Kamal-Deen Ali is the Team Leader at CEMLAWS Africa. Kamal provides overall leadership, management, and strategic direction for the CEMLAWS Africa. He has a very diverse academic and professional background covering ocean governance, defence, security and international law.
Kamal is former Director of Legal Affairs for the Ghana Navy and Director of Research for the Ghana Armed Forces Staff College, with over two decades of military experience before his honourable retirement.
He has extensively contributed towards maritime security and ocean governance legal and policy development across Africa, including playing a primary role in the development of the Gulf of Guinea maritime security architecture. He has been a consultant on projects funded by multilateral partners including UNDP, UNODC, EU, AfDB, Commonwealth Secretariate, DANIDA, ECOWAS, US State Department and Blomberg Philanthropies and authored many publications including his book “Maritime Security Cooperation in the Gulf of Guinea: Prospects and Challenges, (2015).” He holds a PhD from the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, University of Wollongong, LLM from the International Maritime Law Institute, Malta, and MA in international affairs from the University of Ghana and Bachelor of Law from the university of Ghana .