Dr. Ibrahim Sakawa Magara is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Coventry University’s Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR) and an Adjunct Lecturer at St. Paul’s University in Kenya). Magara holds a PhD in international politics from Loughborough University, in the UK and a Master of Arts degree from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa’s Hekima Institute of Peace Studies and International Relations in Kenya. Through a combination of theory and empirical data Magara’s PhD advances knowledge of security and peace regionalism in Africa through the case of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)-led peace process for South Sudan.

Magara’s work focuses on regional dimensions to peace and security in the Horn of Africa. Magara’s research work is interdisciplinary and covers elements of entanglements of proximate actors in political violence within the IGAD region, Africa’s (sub)regional bodies and mechanisms as agonistic spaces for contending ideas and practices of peace within broader shifting international politics, proxy wars and cross-border military alliances, regional perspectives to transnational organised crime, conflict spill-over effects, regionalisation of non-liberal or illiberal peace, practicalities and challenges to impartiality and neutrality in (sub)region-led multi-layered negotiations and the gendering of regional peace and security in Africa.

In 2021, Magara was a Policy Leader Fellow at the European University Institute’s School of Transnational Governance, in Italy. While at the EUI, Magara co-organised a workshop on international peace operations and made a presentation on lessons from regional approaches to peace and security in Africa. Also, Magara regularly published blogs at the EUIdeas such as:

The death of Magufuli and the rise of Suluhu: The significance of Suluhu’s presidency in Tanzania and beyond; Give war a chance? Ethiopia’s military action in Tigray and; The political crisis in Somalia and the resurgence of Al Shabaab, among others.

Besides academic qualifications and research interests, Magara has been a peace practitioner with 10 years of experience supporting and coordinating implementation of multi-faceted peace and justice programmes across Africa. Prior to taking up his PhD position in 2018, Magara was working for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) on a multi-country peace project that, among others, included local peace processes, cross-border peace-making and inter-religious dialogue, and action across many countries in Africa.

Contributing analyst to local and international Radio and TV media outlets, markedly the China Global Television Network (CGTN). Magara also comments on relevant topical issues including as a contributing analysist to journalistic interviews such as: Military scramble ‘mirrors Cold War’ as Russia, US and China vie for influence; China boosts military aid to Africa as concerns over Russia grow and The Joker's Hour in Africa.