Author

Nic Cheeseman

NIC CHEESEMAN is Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham. Formerly the Director of the African Studies Centre at Oxford, he is a co-author, with Jonathan Fisher, of Authoritarian Africa: Repression, Resistance, and the Power of Ideas.

By this author

The Illiberal International

Authoritarian Cooperation Is Reshaping the Global Order

Nic Cheeseman, Matías Bianchi, and Jennifer Cyr

Jan/Feb 2026

Can Ethiopia Survive?

What Might Happen If Abiy Ahmed Falls

Nic Cheeseman and Yohannes Woldemariam

November 5, 2021

Don’t Call Nigeria a Failed State

It Is More Resilient and Inclusive Than Ever, Despite Rising Insecurity

Fola Aina and Nic Cheeseman

May 5, 2021

Ethiopia’s Perilous Propaganda War

Efforts to Control Information Are Only Hardening the Country’s Divisions

Nic Cheeseman and Yohannes Woldemariam

April 8, 2021

Abiy Ahmed’s Crisis of Legitimacy

War and Ethnic Discrimination Could Be the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s Undoing

Nic Cheeseman and Yohannes Woldemariam

December 30, 2020

Ethiopia’s Dangerous Slide Toward Civil War

Conflict in Africa’s Second Most Populous Nation Bodes Ill for the Continent

Nic Cheeseman and Yohannes Woldemariam

November 12, 2020

The Retreat of African Democracy

The Autocratic Threat Is Growing

Nic Cheeseman and Jeffrey Smith

January 17, 2019

Why Kenya’s Supreme Court Can’t Solve the Country’s Electoral Crisis

It Lacks Sufficient Enforcement Capacity

Nic Cheeseman, Gabrielle Lynch, and Justin Willis

November 15, 2017

Kenya’s Electoral Impasse

The Roots of the Current Standoff

Nic Cheeseman, Gabrielle Lynch, and Justin Willis

October 25, 2017

Were the Kenyan Elections Conducted Successfully?

What Worked and What Didn’t

Nic Cheeseman, Gabrielle Lynch, and Justin Willis

August 15, 2017