John Sunday Ojo is a Non-Resident Fellow at Orion Policy Institute and a postdoctoral research fellow within the Intelligence in the Global South (GLOBALINT) research group at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University, Netherlands. He earned his Ph.D. in Politics and Area Studies from the University of Portsmouth and an MA in Global Development from the University of Leeds. He also holds an MSc in Urban Management and Development, with a focus on the environment, climate change, and sustainability, from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and a BSc in Local Government Studies from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria.
His research primarily focuses on the political economy of armed conflict, encompassing Jihadist and non-Jihadi terrorist groups operating in the Sahelian belt and the Lake Chad Basin region. Additionally, his work addresses climate security, resource competition, and the terrorism nexus. Critical components of his research include counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations; the geopolitics of foreign military bases; state-centric intelligence agencies and the intelligence culture of non-state armed groups; and the impact of such engagements on African security. He has been featured in several media outlets, including the BBC and Firstpost TV.
