Tatiana Smirnova is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center FrancoPaix (Université de Québec à Montréal) and research associate at the Sahel Research Group (University of Florida). Her work focuses on different forms of violence in the Sahel. As part of Tatiana’s PhD defended in 2015 at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), she worked on the dynamics of the student movement in Niger, the links between the role of State and that of activists. Since 2016, she has been studying insurrectionary logics in the Sahel and the “responses” provided by international organizations and foreign forces, focusing especially on Niger and Mali. Tatiana Smirnova is the author of many publications in peer-reviewed journals and reports. She has also worked as a consultant for various international NGOs.