Biography
Tony Chafer is Emeritus Professor of African and French Studies. He gained his PhD, on decolonisation in French West Africa, from the University of London in 1993 and was Director of the University of Portsmouth's Centre for European and International Studies Research from 2001-2016. His main research interests lie in French African policy in the colonial and post-colonial periods and he has recently been working mainly on French military and security policy. He has received funding for a series of research projects on French military and security policy in the western Sahel.
He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Institute of Modern Languages Research, was a member of the Area Studies panel for REF2014 and Deputy Chair of the Area Studies panel for REF2021. He has acted as a consultant to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on French African policy and was president of the UK Council for Area Studies Associations (UKCASA) 2015-2019. He is currently its Vice-President. He is a founding member of the West Africa Peace and Security Network (WAPSN) and a member of the editorial boards of Modern and Contemporary France and the Journal of Contemporary European Studies.
Research interests
Research Interests
• Franco-African relations
• 'Francophone' Africa
Research Groups
• Decolonising Spaces
• Peace Conflict & Security
Discipline Areas
• Area Studies
Research outputs
2024
Understanding the performance, survival and collapse of African ad hoc military coalitions
Chafer, T., Cumming, G., Van der Velde, R.
26 Jun 2024, In: African Security, 28p.
Research output: Article
France’s strategic failure in Mali: a postcolonial disutility of force?
Chafer, T., Bertrand, E., Stoddard, E.
7 Feb 2024, In: RUSI Analysis
Research output: Article
2023
(Dis)utilities of force in a postcolonial context: explaining the strategic failure of the French-led intervention in Mali
Bertrand, E., Chafer, T., Stoddard, E.
29 Nov 2023, In: Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding
Research output: Article
Routledge handbook of francophone Africa
Chafer, T., Majumdar, M. A.
24 Oct 2023,
Research output: Book
2022
Understanding the public response: a strategic narrative perspective on France’s Sahelian operations
Cumming, G., Van der Velde, R., Chafer, T.
2 Mar 2022, In: European Security, 23p.
Research output: Article
2021
Beyond Françafrique — the state of relations between France and Africa
Chafer, T.
19 Nov 2021,
Research output: Chapter (peer-reviewed)
2020
Overcoming area studies' policy-relevant research problem: the case of the Sahel
Chafer, T., Stoddard, E., Toltica, S.
22 Oct 2020, In: New Area Studies. 1, 1, p. 25-40, 16p.
Research output: Article
Beyond Françafrique — the state of relations between France and Africa
Chafer, T.
22 Oct 2020,
Research output: Chapter (peer-reviewed)
France in the Sahel: a case of the reluctant multilateralist?
Chafer, T.
3 Aug 2020, In: The Conversation
Research output: Article
France’s interventions in Mali and the Sahel: a historical institutionalist perspective
Chafer, T., Cumming, G., van der Velde, R.
1 Jun 2020, In: The Journal of Strategic Studies. 43, 4, p. 482-507, 26p.
Research output: Article