Ndubuisi Christian Ani
is a senior researcher and project coordinator at the ENACT Programme at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Abuja (Nigeria). Before taking on this role, he was a senior regional advisor at the support project of the German development agency GIZ for the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra (Ghana). Christian has held research roles at the ISS in Ethiopia and the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) in Durban (South Africa). He holds a PhD in international relations from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa).
Kwesi Aning
is a professor at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra (Ghana) and presently a guest scholar at the Danish Institute of International Studies (DIIS) in Copenhagen (Denmark). His research focuses on peacekeeping, hybrid political orders, political violence, criminal networks, extremism, and security force assistance. In March 2023, his 2022 article on ‘African Experiences and Alternativity in International Relations Theorizing about Security’, in the Journal International Affairs (vol. 98, no. 1, with Kwaku Danso), won the International Affairs Centenary Prize by Chatham House, London.
Juliana Abena Appiah
is a senior research fellow at the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD), University of Ghana. She specializes in Africa’s international relations, regionalism, and regional integration in Africa; coloniality and decolonial studies; and Africa subjects and subjectivities.
Habibu Yaya Bappah
is a full-time lecturer at the Department of Political Science and International Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (Nigeria). Dr Bappah is, however, currently on leave of absence and works at the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), where he currently serves as an executive assistant in the Office of Commissioner for Finance. He previously served in the same capacity in the Office of Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security. His areas of research interest include regional governance, security, and development, with a focus on ECOWAS institutional development, programmes, and activities.
is a development economist with a DPhil (2008) from the University of Sussex (United Kingdom). Originally from Scotland, he heads the African Institutions and Regional Dynamics Programme of the Economic and Agricultural Transformation programme at the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) in Maastricht (Netherlands), where he has been working since May 2011.
Annie Barbara Hazviyemurwi Chikwanha
is an associate professor at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa). She has extensive regional experience on democracy and governance, human security, security sector governance, and peace and conflict, consulting and publishing on these themes for regional and international organisations. A former board member of the Board of Advisors of the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA, Stockholm, Sweden), she is currently a member of the International Advisory Committee for the Research Programme on Security and Rule of Law in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings Programme, managed by the Netherland Research Council and the NOW–WOTRO Science for Global Development.
Dawit Yohannes Wondemagegnehu
is a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). He works for the Training for Peace Programme under the Peace Operations and Peace Building Programme of the ISS in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). Prior to joining ISS, he served as a researcher, academic coordinator, and programme manager for various organisations, including the German development agency GIZ and Leipzig University (Germany). Dawit has a PhD in global studies from the joint PhD programme of Leipzig University and Addis Ababa University. His current research areas focus on conflict prevention and peacebuilding issues at the African Union and national dialogue processes in the Horn of Africa and reconciliation in Ethiopia.
Debela Fituma Mamo
is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Peace and Security Studies (IPSS), Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia). He also works as a researcher at the Ethiopian Institute of Foreign Affairs. His research focuses on peace and security, comparative politics, political transitions, and indigenous knowledge systems. He has written several research articles and book reviews.
is the professor of ‘Politics in Africa’ at the Institute of African Studies, Leipzig University (Germany). He is also a visiting professor at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia) and a professor extraordinary at the Department of Political Science at Stellenbosch University (South Africa). Since 2006, he has been advising the AU Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security in the fields of conflict prevention, early warning, preventive diplomacy, and knowledge management.
Jens Herpolsheimer
is a post-doctoral researcher at the Research Centre Global Dynamics, as well as at the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 1199: ‘Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition’, both based at Leipzig University (Germany). He holds a PhD in global studies from Leipzig University. In his research, he focuses on practices of conflict intervention as well as practices of interregionalism between African regional organisations and the European Union, with a special emphasis on issues of governance, peace, and security. His latest book is Spatializing Practices of Regional Organizations during Conflict Intervention: The Politics of ECOWAS and the African Union (Routledge, 2021).
Benedikt Kamski
holds a PhD in political science and is a non-resident senior researcher at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, University of Freiburg (Germany). His research focuses on political economy, with a special interest in geoeconomics and geopolitics across East Africa. He is a co-editor of the Africa Yearbook: Politics, Economy and Society South of the Sahara (Brill) and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (London). He has worked in East Africa since 2012, leading applied research and advisory projects for public and private sector clients, including governments, private foundations, and multinational corporations. Based in Nairobi (Kenya), Kamski is also a managing partner at EAGate Holdings, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Paris (France).
Tony Karbo
is the executive director of the N’Zarama Center for Peacebuilding in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire). Previously, he had been the executive director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town (South Africa) and director of the University for Peace in San José (Costa Rica). Among other works, he co-edited The African Union: Autocracy, Diplomacy and Peacebuilding in Africa (I.B. Tauris, 2018).
is a policy-facing researcher specialising in the governance of peace, security, and development in Africa. He is a senior programme officer at Conflict Dynamics International and has held research roles at the Institute for Security Studies, International Crisis Group, the Economist Intelligence Unit, and the United States Institute of Peace, among others. He has worked on topics such as Africa’s engagements with the rest of the world and the role of international and regional organisations in conflict management. His geographical areas of interest span the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes regions.
Klara Leithäuser
is a student of political science and works as a student research assistant at the chair for international relations at the University of Freiburg (Germany). Her areas of interest cover global politics of infrastructure and connectivity as well as China and the ‘Global South’.
Albert Mudenda Muchanga
is the commissioner for economic development, trade, tourism, industry and minerals (ETTIM) of the African Union Commission (initially he was elected commissioner for trade and industry in January 2017). He was the permanent secretary in the Cabinet Office in charge of parliamentary affairs in Zambia and a former ambassador to Brazil and Ethiopia, respectively, with extra accreditation to the African Union. H.E. Muchanga was deputy executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (2001–2005).
Edefe Ojomo
is a lecturer at the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, University of Lagos (Nigeria) and an affiliate of the Institute for International Law and Justice at the New York University School of Law (United States). Edefe has taught international law and governance at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom (Nigeria); the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, New York City; and the University of Melbourne (Australia). She is a member of the Global Advisory Strategy Roundtable of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Her research covers the theory and practice of governance, regionalism, citizenship, migration, and health regulation.
Francis Onditi
is the associate professor of conflictology and dean of the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Riara University (Kenya). He is an authority on the geography of conflict focusing on the interethnic/tribal border markets,
Naila Salihu
is a research fellow and deputy programme head at the Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research (FAAR) at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center (KAIPTC) in Accra (Ghana). She is also a faculty member and lecturer for postgraduate programmes at KAIPTC. Her research interests include security sector governance, peacebuilding, regional institutions, and military-societal relations in West Africa. She holds a PhD in defence and security from Cranfield University, Defence Academy (United Kingdom). She obtained her BA (political science and linguistics) and MPhil (international affairs) from the University of Ghana.
Rahel Weldeab Sebhatu
is a PhD candidate in global politics at Malmö University (Sweden). Her PhD project, titled ‘Decolonizing Diplomacy: Negotiating Development Cooperation between African States and the European Union’, seeks to centre African agency to understand how and why African states resist EU imposition of norms and/or conditionalities that come with negotiating development cooperation despite the fact that the EU is a ‘powerful’ actor in global politics. She authored the chapter ‘Applying Postcolonial Approaches to Studies of Africa–EU Relations’ in the Routledge Handbook on EU–Africa Relations (2020).
Moussa Soumahoro
is an Ivorian peace and security governance analyst. He currently works as a researcher within the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Africa Peace and Security Governance Programme (APSG). Prior to his current role, he was a West Africa/Sahel analyst at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). He specialises in political risk and resilience assessment, conflict analysis, organised crime, and African peace and security institutions.
Elsie A. Tachie-Menson
is a researcher at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Accra (Ghana). Her research focuses on maritime security, cyber security, and emerging security trends. She is the editorial assistant of the Journal of African Peace and Security (JAPS), the KAIPTC flagship journal.
is a lecturer in ‘Global Political Economy’ at the chair for international relations at the University of Freiburg (Germany). He is also a research fellow at the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at Stellenbosch (South Africa) and a research associate in the Second Cold War Observatory. He is author of the book The Political Economy of Chinese Infrastructure Development in Africa: Capital, State Agency, Debt (Palgrave, 2023) and co-editor of Africa’s Railway Renaissance: The Role and Impact of China (Routledge, 2023).