Thomas Mandrup

Thomas Mandrup is an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College, Denmark, an extraordinary associate professor at the Faculty for Military Science, Stellenbosch University and an external lecturer at the Centre for African Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has published articles and book chapters and co-edited several books on issues related to African security governance and South African foreign policy. His three latest co-edited books were entitled Towards Good Order at Sea – African Experiences (published by Sun Media in February 2015), The BRICS and Coexistence – An Alternative Vision of World Order (published by Routledge in October 2014), and On Military Culture: Theory, Practice and African Armed Forces (published by Cape Town University Press 1 October 2013).

He received his PhD in international relations (2007) from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, for his dissertation entitled 'Africa: Salvation or Despair? A study of the post-apartheid South African government's use of the military tool in its foreign policy conduct from 1994 to 2006'.

Prof. Mandrup was a doctoral candidate attached to the Danish Institute of International Studies (DIIS) in the Department for Development Studies in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has previously worked as a consultant on South African foreign policy for Chatham House in London as part of an FCO/MOD commissioned project on South Africa and as an analyst on African issues in the Danish Defence Intelligence Service. He is an editorial advisory board member of the Scientia Militaria, South African Journal of Military Studies. Prof. Mandrup's primary research field is African security governance, and he has extensive fieldwork experience in DR Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Sudan.

Participating in a larger research project looking at unconventional threats to multinational peace missions in cooperation with the Institute for Security Studies. The first case study is Somalia, and the work will lead to a report and recommendations on improving future pre-mission training. As part of the focus on multilateral peace missions, SIGLA and Prof. Mandrup in January 2019 organising the sixth consecutive roundtable in cooperation with the Danish Embassy in Pretoria – the next roundtable will focus on UNSC Resolution 1325 and South Africa's position as a member of the UNSC on gender and sexual exploitation and abuse in peace missions. A policy paper on peace and sustainability will be published shortly in the same seminar series.

Prof. Mandrup recently co-authored a report on the Effectiveness of the UN Mission (EPON) in the DRC and Darfur, based on a recent field visit to Eastern DRC. The report is part of a larger study, which will be conducted for the next four years under the leadership of the Norwegian Foreign Policy Institute (NUPI). The EPON project is conducted in cooperation with the UN and the AU.