Folahanmi Aina

Fola Aina is a young professional and international security analyst and researcher. He completed a second Masters’ degree in African Studies at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford, in 2017, having earlier obtained a Masters’ degree in International Development Policy from Seoul National University, South Korea in 2013. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Political Science from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. He is currently a doctoral fellow in Leadership Studies, with reference to security and development at the African Leadership Centre, King’s College London.

His research interests include leadership in national security policy decision making, international security and grand strategy, with a regional focus on the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin. He has worked as an Independent Consultant for the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars’ Africa Programme, Washington DC, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), London to mention a few.

A recipient of multiple awards, in 2016, he was awarded a Mandela Washington Fellowship as a youth leader by the US State Department and in 2019 he was invited as a speaker and a Next Generation Delegate on the Global Food Security Symposium organised by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, USA. In 2021, he was awarded the General Lamine Cissé Young Researcher Award by Partners West Africa, Senegal. Fola was a non- residential Frédéric Bastiat Fellow in Public Policy at the Mercatus Centre, George Mason University, Washington DC, U.S.A and a non-residential Hans. J Morgenthau Fellow on Grand Strategy, at the Notre Dame International Security Center, University of Notre Dame. He is also an alumnus of the Summer Workshop on the Analysis of Military Strategy and Operations, organised by Columbia University, New York, U.S.A.