Model Diplomacy
World101
Council of Councils
Think Global Health
The Trump administration leaves a legacy of confusion over cybersecurity issues with few positives.
About the Expert
Expert Bio
John Campbell is the Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. He is the author of the new book Nigeria and the Nation-State: Rethinking Diplomacy with the Postcolonial World, published December 2020, and writes the blog Africa in Transition. From 1975 to 2007, Campbell served as a U.S. Department of State Foreign Service officer. He served twice in Nigeria, as political counselor from 1988 to 1990, and as ambassador from 2004 to 2007. Campbell's additional overseas postings include Lyon, Paris, Geneva, and Pretoria. He also served as deputy assistant secretary for human resources, dean of the Foreign Service Institute's School of Language Studies, and director of the Office of UN Political Affairs.
From 2007 to 2008, he was a visiting professor of international relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was also a Department of State mid-career fellow at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Prior to his career in the Foreign Service, he taught British and French history at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia.
Campbell has also written Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know, coauthored with Matthew Page and published in July 2018, Morning in South Africa, which came out in May 2016, and Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink, the second edition of which was released in June 2013. He edits both the Nigeria Security Tracker and the Sub-Saharan Security Tracker.
Campbell received a BA and MA in history from the University of Virginia and a PhD in seventeenth-century English history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Affiliations:
- American Academy of Diplomacy, fellow
- The Washington Institute for Foreign Affairs, member
Featured
Former Ambassador John Campbell illustrates the history and importance of Nigeria, a country too often overlooked by the West.
The Council on Foreign Relations' Nigeria Security Tracker is an effort to catalog and map political violence based on a weekly survey of Nigerian and international press. The data presented includes violent incidents related to political, economic, and social grievances directed at the state or other affiliated groups (or, conversely, the state employing violence to respond to those incidents.)
John Campbell and Matthew Page provide an overview of the politics, history, and culture of Nigeria, including the threat of Boko Haram and religious conflicts.
In Morning in South Africa, John Campbell provides an incisive and deeply informed introduction to post-apartheid South Africa.
The Trump administration has largely continued U.S. policies in Africa aimed at building economic ties, political stability, and health care, but it lacks a strategy for the continent’s looming geopolitical and national security challenges.
The terror group Boko Haram is diminished but far from vanquished in Nigeria, and it appears to be expanding its regional reach, writes CFR’s John Campbell.
The Sub-Saharan Security Tracker (SST) draws on data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) Project, which documents political conflict across Africa. ACLED collects and codes reports of political violence from the media as well as local and international organizations.
Current Projects
-
John Campbell discusses his new book, Nigeria and the Nation-State. Nigeria is Africa's largest economy and is projected to be the third most populous country in the world by 2050, yet its democratic aspirations are challenged by rising insecurity. Nigeria and the Nation-State is an antidote to the mistakes of the past and a way for the West to pay the necessary attention to Nigeria now. The CFR Fellows’ Book Launch series highlights new books by CFR fellows.
-
Samuel Brownback, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, discusses extremism and the decline of religious freedom in Northern Nigeria. John Campbell, Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at CFR, moderates.
-
Please join John Campbell for a discussion on Nigeria, its history, colonial legacy, and strategic importance to the United States. Ambassador Campbell argues that Nigeria is the African country of greatest strategic importance to the United States, but it remains poorly understood. Unlike a conventional nation-state, Nigeria is run by a small cartel of self-serving elites who cooperate just enough to divvy up state oil revenue among themselves and their clients, but otherwise do little to improve the lot of the vast majority of Nigerians. How did it get this way? The answer lies in British indirect rule, a half-baked independence movement, a deadly civil war, and a generation of rapacious military rule that coincided with the oil boom. The CFR Master Class Series is a weekly 45-minute session hosted by Vice President and Deputy Director for Studies Shannon O’Neil in which a CFR fellow will take a step back from the news and discuss the fundamentals essential to understanding a given country, region of the world, or issue pertaining to U.S. foreign policy or international relations.
-
-
Alexander J. Thurston, Olufemi O. Vaughan, and John Campbell discuss how Christianity and Islam coexist in Nigeria.
-
-
-
John Campbell discusses 'Morning in South Africa', his new book that introduces post-apartheid South Africa to an international audience and argues that South Africa’s future is bright and that its democratic institutions will weather its current lackluster governance.
-
-
-
Experts discuss the post-election outlook for the state of Nigeria.
-
CFR fellows discuss the recent Ebola outbreak in western Africa and its effect on the region.
-
-
Please join us for a discussion and cocktail reception for a new Council on Foreign Relations book, Pathways to Freedom (to be released on June 18, 2013).With contributions from several CFR Fellows, the book offers an authoritative and accessible look at what countries must do to build durable and prosperous democracies—and what the United States and others can do to help. Through case studies on Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa, Thailand, and Ukraine, Pathways to Freedom explores the structural factors and policy choices that shaped eight important transitions—some successful, others less so. The case studies focus on six themes: socioeconomic inclusion and exclusion, economic structure and policies, civil society and media, legal system and rule of law, government structure, and education and demography. *Members may bring a guest to this event.
-
-