Armend Bekaj

Short presentation

Armend Bekaj works at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research - Alva Myrdal Centre for Nuclear Disarmament. His focus are sanctions, inducements and verification processes around nuclear arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation.

Armend's other academic interest is to examine the long-term impact of former combatants-turned politicians on democracy and institution-building in societies in transition.

Keywords

• central and eastern europe
• hybrid regimes and democratization
• verification
• international sanctions
• peace and conflict
• nuclear data
• autocratization
• non-proliferation
• western balkans
• nuclear disarmament

Biography

Armend Bekaj combines two decades of academic, practitioner and policy experience on peace, conflict and security, as well as democratisation vs autocratisation, the geographic focus being Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. He has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Sheffield, and a Master in Conflict Resolution from Peace Studies Department, University of Bradford. His work combines a mixed methods approach, with a long-term background on in-depth, inductive tools of qualitative analysis.

Armend has been with the Department of Peace and Conflict Research (DPCR) since January 2021, where as part of the Alva Myrdal Centre for Nuclear Disarmament (AMC) he collaborates with Prof Peter Wallensteen in examining the role of sanctions and inducements in nuclear arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation. Currently he is coordinating efforts in producing a multi-disciplinary edited volume on nuclear non-proliferation and verification with a larger network of AMC colleagues and scholars.

Previously Armend has taught as Adjunct Faculty for the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Kosovo.

Before joining DPCR, Armend worked for a wide range of international organisations, including the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) where he was part of the team to conceptualise and produce the inaugural Global State of Democracy reports and indices. He also worked at Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, helping to promote the Sustaining Peace Agenda in an increasingly fractured rules-based world order. Prior, he was Chief of Analysis and Reporting Cell, Democratisation Department at the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, researcher with Berghof Foundation, Deputy and Chief of Party for USAID civil society projects, etc.

His latest publications include the following:

Bekaj, Armend & Robert Muharremi. 2026. Delegitimising “War-Wing” Parties in Kosovo by (Special) Court Decree: Critique of the Liberal Peace Framework in Its Pursuit for Transitional Justice, in Southeastern Europe, 49(3), 488-510. https://doi.org/10.30965/18763332-20252009.

- Bekaj, Armend. 2025. Sanctions for nuclear non-proliferation, in Portela, Clara, Andrea Charron and Mirko Sossai (eds) Elgar Encyclopedia of International Sanctions. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 268-270. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035339532.00089.

- Wallensteen, Peter and Armend Bekaj. 2025. Preventing proliferation of nuclear weapons: the role of sanctions. Notre Dame, Keough School of Global Affairs. https://doi.org/10.7274/30273382.

- Bekaj, Armend. 2024. Former combatants, democracy, and institution-building in transitory societies: Kosovo and North Macedonia. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003494799.

- Bekaj, Armend and Peter Wallensteen (eds). 2024. Sanctions for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation: moving forward. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032684185.