Edward Affainie is a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Ghana Army (Infantry Corps) and a graduate of the Command and Staff College, Jaji-Kaduna, Nigeria, and the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College. He holds an MSc in Security and Risk Management from the University of Leicester, UK. He previously worked at the United Nations Headquarters where he moderated memorandum of understanding between the United Nations and Member states and facilitated the deployment of troops for peacekeeping missions. He has served in various capacities in different peacekeeping missions in countries such as Cambodia, Southern Lebanon, Western Sahara, Liberia, Sudan and South Sudan. He is currently the Deputy Security Adviser for the United Nations Department of Safety and Security in Zimbabwe and a PhD student at POLSIS. His extensive length of professional experience as a military officer and an international civil servant contributes to his research interests.