I am a writer, researcher, and former diplomat with over 20 years of experience working on armed groups, conflict resolution, and humanitarian protection in Africa and beyond.
I have served in multilateral organizations, non-governmental groups, and the U.S. government, including as a U.S. representative in high-level negotiations with armed factions such as M23 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
My field research has focused on the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the Allied Democratic Front, M23, and other armed groups operating in Uganda, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and the DRC.
My writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, the BBC, Jane’s Intelligence Review, the Africa Report, African Arguments and the Journal of East African Studies.
I am the author of ‘When the Walking Defeats You: One Man’s Journey as Joseph Kony’s Bodyguard,’ (Zed Books, 2016), and a contributor to ‘Making Sense of the Central African Republic,’ (Carayannis and Lombardi eds., Zed Books, July 2015).
I hold a BA in Ancient and Modern History from Oxford University’s Saint John’s College and an MA in Public Policy/International Affairs from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.
For more on me see here. An excerpt: “Ledio Cakaj *09’s hardscrabble youth — escaping communist Albania as a teen after multiple attempts and living illegally in several European countries — provided some insight during his years of field research on guerrilla groups that use child soldiers. In the Albania of his youth, he says, “some of my friends turned to weapons. It was not nearly the same as in Burundi or Uganda, but I wasn’t completely unaware.”
Ledio Cakaj 