Kurt Shillinger
Research Fellow: Security and Terrorism in Africa
Kurt
Shillinger’s research interests include Islam in Africa and the possibilities
for external radicalisation; weak states and terrorist activity on the African
continent; Africa’s role in
global security and counter-terrorism; African music tradition and the social
dynamics of political transition.
An award-winning
former journalist, he was deputy foreign editor of The Christian Science Monitor before
covering Congress and presidential politics for the paper for nine years. In
1997 he moved to South Africa to
cover the African continent for The
Boston Globe, reporting from 18 countries during six years. He is former
chairman of the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of Southern Africa, and
rounded out 17 years in journalism as managing editor of the SAIIA monthly
online magazine eAfrica. Currently he
is conducting case studies on the growth and character of Islam in African
states seen as most prone to external influence and liaising with policymakers
on and off the African continent on security, counter-terrorism and
non-proliferation. He is also conducting research into the impact of
post-apartheid regional political change on the music of Mozambique for a Masters degree in
ethnomusicology at the University of the Witwatersrand.
shillingerk@saiia.wits.ac.za
