Overview

Leadership plays a significant role in both development and security processes and outcomes. The Leadership Studies with reference to Security & Development PhD offers the opportunity to delve into the interaction between the leadership and security-development nexus, with a focus on developing countries.

This programme, through the African Leadership Centre, provides the academic space, support and training to interrogate leadership, security and development, particularly at the conceptual level. Students can draw on academic expertise in a range of disciplines, and supervision may be provided from within the African Leadership Centre or jointly with other faculty within King's.

Graduates are well-suited for academic employment, in addition to private sector consulting organisations, NGOs and government employment in the UK, Africa and internationally.

For the Joint PhD in Leadership and Security Studies with the University of Pretoria all the relevant information can be found in our Student Guidelines for Joint-PhD in Leadership and Security Studies. 

Information is current, but staff members can change.

Course Detail

The Leadership Studies with reference to Security & Development is delivered through the African Leadership Centre (ALC). Below is a snapshot of our research and partnerships:

Recent publications

• Security Sector Transformation in Africa
• Mugabe and the Politics of Security in Zimbabwe
• Women, Peace and Security: Translating Policy into Practice
• Deep History and International Security: Social Conditions and Competition, Militancy and Violence in West Africa
• The Development Planning Era and Developmental Statehood: The Pursuit of Structural Transformation in Nigeria
• Islamic Radicalization and Political Violence in Nigeria
• The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission: Problems and Prospects??
• Security in Post-Civil War Democratic Transitions in Africa
• Natural Resource Management and Human Security in Africa
• BRICS and African International Organisations

Current research areas and topics:

• Leadership and peacebuilding: conceptual relationships and the role of outliers
• The political economy of peacebuilding in Africa
• Reframing narratives of peace and statebuilding in Africa: The role of political settlements [case studies: Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Sierra Leone]
• China’s Role in African Development: transforming development lessons into development catalysts
• The practice of leadership: analysing practitioners’ reflections on peacebuilding – action research project with leading peacemakers in African conflicts
• Leadership and security in Nigeria
• Resilience innovation: studying resilience to violence and insecurity in Africa

Partner organisations:
The ALC has a longstanding partnership with the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya. The institute has partnered with the Social Science Research Council of New York, University of Pretoria South Africa and the University of Yaounde, Cameroon.

The ALC also has long-term collaborations with:

• African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town
• African Security Sector Network (ASSN)
• African Women's Development Fund
• African Union
• Carnegie Corporation of New York
• Centre for Policy Research and Dialogue in Ethiopia
• Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS)
• East African Community (EAC)
• Geneva Centre for Security Policy
• International Institute for Strategic Studies
• International Peace Institute, New York
• Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
• Open Society Institute, New York,
• Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA)
• Southern African Development Community (SADC)
• United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations

Head of group/division

Wale Ismail

Global Institutes Lead

Professor Christophe Jaffrelot