Richard Downie is a senior associate with the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Downie joined CSIS following a decade-long career in journalism. He was a reporter for several newspapers in the United Kingdom before joining the BBC, where he worked as a senior broadcast journalist. Since then, he has conducted research and completed writing projects on Africa for the Council on Foreign Relations and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He is a contributor to the Africa section of Freedom House’s annual report, Freedom in the World. He is a frequent commentator on African issues for U.S. and international media organizations.