Chris Kwaja

Lecturer, Centre for Peace and Security Studies, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Chris Kwaja, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the Centre for Conflict Management and Peace Studies, Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria. He is also a Visiting Research Fellow with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Abuja, Nigeria. He holds a Doctorate Degree in International Relations and Strategic Studies. He was an exchange fellow of Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts, U.S.A and is an alumnus of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Switzerland. Kwaja has been the recipient of several research awards such as the CODESRIA Governance Institute on Private Military and Security Companies, 2009; United Nations Mandated University for Peace Doctoral Research Award, 2009; as well as the Peace Fellow Award of the West Africa Research Centre, 2010. From 2011 to 2015, he served as the Director General for Research and Planning as well as Honourable Commissioner for Local Governments and Chieftancy Affairs in the Governor’s Office of Plateau State, Nigeria. Kwaja has over 50 scholarly publications to his credit in journals, books, monographs series, technical reports, policy, and security briefs among others. His research focuses on the politics of identity in Africa, the privatization of security, democratization, conflict and peace studies, as well as security sector reform in transition societies. In 2014, Kwaja was part of the Humanitarian Assessment Mission of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to Plateau State, which was the first comprehensive humanitarian mission conducted by the NHRC in Nigeria. Most recently, in 2016 he was commissioned as the Zonal Coordinator for the North East region (Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe States), to conduct the National Survey on Small Arms, Experiences of Arms Violence and Perception on Security in Nigeria, by the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) / Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PRESCOM). 

SELECT PUBLICATIONS AND RESEARCH

1. Kwaja, A.M.C, Olivieri DJ, Boland S, et al. Civilian perception of the role of the military in Nigeria’s 2014 Ebola outbreak and health-related responses in the North East region. BMJ Mil Health. Published Online First: 05 February 2021. doi: 10.1136/bmjmilitary-2020-001696
2. Kwaja, A.M.C. The Role of Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) in Post-Conflict Rehabilitation: Lessons from Liberia. NUST Journal of International Peace & Stability, Vol. I (1), 2017.
3. Kwaja, A.M.C. From Combat to Non-Combat Action: Private Military and Security Companies and Humanitarian Assistance Operations in Darfur, Sudan. African Security Review, Vol. 24, Issue, 2, 2015.
4. Kwaja, A.M.C. ECOWAS and Public Health Emergencies: The Case of EBOLA. West Africa Insight, Vol.4, No.7, 2015.
5. Kwaja, A.M.C. In Search of Humanitarian Action Plan: Combating Desertification in the Sahel Region of West Africa. West Africa Insight, Vol.4, No.4, February, 2013.
6. Kwaja, A.M.C. Nigeria and Peace Support Operations in an Era of Outsourcing. Africa Peace and Conflict Journal, Vol.5, No.1, 2011.
7. Kwaja, A.M.C. Private Military and Security Companies and Peacebuilding in West Africa, in Gumedze, S (eds) From Market for Force to Market for Peace: Private Military and Security Companies in Peacekeeping Operations, Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Monograph, No.183, 2011.