Success for CISR Alumni
Two former students from the Centre for International Security and Resilience (CISR) - Cranfield Defence and Security, Cranfield University - have become the highest-ranked military officers in their countries in recent weeks.
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The Centre for International Security and Resilience aims to enable the development of more secure and resilient societies through the provision of high quality research, education, training and consultancy.
Courtesy Cranfield University
Major General Joseph Musanyufu and Major General Obed Akwa are now heading up the armed forces of Uganda and Ghana respectively.
Maj Gen Musanyufu was appointed as Joint Chief of Staff by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in January. He attended the first ever Managing Defence in the Wider Security Context course, which was delivered by Cranfield in 2008 and has gone on to be taught to military and defence staff around the globe.
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Maj Gen Obed Akwa at the Kofi Annan Centre, Accra (Ghana), in 2016.
Courtesy Cranfield Defence and Security
Meanwhile, Major General Obed Akwa was initially appointed Chief of the Army Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces in July 2016 and was tipped at that point as a future Chief of Defence Staff. His confirmation in that role came five weeks after the inauguration of President Nana Akufo-Addo on 7 January.
Earlier in his career, he was selected as a Defence Diplomacy Scholar by the UK’s Ministry of Defence and he completed an MSc in Global Security* (2002-03) at Cranfield Defence and Security.
He went on to be Brigade Commander on MONUSCO (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as Military Assistant to the then President of Ghana, John Kufour, and then was Commandant of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre.
India alumni successes
Two more alumni in India have been appointed to important defence and security posts.
Amit Sharma, who also studied the Global Security MSc (2008-09), has been appointed to the post of 'Additional Director' at the Office of Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister in the Indian Ministry of Defence, with responsibility for information security and cyber. Amit wrote his dissertation on cyber security.
Lieutenant General Robin Soni (Global Security MSc 2006-07), is now General Officer Commanding for the Army Training Command in the Indian Army, the third biggest army in the world. He is responsible for all elements of war and the five military academies that he commands include the National Security Academy.
Dr Laura Cleary, Head of the Centre for International Security and Resilience, said: “We are delighted that our former students have been appointed to such senior positions in a number of countries and we offer them all our warmest congratulations.
“General Akwa in particular has stated publicly that he believes his education at Cranfield was instrumental in his success as Brigade Commander in the Democratic Republic of Congo and working for the Kofi Annan Centre.”