Chris Kwaja is the country director for Nigeria at USIP. His research and policy work covers areas such as the politics of multilateralism in the context of global governance, the politics of identity in Africa, democratization and governance, and the privatization of security, human rights and humanitarian studies.

Prior to USIP, the U.N. Human Rights Council appointed Dr. Kwaja as the African representative to its working group on the use of mercenaries, where he was subsequently elected as the working group’s chairperson-rapporteur.

Previously, he was commissioned by the U.N. Development Programme to design an implementation strategy to address the challenges posed by violent extremism in northern Nigeria. Dr. Kwaja was also commissioned by Nigeria’s vice president to design the peacebuilding, governance and rule of law pillars of the country’s National Livestock Transformation Plan, which was unanimously adopted by the National Economic Council. Dr. Kwaja also contributed to the development of Nigeria’s medium-term national development plan as a member of the Nigerian government’s technical working group on defense, peace and security.

In Nigeria’s Plateau State, he served as director general of research and planning in the governor's office, as well as an honorable commissioner for local government and chieftancy affairs.

Dr. Kwaja has published over 100 scholarly, technical and policy works in journals, books, edited books, monographs series, technical reports, policy and security briefs, among others.

He holds a bachelor’s in political science and both a master’s and doctorate in international relations and strategic studies from the University of Jos in Nigeria.