Tony Chafer is Emeritus Professor of African and French Studies. He gained his PhD, on decolonisation in French West Africa, from the University of London in 1993 and was Director of the University of Portsmouth's Centre for European and International Studies Research from 2001-2016. His main research interests lie in French African policy in the colonial and post-colonial periods and he has recently been working mainly on French military and security policy. He has received funding for a series of research projects on French military and security policy in the western Sahel.

He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Institute of Modern Languages Research, was a member of the Area Studies panel for REF2014 and Deputy Chair of the Area Studies panel for REF2021. He has acted as a consultant to the Foreign, Commonwealth  and Development Office on French African policy and was president of the UK Council for Area Studies Associations (UKCASA) 2015-2019. He is currently its Vice-President. He is a founding member of the West Africa Peace and Security Network (WAPSN) and a member of the editorial boards of Modern and Contemporary France and the Journal of Contemporary European Studies.

Research Interests
•    Franco-African relations
•    'Francophone' Africa

Research Groups
•    Decolonising Spaces
•    Peace Conflict & Security

Discipline Areas
•    Area Studies