Post-War Regimes and State Reconstruction in Liberia and Sierra Leone

Amadu Sesay, Professor of International Relations at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, attended the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was Director of the CODESRIA Child and Youth Institute in 2003; Claude Ake Visiting Professor, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, University of Uppsala, 2005; and Visiting Professor, Centre d’Etudes Afrique Noire, Bordeaux, October-November 2006. Professor Sesay headed the Department of International Relations, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, from July 2000 to August 2006. His research interests include African politics, security and conflict studies and he has authored several books, monographs, book chapters and journal articles in these areas. His most recent publications are: Small Arms and Light Weapons Proliferation and Collection in the Niger Delta, Nigeria (2006), edited with Antonia Simbine, and Does One Size Fit All? The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission Revisited (Nordic Africa Institute 2007).

Charles Ukeje is a Reader in International Relations at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He won the Mary Kingsley Zochonis Lecture Award of the Royal African Society in 2004 and, the following year, was the Leventis Cooperation Visiting Research Scholar at the Centre for African Studies, SOAS, UK. He was on sabattical, from September 2007, as Lecturer in African Politics and Development at the Department of International Development, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. His most recent major work is a coedited book titled The Crisis of the State and Regionalism in West Africa: Identity, Citizenship and Conflict (CODESRIA 2005).

Osman Gbla holds a doctorate from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, where he also served as Head of the Department of Political Science and Acting Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law. He is also the founder of the Centre for Development and Security Analysis (CEDSA) in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Dr Gbla was one of the lead consultants that prepared the Sierra Leone Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the Sierra Leone Vision 2025. His research interests include conflict and post-conflict peace building, governance, regional security and security sector reform, focusing especially on West Africa. He has published extensively in these areas and is a member of many research networks, including the Nordic Africa Institute Programme on Post-Conflict Transitions in Africa, and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) project on Military Expenditures.

Olawale Ismail recently earned a doctorate from the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, UK, after receiving a Masters degree in International Relations from Cambridge University (2001) and a Bachelors degree from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria (1999). He is currently a Research Associate of the Project on Youth Vulnerability and Exclusion in Africa with the Conflict, Security and Development Group, International Policy Institute at King’s College, London. Dr. Ismail’s research interests and expertise include DDR and post-war reconstruction, security sector reform, youth and child soldiers, political violence and terrorism, conflict and security analysis, and military expenditure.