Programme: Policy and Strategic Studies

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    SOFT POWER AND FOREIGN POLICY OUTCOMES: A STUDY OF NIGERIA- CHINA RELATIONS (2019-2024)
    (Covenant University Ota, 2025-08) ISAAC, Grace Ugochi; Covenant University Dissertation
    Nigeria’s foreign policy engagement with China has grown significantly in recent years yet concerns persist about the long-term implications of China’s expanding soft power. While economic dependency, cultural assimilation, and asymmetrical partnerships have been raised as potential risks, there remains a lack of empirical research evaluating how China’s soft power influences Nigeria’s policy space, institutions, and public perception. This dissertation seeks to address this gap by assessing the effectiveness of China’s soft power in achieving foreign policy outcomes in Nigeria from 2019 to 2024. To situate this inquiry, the study began by reviewing key soft power concepts including cultural diplomacy, educational exchange, development assistance, media influence, and public diplomacy drawing on global case studies from countries such as Germany, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Denmark, and the United States. The Soft Power Theory expounded by Alexander Vuving was used as a framework to guide the analysis. Using a qualitative methodology, primary data were gathered through in-depth interviews with Nigerian stakeholders across academia, government, and civil society. These were complemented by secondary data from academic literature, policy documents, and institutional reports. Findings show that China’s soft power strategies such as Confucius Institutes, media partnerships, scholarships, and development aid have had mixed results. While they have increased China’s cultural and political visibility, local responses range from acceptance to scepticism, with concerns about equity, agency, and long-term alignment. Nigeria’s own cultural exports, though promising, remain under-leveraged. Recommendations include the need for balanced partnerships, transparent diplomacy, and proactive policy engagement by Nigeria. The study concluded that soft power is not value-neutral it must be negotiated to serve national interests.
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    ASSESSMENT OF THE USE OF IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICES BY NON-MILITARY ACTORS AND NATIONAL SECURITY CHALLENGES IN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA
    (Covenant University Ota, 2025-08) PETER, Mark Jatau; Covenant University Dissertation
    Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) have emerged as a defining feature of guerrilla warfare, increasingly weaponised by non-military actors (NMAs) across Nigeria’s conflict landscape. While considerable scholarly attention has focused on Northeastern Nigeria, the deployment of IEDs by criminal and secessionist groups in Southeast (SE) Nigeria remains under-examined despite its growing strategic, humanitarian and political implications. This study explores the use of IEDs by NMAs in SE Nigeria, focusing on their operational patterns, proliferation networks and implications for national security. Drawing on asymmetric warfare theory and the human security paradigm, the research adopts a qualitative, exploratory design to interrogate the evolving tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) of IED use, the challenges facing Nigeria’s Counter-IED (CIED) architecture and the regional vulnerabilities exacerbated by porous borders. Findings reveal that NMAs exploit transnational IED precursor supply chains, digital platforms, border insecurity and local ingenuity to sustain low-cost, high-impact explosive violence. This violence disrupts military operations at strategic, operational, and tactical levels, while also devastating civilian lives and infrastructure, eroding economic activities and precipitating forced displacement and trauma. The study also highlights the fragmented coordination among security agencies, weak indigenous defence innovation and limited community intelligence networks as significant gaps in Nigeria’s CIED strategy. This research makes a unique contribution by shifting analytical focus to the SE, identifying the convergence between historical marginalisation, tactical adaptation by NMAs and institutional inertia. Policy recommendations include the development of an indigenous CIED doctrine, enhanced interagency collaboration, strengthened border governance and community-based early warning systems. These findings contribute to scholarly and policy discourses on terrorism, national security and hybrid warfare in underexplored landscapes of the Global South, with broader implications for counterterrorism approaches in similarly affected regions. The study concluded that with the elimination of IEDs as a means of guerrilla warfare, innocent lives would be saved and properties preserved in Nigeria.