Wakiko Ohira recently obtained a PhD in Human Security from the University of Tokyo, Japan. She holds a BA in International Relations from the University of British Columbia (2008) and MA in International Studies from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (2014). Her research broadly explores African politics with a regional focus on Uganda, and she particularly looks at the relationship between traditional authorities and central/local government. As a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, she continues her research on the state-traditional authorities relationship in semi-authoritarian states. Also, her new research project sheds light on the interaction between traditional authorities and private Chinese companies to examine how the China-Africa relationship forms at the subnational level.