Knox Chitiyo is a Zimbabwean researcher and was the first RUSI Nelson Mandela Visiting Africa Fellow and now heads the RUSI Africa Programme, an initiative generously supported by the Brenthurst Foundation and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Knox completed his B.A (English and History) and M.A (War Studies) and M.Phil (Military History) at the University of Zimbabwe. Knox  was a Senior Lecturer in War Studies in the History Department at the University of Zimbabwe from 1994–2003. He was also the Deputy Director (and co-founder) of the Centre for Defence Studies during the same period, and edited the Journal of African Security and Conflict.

Currently based in the United Kingdom, Knox has since published in journals which examine Zimbabwean, southern African and broader African defence and security/developmental issues. He has also contributed chapters in books such as Evolutions and Revolutions: A History of the SADC Militaries [ed M.Rupiya, Pretoria, ISS, 2005]; and “Unfinished Business:The Land Crisis in Southern Africa" [eds M.Lee and K.J.Colvard, Pretoria, Africa Institute, 2003]. Knox is currently an independent researcher, and is the founder/editor of the Southern African Diaspora Review journal, and the Foundation for Southern African Diaspora Research. He is particularly interested in the armed/security forces of southern Africa [particularly Zimbabwe] and how they intersect with issues of development, and political transitions. Knox is also trying to develop African Diaspora studies, by examining the intersections with trans – national security and development.

Of particular relevance is the strategic, and developmental- political interplay between sub–Saharan Africa, the African Diaspora and the West in the era of ‘The War on Terrorism.’