jihadism, RAN Policy Support, July 2024.
Other contact information: Marta Driessen Cormenzana on LinkedIn.