Niagalé Bagayoko (PhD) is a political scientist. Her dissertation completed at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Science Po) in Paris was awarded the first prize of the French Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale (IHEDN). She since has done extensive field research on security systems in African Francophone countries, Western security policies in Africa (France, United States, European Union) and African conflict-management mechanisms, focusing on the interface between security and development. A Research Fellow at the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD, France) and then at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) of the University of Sussex, she also taught at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Science Po) in Paris. From 2010 to 2015, she headed the “peacekeeping and peacebuilding programme” at the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF). She is now the Chair of the African Security Sector Network (ASSN). She frequently appears in numerous media with an international audience, both television (France 24, TV5 Monde, Deutsch Welle, VOA, Africanews, etc.), radio (France Culture, RFI, BBC, etc.) and the press. written (Le Monde, le Point, The Africa Report, etc.).