Joseph Asunka is Chief Executive Officer of Afrobarometer, a pan-African survey research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, the economy and social issues across the continent. He has served in this role since April 2021. He previously worked as Program Officer in the Global Development and Population Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as Lecturer in Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and as Program Officer at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development, where he also served as Afrobarometer’s data manager.
Joseph is a political scientist whose work focuses on democracy, governance, elections, distributive politics, migration and citizen participation in Africa. His research and leadership have contributed to strengthening public-opinion research and evidence-based policymaking across the continent. His work has appeared in journals including British Journal of Political Science, Research and Politics, and Population Research and Policy Review.
He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as degrees in Statistics and Computer Science and in Economics from the University of Ghana.
Areas of expertise: democracy, governance, social justice, civic engagement, political participation.
You may also be interested in
Rita Manchanda is Adjunct Professor at Chanakya National Law School, Patna. She previously served for fifteen years as Executive Director of the South Asia Forum for Human Rights in Kathmandu. She has also worked as a consultant with UN Women, a gender advisor to the Commonwealth Technical Fund, a founding member of the Women’s Regional Network, a board member of the International Journal of Transitional Justice and the Sanchal Foundation, and co-chair of the Pakistan India Forum for Peace and Democracy.
Rita is a feminist scholar, author and advocate for human rights, peace and social justice in South Asia. Her work has paid particular attention to the rights of vulnerable and marginalised groups, including women and religious and ethnic minorities. She has made major contributions to debates on gender, security and foreign policy through publications such as Women, War and Peace in South Asia: Beyond Victimhood to Agency (2001), Women and the Politics of Peace in South Asia: Narratives of Militarisation, Power and Justice (2017), and “Difficult Encounters with the WPS Agenda in South Asia” (2020), among other books, articles and chapters.
Her research on gendered narratives of conflict and peacebuilding in Northeast India and Kashmir has been especially influential, and she has developed important frameworks for peace audits and empirical research on peace processes in South Asia. More recently, her work has focused on forced displacement, including internally displaced persons and refugees in the region.
Areas of expertise: gender, conflicts, peace, militarization, South Asia, human rights, identity struggles, democracy, refugees.
You may also be interested in
Ja Ian Chong is Associate Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore and a non-resident scholar with Carnegie China. He previously worked with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, and the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore, and was a Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program Fellow.
Ian’s work spans international relations, comparative politics, and political sociology, with a particular focus on security issues related to China and East Asia. He closely examines the interplay of social movements, politics, foreign policy, and coercive diplomacy in the region. His research has received support from the East-West Center, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, the Sasakawa Foundation, the Singapore Ministry of Education, the Social Science Research Council, and the Woodrow Wilson Circle of Fellows.
He is the author of External Intervention and the Politics of State Formation: China, Indonesia, and Thailand, 1893–1952 (Cambridge University Press 2012), which received the 2013–14 Best Book Award from the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association. His work has also appeared in journals including The China Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, International Security, and Security Studies.
Areas of expertise: security, nationalism, contentious politics, coercive diplomacy, external intervention, and conflict.
You may also be interested in
Paula Miraglia is Founder and CEO of Momentum–Journalism & Tech, a global initiative focused on the relationship between big tech platforms and the news industry. She is also Co-founder and Publisher of Gama Revista and previously spent eight years directing Nexo Jornal, which she co-founded.
Paula is a social scientist and media entrepreneur dedicated to building sustainable, high-integrity news ecosystems in the digital age. She has served as a consultant for the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, and in 2013 she was recognised as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World for Reducing Gun Violence for her work with international organisations. Paula currently serves on the boards of the Center for News Technology and Innovation, the International Press Institute, the Brazilian Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Data Privacy Brasil, and Lighthouse Reports.
She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of São Paulo and is a Sulzberger Fellow at Columbia University.
Areas of expertise: media, technology, digital communication, artificial intelligence, social change, democracy and governance.
You may also be interested in
Dr. David Darchiashvili is a professor in international relations, history and regional studies at Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. Until recently he was also a director of the Center for Russian Studies – a Georgian non-governmental think tank. Born in 1960, Darchiahsvili graduated from the history department of the Tbilisi State University in 1982. Defending two doctoral theses – one in History (1991) and another in Political science (2002), Darchiashvili had number of research fellowships: 2002-2003 Fulbright scholarship, at the Johns Hopkins University, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, US, being one of those.
Through years, he was a leading researcher at the Institute of Caucasus Studies of Peace, Democracy and Development, Tbilisi, Georgia, the head of the parliamentary research department, director of the Open Society Georgia Foundation. In 2008-2016 Darchiashvili was a member of the Georgian Parliament, focusing on legislative activity on the issues of European Integration and National Security. In 2010-2012 he was heading the Georgian delegation in the EU Eastern Partnership (Euronest) inter-parliamentary assembly.
David Darchiashvili authored and co-authored a number of books and academic articles on Georgia’s modern history, security problems and civil-military relations. Among those are: “Georgia: The Search for the State Security”, Caucasus Working Papers, CISAC, Stanford University (1997); “Georgian Security Problems and Policies,” in The South Caucasus: A Challenge for the EU, Chaillot Papers, Institute for Security Studies (Paris, 2003); “Soviet Path Dependency as an Impediment of the Democratization in Georgia,” in Modernization in Georgia (Interdisciplinary Studies No. 18, Peter Lang, Bern, 2018); “Russo-Georgian War of August 2008 – Clash of Ideologies and National Projects in the Era of Hybrid Warfare,” Estonian Journal of Military Studies, 7 2018); Darchiashvili, David, Ronald Mangum, “Georgian Civil-Military Relations: Hostage to Confrontational Politics,” Caucasus Survey, Volume 7, Issue 1, 2019; Darchiashvili, D., and Grozovsky, B. “Georgia’s Backsliding from Democracy. Is the Russian Path Dependency on the rise?,” (Eastern European Centre for Multiparty Democracy (2023); Darchiashvili, D., and Samarganishvili, Z., “Trajectory of Polish and Georgian National Projects: Case a for Comparative Nationalism Studies,” Ilia State University (2025) (in Georgian).
On various occasions, David Darchiashvili participated in networking with American, German, Finnish, Polish, British, Armenian, French and Austrian Universities and think-tanks.
You may also be interested in
Gen (rtd) Martin Luther Agwai CFR GCOR AFM NAM GSS is a retired four-star general of the Nigerian Army who served as Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Staff, holding Nigeria’s highest military appointments. He had a long and distinguished career spanning tactical, operational, and strategic leadership both in Nigeria and internationally, and is a committed advocate for peace, stability, and democratic values in Nigeria and across Africa.
During his military service, General Agwai held senior command, training and diplomatic roles, including Nigerian Defence Adviser covering Southern Africa (Harare, Zimbabwe), Director of Military Training at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Deputy Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), and Deputy Military Adviser at UN Headquarters in New York. He also served as Force Commander of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and became the first Joint Force Commander of the AU–UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), one of the largest peacekeeping missions of its time.
Following his retirement from active service, he has held academic and leadership positions, including Visiting Professor at the African Leadership Centre, King’s College London, and Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Calabar. He currently serves as Director of the Olusegun Obasanjo Leadership Institute in Nigeria.
He is a graduate of the Nigerian Defence Academy, the British Army Staff College (Camberley), the U.S. Army Armor School, and the U.S. National Defense University in Washington, DC, where he earned a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy and was later inducted into the institution’s Hall of Fame. He is a recipient of numerous military, national and international honours, including Nigeria’s Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) and a Sierra Leone National Honour the Grand Commander of the Order of the Rokel (GCOR).
You may also be interested in
Rocío San Miguel is a lawyer with postgraduate studies in security and defence, a human rights activist, and president of Control Ciudadano para la Seguridad, la Defensa y la Fuerza Armada Nacional, a Venezuelan armed-forces oversight organisation.
In public service in her country, she has worked as an analyst and researcher for the National Security and Defence Council, Legal Advisor to the National Borders Council, Director General of the Office of the Ministry of Infrastructure, and Associate Advisor to the Centre for Advanced Military Studies.
San Miguel has been a professor of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights at Venezuela’s Naval War College, Air War College, and National Guard Military Academy. She has also taught Security Studies at the Universidad Metropolitana and lectured on the law of armed conflict at the Graduate Studies Centre of the Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences at the Universidad Central de Venezuela.
After two years of wrongful imprisonment (2024–2026), she is currently focused on the process of institutionalisation, coexistence, and democratic peace in Venezuela, developing proposals in the areas of security and human rights.
You may also be interested in
Dr. Risa Brooks is the Allis-Chalmers Professor of Political Science at Marquette University, a Fellow in the Future Security program at New America, and a Non-Resident Senior Associate in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Her current research primarily focuses on U.S. and comparative civil-military relations in democratic states, security forces/sectors and contentious politics. She also maintains a longstanding interest in the armed forces of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and in armed forces in non-democracies. Most recently, much of her research focuses on the role of the armed forces in eroding democracies and explores both how political leaders implicate the military in anti-democratic initiatives and how militaries variously respond in ways that both advance and impede democratic regression.
Dr. Brooks is the author and editor of several books, including “Shaping Strategy: The Civil-Military Politics of Strategic Assessment” (Princeton University Press). Her research has also appeared in leading journals including International Security, Annual Review of Political Science, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, Security Studies, Armed Forces & Society, Journal of Strategic Studies, European Journal of International Security, and Journal of Global Security Studies. Her scholarship often aims to bridge regional and subfield divides, especially in the study of civil-military relations. Currently she is working on a co-edited volume that examines patterns of politicization of the military in nine democracies around the globe.
Beyond academia, Dr. Brooks regularly speaks to audiences of practitioners, including military personnel from the U.S. and other militaries. She also engages with the public through podcasts, articles, and blog posts that have appeared in publications such as Foreign Affairs, Just Security, World Politics Review, Carnegie Middle East Center, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Her commentary on contemporary U.S. civil-military relations is regularly cited by journalists.
Dr. Brooks received her PhD from the University of California, San Diego, and has held positions as Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, and Senior Fellow at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
You may also be interested in
Paula Cristina Roque is an author, researcher, and analyst with extensive expertise in human rights, security, and surveillance in Africa. She is the current Executive Director of Intel Watch and has served as an advisor on Sub-Saharan Africa for the Crisis Management Initiative as well as a Senior Analyst for Southern Africa with the International Crisis Group (ICG).
Previously, she worked as a Senior External Advisor for the South Sudan-Centre for Strategic and Policy Studies and a Senior Researcher for the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). She has also served as the China in Africa Research Co-ordinator for the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIA), as a journalist in West Africa and the United Kingdom, and in 2020 founded a non-profit organisation Changes for Humanity that operates across the global South funding transformative community projects.
Paula holds a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Oxford, a MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Social Anthropology from the Instituto Superior de Ciencias do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE).
You may also be interested in
Through her research and publications, Dr. Natalie Sambhi is committed to helping people gain a more nuanced understanding of Indonesian civil-military relations, Indonesian defence policy and Southeast Asian security.
Natalie is Founder and Executive Director of Verve Research, an independent think tank focussed on the relationship between militaries and societies in Southeast Asia. Since 2020, she has been a Non-Resident Fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program, where she publishes on Indonesian foreign and defence policy as well as Southeast Asian affairs.
Natalie has a PhD from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, the Australian National University on the Indonesian military’s collective memory of its experiences in East Timor (1975–1999).
Natalie has previously been a Research Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre, and an Analyst and Managing Editor of ASPI’s blog, The Strategist at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). She has also worked at the Department of Defence and University of Canberra. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies) (Hons) from the University of Western Australia and a Master of Arts (International Relations) and Master of Diplomacy from the Australian National University. In May 2014 and in January 2016, Natalie was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) in Washington, DC where she researched Indonesian civil–military relations. Natalie has previously been involved with the Australian Institute of International Affairs ACT, having served on council; the US-based Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC) as a host of the podcast series Sea Control: Asia Pacific; and Bloggingheads.tv as a host for their international relations segment Foreign Entanglements. Her writing has appeared in Security Challenges journal, War On The Rocks, The Diplomat, The Interpreter and The National Interest.