Christopher Faulkner
Senior Fellow
Christopher M Faulkner is a Senior Fellow at Delphi Global Research Center. He is an assistant professor of national security affairs in the College of Distance Education at the U.S. Naval War College. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow with the National Security Affairs Department at NWC. Before joining NWC, he served as a postdoctoral researcher with the University of Central Florida and as a visiting assistant professor at Centre College. He earned his Ph.D. in security studies from the University of Central Florida and was a Minerva-Jennings Randolph Peace and Security Scholar with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). His research focuses on militant recruitment, private military companies, and civil-military relations.
Shaping the Security Landscape: How Russia and China Approach the Issue of Security in Africa
China and Russia have increasingly been grouped together as revisionist powers interested and intent on expanding influence across Africa. Both challenge Western political influence, cultivate relationships with authoritarian governments, and present themselves as alternatives to Western partnership models.
4/6/2026
Russia’s Hollow Promises: Mali’s Fuel Blockade Exposes the Myth of Moscow’s Power
Mali’s junta has been caught on the back foot by the al-Qaeda affiliate known as JNIM (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin) and by public opinion in the capital, Bamako, leading to a growing chorus of reports that Bamako might fall. Amongst a host of concerns, this outcome would mean that al-Qaeda would take de facto control of a key Sahelian state and could increase the pressure on Mali’s neighbors, Niger and Burkina Faso, to succumb as well.
11/12/2025