Mmamashilo Herminah Mmako is a PhD candidate at the University of Pretoria (UP). Her research is focused on maritime security, global geopolitics and foreign policy. Her master’s thesis titled: A Critical Analysis of the United States- China Geopolitical Contest in the Indo-Pacific Region: Implications for Africa’s Regional Inclusion sought to highlight and critique Africa’s exclusion from the Indo-Pacific construct and debates, advocate for a US-led and China-led regional inclusion of Africa in the regional dynamics of the Indo-Pacific while observing other regional players such as India and Japan whose regional outlooks include Africa, and establish strategic pathways that present opportunities for Indo-Pacific-Africa cooperation. Her proposed doctoral study will examine the emergence of BRICS in the maritime security architecture of the Western Indo-Pacific region and its potential as a maritime power. Herminah currently serves as an intern at UP’s Centre for Mediation in Africa (CMA) and contributes to various projects such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) in partnership with the CMA Prospect project about the relationship between forcibly displaced people and their workplace in Kenya which she’s currently working on. Her newly found interest includes examining the need for mediation in the maritime space by identifying maritime conflict trends and patterns, causes of water conflict and dialogue processes in the maritime space.