Rita Abrahamsen is a professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and director of the Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS) at the University of Ottawa. She is the author (with M.C. Williams) of Security Beyond the State: Private Security in International Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2011), Disciplining Democracy: Development Discourse and the Good Governance Agenda in Africa (Zed Books, 2000), editor (with A. Leander) of Routledge Handbook of Private Security Studies (Routledge, 2016), and Conflict and Security in Africa (James Currey, 2013). Her articles have appeared in leading journals including African Affairs, Alternatives, International Political Sociology, Journal of Modern African Studies, Political Studies, Security Dialogue, Third World Quarterly, and Review of African Political Economy. She was joint editor of African Affairs, the highest ranked journal in African studies, from 2009 to 2014. Prior to joining the University of Ottawa, Prof. Abrahamsen was in the Department of International Politics at the University of Aberystwyth, and she has been a visiting fellow at the University of Cape Town, the European University Institute in Florence, the University of Queensland in Brisbane, the International Peace Research Institute (PRIO) in Oslo, the Centre for Advanced Security Theory (CAST) at the University of Copenhagen, the Danish Institute of International Studies (DIIS), Queen Mary University of London, and the University of Sydney. She also chairs the advisory board of the SSRC’s African Peacebuilding Network (APN) program.

Arsène Brice Bado is Vice-president for academic affairs and international relations, and professor of political science and international relations at CERAP/Université Jésuite in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Prior to his time at CERAP, Bado was a Southern Voices Network (SVN) Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.. in 2015. He was also a visiting researcher at Yale University during the 2014-2015 academic year, and the 2017-2018 Anna and Donald Waite Endowed Chair at Creighton University in Omaha, USA. His research interests include democracy, ethnic pluralism, conflict analysis, forced migration, electoral processes in conflict-ridden societies, and foreign aid in Africa. His publications have appeared in the Journal of International Migration and Integration, the Journal of Modern African Studies, Mediterranean Politics, Revue Études, Revue Relations, Débats-Courrier d’Afrique de l’Ouest, and La Civiltà Cattolica. In addition, he has contributed chapters to several books; in 2015 he edited a book titled Dynamiques des guerres civiles en Afrique: Une approche holiste, Paris: L’Harmattan. He is the author of Dignity across Borders: Forced Migration and Christian Social Ethics, Denver (Colorado): Outskirts Press, 2010; La citoyenneté mondiale et l’écocitoyenneté dans le context de la crise sanitaire à COVID-19, Abidjan: Editions du CERAP, 2022. He obtained his Ph.D. in political science from Laval University in Canada in 2016.

Cedric de Coning is a Research Professor with the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) Center on UN and Global Governance, where he coordinates the Effectiveness of Peace Operations Network (EPON) and leads the Climate-related Peace and Security Risk (CPSR) project. He is also a Senior Advisor for the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) where he is the Managing Editor of the African Journal of Conflict Resolution and Chief Editor of ACCORD’s COVID-19 Conflict and Resilience Monitor. He holds a PhD from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch. His research focusses on strengthening the resilience and sustainability of social-ecological systems under pressure from climate change, conflict and other stressors. He has served in a number of advisory capacities for the African Union and United Nations, including on the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board for the Peacebuilding Fund and as an advisor to the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for the Peace Fund.

Stephen Del Rosso (ex-officio) is director of international peace and security at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, where his work focuses on a range of issues including peacebuilding, nuclear security, and the dynamics of global power. He was director of programs at the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations from 1996 to 1999 and managed the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Global Security program for almost six years. A former career diplomat, Del Rosso served nearly ten years in the U.S. Foreign Service with overseas assignments in Central America and the Caribbean. In Washington, he served in the Operations Center and on the Executive Secretariat staff of Secretary of State George Shultz, as program coordinator of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and as arms control legislative management officer and director of the Office of Legislative Management. He was also a Presidential Management Intern in the international affairs division at NASA, news producer for the Voice of America, and staff assistant to British Member of Parliament Julian Critchley. Del Rosso holds a PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania; an MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where he was an Earhart Fellow; a diploma in international studies from the Bologna Center of Johns Hopkins SAIS; and a BA from Tufts University. He serves on several not-for-profit boards and is a member of various international affairs–related membership organizations.

Dereje Feyissa Dori holds a doctorate in social anthropology from Martin-Luther University in Halle, Germany. He was a Research Fellow at Osaka University in Japan; the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, and Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, both in Germany. Dereje has worked as a research professor at the International Law and Policy Institute (ILPI) and was attached to ILPI’s Centre for African Studies as the Africa Research Director. He served as the Senior Research Advisor to the Life and Peace Institute (LPI), Horn of Africa and Ethiopia Programs. Dereje has taught in several universities, including, Haramaya (formerly named, Alemaya), and Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. Other include, Martin Luther and Bayreuth Universities in Germany and Osaka University in Japan. He was also an APN (African Peacebuilding Network) Individual Grant Recipient in 2016. Dereje is currently an adjunct associate professor on the PhD program at the Centre for Federal and Governance Studies, Addis Ababa University, a Co-Investigator (CI) for the Ethiopia-South Africa Migration Corridor as part of the UK-based Migration for Development and Equality (MIDEQ) South-South Migration Research Hub, a Co-I for the GLOW research project (Global Norms and Violence against Women in Ethiopia), hosted by the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)and a member of the Advisory Board of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). Dereje has published extensively on a wide range of topics from ethnicity, ethnic federalism and conflict; borders and borderlands; religion and politics; pastoralism; the political economy of development; migration and transnationalism, to violent extremism and the response(s) to it. He is the author and co-editor of several books, including, Borders and Borderlands as Resources in the Horn of Africa (London: James Currey, 2010), Playing different games: the paradox of the identification strategies of the Anuak and Nuer in the Gambella region of Ethiopia (New York and London: Berghahn Books, 2011), and, Ethiopia in the Wake of Political Reform (Los Angeles: Tsehai Publishers, 2020). He has also authored over fifteen articles in peer-reviewed journals and over thirty chapters for edited volumes. Dereje has also consulted for international organizations such as the World Bank; DFID, UNDP, UNICEF, and EU-TF/REF.

Fiifi Edu-Afful is a Senior Research Fellow and the Deputy Program Head of the Peace Support Operations Programme at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC). He was an Adjunct Lecturer at the Department of Political Science at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. He also serves as a Faculty Member on the MA Program in Defence and International Politics at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC). He has nearly 10 years’ experience authoring, teaching and facilitating on conflict, peace and security. Between 2013 and 2014, he served as an Advisory Team Member for the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) on the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN peacekeeping. Furthermore, he has also served as a lead facilitator and consultant for the African Centre for the Study & Research on Terrorism (ACSRT/CAERT) and has been a specialist on KAIPTC courses on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) in Fragile, Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations. He is a 2013 laureate for the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Dakar Senegal. He is currently undertaking research on inclusive peacebuilding and peacekeeping exit frameworks, Domestic Security Implication of UN peacekeeping and improving Response Capacities to Terrorism in Peacekeeping Theatres.

Henrietta Nyamnjoh is a researcher with the South-South Migration, Inequality and Development Hub at the University of Cape Town. She holds an MPhil degree in African Studies/Development Studies and Doctor of Philosophy both from Leiden University. Her research within the hub focuses on Childhood migration and Inequalities, to understand the levels of inequality faced by unaccompanied Ethiopian Children during their migration journey and in the host country. She has researched extensively on female migrants and recently completed a study titled ‘Migrant Margins: City-Making Across Durable Borders’ which explores the everyday lives of Congolese women. Before this, she also did more research on childhood, focusing on the left-behind children of Cameroonian economic migrants in Cape Town. Her research interests include migration and mobility, transnational studies, and migration and health. Additionally, she is also interested in understanding religion in the context of migration. Henrietta has researched and published widely on migration, transnational studies, migrants’ economy and everyday lives, food and migration, religion in the context of migration and Hometown associations.

Usman A. Tar is a professor of political science and defence studies and endowed Chair of Defence and Security Studies at the Nigeria Defence Academy. He is also the Director of the Academy’s Centre for Defence Studies and Documentation (CDSD). Formerly, Associate Research Fellow at John and Elnora Ferguson Centre for Africa Studies (JEFCAS), University of Bradford, UK. He was also an assistant professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations and Director of Postgraduate Studies at the University of Kurdistan-Hewler, Northern Iraq.

Professor Tar obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in peace and conflict studies from the University of Bradford, United Kingdom. At the University of Bradford, he was involved in a number of project including the Alan and Nesta Ferguson Trust-funded Programme on Working for Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa worth £1.75 million to develop peace and conflict studies curricula for different African universities and colleges; develop human rights peace education and democratic governance capacity building programmes for military and security forces in post-conflict societies in Africa; develop a new MA/postgraduate Diploma in African Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Bradford, to introduce new research cluster in human security in Africa (with a focus on poverty alleviation, HIV/AIDS, security sector reform, governance, and democratisation) among others. He also participated in a number of DelPHE/DfID-funded capacity building projects at the University of Kurdistan-Hawler, Iraq. 

Currently, at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Prof. Tar is Principal Investigator of a TETFUND-funded project (worth USD 13,700) titled Defence Transformation and Consolidation of Democracy in Nigeria domiciled at the Centre for Defence Studies and Documentation. The Project conducted a comprehensive study of major reforms in the Armed Forces of Nigeria that will lead to enhanced democratic consolidation. He is also Principal Investigator to a project titled Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Nigeria worth USD 208,000 funded by the Nigerian Victims Support Fund (VSF). The Project engages commissioned researchers to investigate the complex dimensions of Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria.

Prof. Tar was a Member of the Nigerian Presidential Committee to Review the National Defence Policy (NNDP), November 2014 to May 2015. Currently, he is a member of the Federal Ministry of Defence Think Tank to monitor threats to National Defence and Security in Nigeria. Prof Tar has supervised over 200 research projects at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at different universities across Africa, Europe and Middle East. Prof Tar is the author of The Politics of Neoliberal Democracy in Africa (London/New York: IB Tauris, 2009); Editor of Globalization in Africa: Perspectives on Development, Security, and the Environment (Lexington Books, Lanham MD, USA; Editor, Defence Transformation and the Consolidation of Democracy in Nigeria (Kaduna: Academy Publishers, 2018). His also edited The Routledge Handbook of Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency in Africa ((Routledge, London, 2020); The Palgrave Handbook of Small Arms and Conflict in Africa (Palgrave-Macmillan, London, forthcoming); and New Architecture for Regional Security in Africa: Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin (Lexington Books, Lanham MD, USA, 2020).

Prof Tar is also a consultant for the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD, Nigeria), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP, Nigeria) and Konrad Adaneur Stiftung (German Development Fund). He is also a Resource Person to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); National Defence College (NDC); National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS); Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC); Nigeria Army Resource Center (NARC); Center for Democratic and Practice (Mambayya House, Bayero University Kano); Nigeria Institute for International Affairs (NIIA); Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR). He has also served as visiting professor and external examiner to several institutions of higher learning in Nigeria including Ahmadu Bello University Zaria; American University in Nigeria, Yola; Federal University Kashere, Gombe State; University of Abuja; Baze University, Abuja; and University of Jos.

Rawia Tawfik is an associate professor at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in politics from the University of Oxford. She was a visiting research fellow at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and the Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA), and a researcher at the German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) in Bonn. Her research interests include, African development, regional integration, and resource-based conflicts, especially conflicts over transboundary rivers in Africa, and the Nile basin in particular. Her work on these issues have appeared in leading international peer-reviewed journals, including African Studies, Water Alternatives, Water International, Water Policy, and The International Spectator: Italian Journal of International Affairs. Rawia has also contributed chapters on regional security complexes, Nile hydropolitics, and foreign policy of African regional powers, to several edited books, including, Foreign Policy in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Security, Diplomacy and Trade, edited by Adekeye Adebajo and Kudrat Virk (London and New York: IB Tauris, 2017); and, the Routledge Handbook on Middle East Security, edited by Anders Jagerskog, Michael Schulz and Ashok Swain (London and New York: Routledge, 2019). She was a recipient of the APN Individual Research Grant in 2017, and the African Studies Association (ASA) Presidential Fellowship in 2018. She is an associate editor of the Review of Economics and Political Science, a peer-reviewed open access journal by Emerald Publishing Services on behalf of Cairo University.