Introduction
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Dr. Obasesam Okoi is Associate Professor of Justice and Peace Studies and Founding Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Society Innovation Lab (ASIL) at the University of St. Thomas.
His research examines how social, environmental, and technological changes interact to reshape institutions, redistribute power, and generate new forms of vulnerability and conflict, and how these transformations can be governed to advance justice, human security, and sustainable peace. Within this broader research program, his current work focuses on the societal implications of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, examining how they are reshaping governance, conflict, environmental systems, and the conditions for peace.
His research has been supported by competitive fellowships, including the Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, the Georg Arnhold Fellowship, and the Provost Innovation Fellowship. He serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of African Security journal. He is the author of Punctuated Peace in Nigeria's Oil Region: Oil Insurgency and the Challenges of Post-Conflict Peacebuilding (Palgrave, 2021) and co-editor of Governing Natural Resources for Sustainable Peace in Africa: Environmental Justice and Conflict Resolution (Routledge, 2024). His work advances an interdisciplinary understanding of how societies navigate and govern periods of profound social, environmental, and technological transformation.