Tshepo Gwatiwa, PhD is a lecturer in the Department of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is also a Research Associate, leading the Diplomacy, Defence, and Security program, at the African Centre for the Study of the United States (ACSUS) at the University of the Witwatersrand. Prior to this, he was a lecturer at the University of Botswana and a former adjunct lecturer at the Botswana Defence Force’s Defence Command and Staff College (BDF-DCSC). His research interests include African security; intelligence reform and governance; the role of foreign militaries in Africa; Africa in the international political economy; and African agency in international politics. He is the author of The African Union and African Agency in International Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021/2). He is also the co-editor of Expanding US Military Command in Africa: Elites, Networks, and Grand Strategy (Routledge, 2021). He has also contributed several book chapters and published a couple of journal articles along with those research interests.

He holds a PhD in International Relations/Political Science from the Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies) in Geneva, Switzerland